My big poker story

My big piece on poker's efforts to figure out how to pivot from fad to mainstream runs in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times this weekend in time for the resumption of play at the 2008 World Series of Poker. Read the piece here.

Black and Jack's Great Adventure

Events got in the way, but I've been meaning to post some too-cute pictures of Black and Jack on our big road trip two weekends ago to Los Angeles to see our friends David and Jeff be wed in nuptials that may now be invalid. (See David's now-tragic Newsweek essay on the event.) That's a total bummer, but it was still a fun trip and everyone loves looking at pictures of cute animals on the Internet, right?

We'd never taken our dogs anywhere in the 3-plus years since we got them from the pound. (They were named Cheech and Chong then. Miles thought Black and Jack was more Vegasy.) So this was an experiment.

We rented a little SUV to make the trip more comfy, and we set up the back seat with a big blanket for them to relax on.



At first they just wanted to be up front, but they got used to it. When we got out, they got to hop in front, as you can see with Jack here.


Don't worry -- it wasn't hot, we didn't leave them in there for more than a few minutes if it was necessary at all to leave them and they had plenty of water.


They really didn't know what to make of the hotel room...



...so when we didn't crate them for the night, they were largely upon me as usual.


All in all, it was a lot of fun. On the way home, we stopped in Baker at the tourist trap Mad Greek for their famous strawberry shakes. Well, Miles got a coffee one.


The puppies just got Milkbones. They didn't mind.

Perez Hilton, Gay Hypocrite, Gets Served

It couldn't happen to a nastier waste of human flesh! The New York Post reports that Little Mario Lavendeira, aka Perez Hilton, spent weeks avoiding being served on a plagiarism lawsuit and got tricked into it at a Halloween party!

That seems like a lot of work, but it's good to know that I'm not the only one who believes his material has been ripped off wholesale by Little Mario. I'm sure Little Mario will taunt his persecutors with claims that they're just trying to use his fame for their benefit, which was his sole answer to me as well. Of course, that's hilarious considering that Little Mario's prominence is only attributable to his ability to use the fame of others for his benefit.

But while we're on the topic, Little Mario has been commenting in the New York Daily News and blogging about how terrible it is that Californians re-banned same-sex marriage by passing Prop 8 on Tuesday. Weeks ago, he also praised Apple for giving $100,000 to fight the effort. That's all fine, except Little Mario doesn't put his money where his mouth is. For all his fame and fortune, he didn't give a pink cent to the cause, according to the filings of the California Secretary of State.

Nice. The No on 8 folks were begging and pleading for weeks for money to combat the gazillions the Mormons and others were pouring into the effort to scare the bejesus out of Golden Staters and write discrimination into the California constitution. Little Mario could have used his massive forum to solicit donations and make an example by giving up some of his ill-gotten gains. That, of course, would require Little Mario to think of someone other than himself.

The Petcast is LIVE tomorrow

We're recording three new shows tomorrow from 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. PT at LVRocks.Com. Join us in the chat and listen live or wait for the podcast versions. Your call. Here's the lineup:

10 a.m.: Election special with Jennifer Fearing of the Humane Society of the US talking about the passage of Prop 2 in California, the Obamas' future puppy, the Massachusetts voters' ban on greyhound racing and Barney's big bite.

10:30 a.m.: Arlene Blum, author of an L.A. Times essay on how her cat was poisoned by her furniture.

11 a.m.: Dr. John Wright, a cat and dog behavior therapist from Mercer University in Georgia.

See ya there!

My LVW Col: Wanda's Wisdom

Please don't hold the headline against me. I don't write 'em! But this was an especially fun column, especially the bizarre twist that occurred after the jump. So enjoy this week's "The Strip Sense" installment...

What Happens With Wanda...
Notes on a complete stranger who loves Criss Angel
By STEVE FRIESS

This column was supposed to be about Criss Angel’s new theater. I didn’t want to waste my space on a review of the illusionist’s show itself, because so many other writers have chimed in with essentially the same message, which is that it’s terrible.

So instead, I was going to write about how un-Cirque-like the showroom for Criss Angel Believe is. I even got a quote from Cirque du Soleil CEO Guy Laliberte halfheartedly defending the decision not to make this theater the transformative, enveloping venue that his other five on the Strip are. In short, the theater also is terrible.

No, this column is about Wanda.

You see, my friend Trevor and I waltzed into the showroom for Angel’s big Halloween premiere as if we do this all the time, because, in fact, we do. My partner, Miles, doesn’t like these outings, so Trevor comes along. He knows how this works: bypass the red carpet, sit in always-great seats, spot some celebs, view the show, head off to some elaborate afterparty.

Then, before the show’s start, Wanda and her daughter bounced into the seats to my left. She could not contain her excitement, which was confusing because these audiences are filled with people as jaded as we are.

“Oh, I can’t believe this,” she told me. “This is just unbelievable.”

See, Wanda had been standing around the theater entrance hoping to spot some stars when some angel walked by and asked her if she wanted a pair of free tickets. She suspected the tickets were fakes, but here she was in the 12th row.

Wanda had never been to Vegas before. She had accompanied her husband, a rancher from Midland, Texas, who raises bucking bulls and was hobnobbing at the Professional Bull Riders Association events, hoping to become a supplier. A 43-year-old kindergarten teacher with a newborn back home, Wanda is a huge Criss Angel fan and had paid the night before to see Believe. Those seats, she said, were “way, way back. These are so much better!”

Wanda asked where we were from. When we told her we lived in Las Vegas, she said, “You must see a lot of celebrities all the time, then, huh?”

Actually, we told her, she was in the presence of many right now. We’d seen Penn and Teller and Carrot Top out in the lobby; Neil Patrick Harris had just passed our aisle; Mike Tyson was gnawing on something somewhere behind us.

Wanda’s eyes widened. “Are you a celebrity?” she asked me.

I giggled at the thought. “Uh, no,” I said.

“Well, what do you do?”

Trevor jumped in. “He’s a writer,” he said. “He writes for magazines and newspapers.”

“Have I ever heard of any of them?” Wanda asked.

I felt silly, so Trevor answered. “You might have. He writes for Newsweek and USA Today sometimes.”

Wanda’s eyes got even wider. “Well, then, you are a celebrity!” she gasped.

Read the rest HERE

ELECTION: PresidentMcCain.Com Silliness

I'm taking a breather having filed a bunch of material on voters just now for Newsweek and I went to look at what you'd find at PresidentObama.Com and PresidentMcCain.Com. It's interesting, actually. Go to PresidentObama.Com and you're routed to a Google search for Barack Obama.

But PresidentMcCain.Com leads you to, uh, something else altogether. I don't know how long this will be there, but there's this totally perverted -- but not obscene or x-rated, so it's work-safe -- 2-minuteish cartoon. Here are a couple of frames:



OK, so McCain in a diaper is somewhat obscene. Fine.

Back to work...

SEE GEORGE WALLACE FOR FREE. PERIOD.

After my post yesterday, the George Wallace folks did some research and determined that giveaways in exchange for votes is against federal law, as I wrote and as Starbucks and others realized.

So here's the new deal: Go to the Flamingo box office between now and Nov. 11 and ask for a free ticket. Period. That's all you have to do. According to Laura Herlovich, spokeswoman for Wallace, that's all it takes now. No need for an "I Voted" sticker or to say you voted or anything else. Just walk up and ask for a free seat. I'm assuming this would apply for that night's show and that if that night's audience is full then you're out of luck. But otherwise, it's a great opportunity. Too bad Jennifer Holliday's not performing with him anymore, though.

Anyone who tries this, let me know. And enjoy the show.