When Old Man Mars (of the secretive Mars family of Virginia) retired, he built Ethel M to experiment with candy-making techniques. It was a hobby. He even had an apartment in the place, near the gardens, IIRC.
Anyway, when he dies, various financial details came to light. One of them was the Mars Corporation/Family charged the guy for the apartment! Given his skinflint reputation, he probably insisted.
Las Vegas is full of neat stories.
Every been to the Neon Museum? It is still on my Things to See List.
Was just on the news yesterday - seems they are close to making this a free, open museum for all to see. Paul, check back as it might be open to the public by the time you get here in August!
(For those of you who don’t know…the Neon Museum is where all of the famous, old, neon signs have been taken and stored…you can see the original neon signs from casinos long since gone - sadly, the signs are just sort of dumped in sections and no longer lit - but still worth a trip down that memory lane for those who were here years ago, or know about Las Vegas history and the casinos of yore.)
I wouldn’t write off the IP just yet. Harrah’s may have bought it, but Harrah’s themselves were just bought, and the IP has stuff scheduled though the end of 2007 at least. If they go, then we go somewhere else, of course. Probably next door. The spot is too convient to not stay there.
Staying in a decent Strip hotel and being able to enjoy relaxing poolside
Gambling, playing roulette particularly because, for some reason, I always seem to win at it
‘Gambling’ also includes walking our way up the Strip looking in for a few spins or hands of blackjack at different hoteles
The food, generally
I don’t like:
the hassle of getting there. Flying there from L.A. is not as easy as it used to be, and I don’t like long road trips.
I would never like:
Actually living there and having to deal with the mundanities of daily life–long commutes to work, living in a place that is even more spread out and car dependent than L.A., and all that without being able to hang out by the hotel pool.
I like Penn Jillette’s house, The Slammer, which I had occasion to visit about 8 years ago.
I like the guys who accompanied me on that visit, who run a site called Lost Birds, and specialize in “Aviation Archaeology”.
I don’t like the Imperial Palace, other than their French Toast (the mystery, which it took us a minute to figure out, is that it’s french-toasted pound cake). Apart from that, their crappy rooms and gastric-disease-inducing room service do not make them worth the cheapness. Even with the french toast.
Which brings me to healthcare. Don’t ever get sick in Vegas. The hospitals are a nightmare.
When I was younger, I loved the fact that LV was so over-the-top unlike any other place I could imagine. Revisiting it with family recently I thought it kind of depressing, that all that excess was essentially a blatant attempt to seperate people from their money. I couldn’t help but wonder how many folks’ financial ruin were reflected in all those glittering lights. Just took a bit of the fun out of it for me.
I’m happy to play cards and place a wager here and there with friends. It is just my preference that should I lose the $ goes to my buddies, instead of a corporation or strangers.
Great golf courses - unfortunately, they are outrageously expensive.
I really like Red Rocks, just to the west, and that hokey Old Nevada.
I like being able to get a drink (and of course drink) any hour, any day, almost any place.
I like the over the top aspect of the town. “Now I’ve seen it all” has never been to Vegas.
I don’t like the “family destination” spin that some of the casinos are trying to use to attract families. Take your kids to Disneyland, I want to drink beer at the breakfast buffet. The strip is littered with escort service flyers, Disneyland doesn’t have those. Disneyland is really where you want to take your kids. Trust me.
While some nightclubs as mentioned above have dress codes, a whole lot of places-even nicer restaurants-don’t. I like that, 4 star casual dining.
I blame the “family destination” angle for the higher prices. Rooms and food used to be cheaper, the casinos could rely on people coming there to gamble. Cheap food and cheap rooms were a way to get you there and keep you happy. Now Joe Family comes to town and the casinos need money for rooms and food since chances are Joe Family won’t be doing much gambling.
DMark is a fountain of knowledge about Vegas (and all around cool guy), I didn’t have nearly enough time to spend out there last time.
I can’t stand casinos. DING! DING! DING! DING! and lights blinking and no sun light. And then the mind dumbing obsession with not leaving that seat until I had zero tokens left because I knew the second I got up someone would take my seat and win $10,000. I swear I sat there for 3 hours at a machine, just praying that it would go ahead and let me lose already so I could go to bed. (And I only started out with $20.)
