Leaving Las Vegas Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations from my trip to Las Vegas.

I'm sitting in the McCarran Airport having a beer and doing some email. Finally I have a chance to jot down some of my observations from nearly a week in Sin City... One of the pleasures of being in a West Coast time zone is the ability to catch Vin Scully calling a Dodgers game. He's simply the best of all-time and a treasure which I greatly appreciate every time I hear his dulcet tones imparting baseball wisdom... Almost every day here I passed a billboard that exclaimed, "Music is our Currency - Club Rain at the Palms". Every time I passed the sign I wondered if I went there with a song in my heart whether I'd be able to drink for free. Somehow I doubt it... One night I ended up playing poker at Excalibur (mostly because I wanted to catch the end of a couple of games in the sports book and Excalibur was the closest casino). Anyway - Excalibur has this reputation as a very family friendly hotel but I couldn't help but be struck by the fact that almost as soon as you enter - you are visually assaulted by two huge posters for "The Thunder Down Under". I could just imagine a family walking in and little snowflake asking, "Daddy - what's the thunder down under? Why are those men not wearing shirts? Do you have the thunder down under? Daddy? Do you? Mommy - why are you laughing?"... I had to use the facilities on the Venetian casino floor and something in the stall struck me as amusing. There were sanitary toilet seat covers whose box bared the message "Provided by management for your protection." Two things struck me as funny by that statement. First - its not really for protection but more for peace of mind. Second - I was mostly amused by the spelling out that the paper toilet seat covers were provided by management. Shouldn't that be just assumed? I mean who else would be supplying them in a hotel? The Gideons? Maybe they are branching out from just bibles? And yes - I had nothing else to read... The Red Sox won every game they played since I came out here on Sunday. Every game that is except the one game I bet on them. Sometimes that's the way it goes...