{"id":207,"date":"2005-02-22T22:15:21","date_gmt":"2005-02-23T03:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/?p=207"},"modified":"2005-02-22T22:15:21","modified_gmt":"2005-02-23T03:15:21","slug":"exit-row-seating-and-nickel-slots-notes-from-a-weekend-in-las-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/2005\/02\/exit-row-seating-and-nickel-slots-notes-from-a-weekend-in-las-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"Exit row seating and nickel slots: notes from a weekend in Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the week-long February vacation to some place warm precluded by the fact that I have zero vacation days until April, this year&#8217;s late-winter amusement was a long weekend in Sin City (aka: Las Vegas).  It may not be gonzo journalism (a moment of silence for Mr. Hunter S. Thompson&#8217;s passing), my impressions of America&#8217;s adult playground in the desert.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"litany\">\n<li>What is the most important thing for you to know when you&#8217;re in an airport but have absolutely no way to find out? Yes, that&#8217;s right, I <b>dare<\/b> you to find a clock in an airport.<\/li>\n<li>Despite what the idiots at the metal detectors say, you <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tsa.gov\/public\/interapp\/editorial\/editorial_1050.xml\">are not required<\/a> to remove your shoes when going through security.  Until they change the rules, waste their resources and make them wand you.  I got the <acronym title=\"Transportation Security Agency\">TSA<\/acronym> lady to laugh.<\/li>\n<li>Airports in the midwest just plain suck: they don&#8217;t have any windows or amenities.<\/li>\n<li>To the Depaul women&#8217;s basketball team: I thought you&#8217;d be taller.<\/li>\n<li>Always arrive in Las Vegas at night when the city is at its most impressive.  During the day it just has to work too hard to look good.<\/li>\n<li>First Elvis sighting: 10pm Thursday night before we&#8217;d even checked into the hotel.<\/li>\n<li>Second Elvis sighting: about five minutes later and we still hadn&#8217;t checked in yet.<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"\/woodstock\/photoblog\/lasvegas.html#fountains\">Bellagio fountains<\/a> should never be choreographed to anything but American standards, classical music, or opera.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;re only a 24 hour town if I can get breakfast at 7:30am.  I shouldn&#8217;t have to wait until 10am for my eggs and toast, people!<\/li>\n<li>It frightens me that Celine Dion is someone&#8217;s mother.<\/li>\n<li>Not as much as the bust of Zigfried and Roy and the tiger that looks like bronze but is really plastic.<\/li>\n<li>In every casino you can smell the one guy who is smoking a cigar.<\/li>\n<li>Cirque Du Soliel is incredibly French in a very strange, makes you want to back away slowly sort of way.<\/li>\n<li>Perhaps I&#8217;m jaded from too much time in gay bars but it seems to me that what passes for shocking displays of sensuality for middle America is pretty damn tame given what&#8217;s out there.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s just amazing what can be done with poured concrete.<\/li>\n<li>Who brings a 10 year old to Las Vegas?  What, exactly, is the poor kid supposed to do while Mom and Dad are gambling and sucking down free drinks?<\/li>\n<li>Third Elvis sighting: Saturday morning, about 10am.<\/li>\n<li>It is possible to spend $200 on dinner for two and have it be worth every single penny.<\/li>\n<li>Despite the light show, Freemont Street would probably be neater if they hadn&#8217;t put that canopy over it.<\/li>\n<li>Hunter Thompson was right about Circus Circus.  That&#8217;s one scary clown at night.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s just amazing what you can do with poured concrete.<\/li>\n<li>Hey, American Airlines?  You have an 8am flight from Las Vegas to Dallas.  This means get the plane out of remote storage before 7:30, OK?<\/li>\n<li>Beef jerky and pretzels do not a lunch make.<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s no bed like your own.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Check out the <a href=\"\/woodstock\/photoblog\/lasvegas.html\">photoblog<\/a> for my photo-obsessed take on the Las Vegas strip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the week-long February vacation to some place warm precluded by the fact that I have zero vacation days until April, this year&#8217;s late-winter amusement was a long weekend in Sin City (aka: Las Vegas). It may not be gonzo journalism (a moment of silence for Mr. Hunter S. Thompson&#8217;s passing), my impressions of America&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-thoughts","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}