When I go to hell, I’ll be sent to a casino with an endless bucket of tokens.
The really, really, really long line snaking through security, the sense of paranoia in the air, seeing people really taking off their shoes to go through security. I was there in spring 2001 and in summer 2005, and it was really different experience.
Obviously there were reasons for the change in airport security procedures, but I hadn’t seen anything like it in Canada.
You have to take your shoes off in almost every airport in the U.S. and have for quite a while. Compared to Denver, Las Vegas is great, airport wise, except for the 2 mile hike you have to make to get your bags.
Interesting - I have to assume Mr. Kunstler didn’t win, get comped or get laid while he was here.
But yes, there are lots of people who loathe this city. This city isn’t for everybody.
It is hot, there are temptations everywhere, it sinful, over-the-top, hedonistic and a blight on anything resembling culture.
But tourists don’t come here to brush up on their French at the Paris Hotel Casino; they don’t come here to sit in their hotel rooms and watch re-runs of Everybody Loves Raymond; they don’t come here to eat healthy and attend lectures on Elizabethan poetry.
Tourists come to party, play and get lucky - whatever “getting lucky” means to them. They come here to see the sights, shop, eat, drink, sleep late, hang out by the pool in good weather, drop a few coins in the slots or at the tables, see a show and forget about the crap back home.
This year, over 38 million tourists stopped in for a visit…and it seems the vast majority had a good time as they keep coming back again and again. They don’t keep building bigger casinos, adding new towers and building new high rise condos for nothin’.
So, regarding Mr. Kunstler’s predictions of Las Vegas turning into a ghost town? Well, at some point in time, the same can be predicted for many cities on earth - Al Gore has a few theories about that - but in the meantime, I don’t think I will be roaming The Strip alone anytime soon.
Thanks Duke! And ya know, it is about time to start planning another big Las Vegas Dopefest here - I have been to two large Dopefests here so far, and both were legendary…
My suggestion would be to have it in the summer when the rates and flights are cheaper and the weather is perfect for hanging out by the pool. If we give enough lead-time, maybe we can give some foreign Dopers time to plan to join us, as well as US Dopers who have to plan a little further in advance.
(Of course, should you come sooner, be sure to drop me an email and we can meet up for a drink, or two or so…)
I hated that. I hated all the noise and the lights and the smoke everywhere - and we stayed at Mandalay Bay, which is one of the nicest hotels out there and not sad and dingy like most of the older ones on the strip
Try the Spa at Mandalay Bay. Oh, my lord.
We were put (by my husband’s company) in a high roller suite with a larger square footage than our house (I am not exaggerating).
I liked the shows. We saw Cirque du Soleil and Ka. I liked the dry heat - a nice change from the humid yuck of Baltimore in the summer.
[ol]
[li]The continual business. I grew up in Chicago, and moved to the 'burbs, and I found that I missed the 4am-type activity more than I had thought.[/li][li]The people. You can see almost any type of person in Vegas…anyone.[/li][/ol] [ol]
[li]I was somewhat underwhelmed by the restaurants, and the comparitive prices. Again, I live very near to Chicago, and there’s an analog for every Vegas food shrine, atmuch nicer prices. It seems like proces are higher inVegas to provide an"image" of exclusivity.[/li][li]Mass Transit. Seriously…if Vegas had a nice hygenic monorail that went everywhere (not just 3 casinos), I woudl think all would benefit. And don’t limit the stops to the “major” casinos…go to that Meadows place, Old Vegas, etc.[/li][li]Heat.[/li][li]This is more metaphysical, but I hate the fact that there is all of this glitz and construction inthe desert. It makes it seem impermanent and transitory. I forget which poster mentioned it, but the fact that they’re only trying to part you from your wallet is highlighted by the fact it’s the only smudge onthe horizon for 100’s of miles.[/li][li]All of the casinos seemthe same, with different colors. Bleh.[/li][/ol]
Having said all of that (more than I thought I would!), I’ll bet it’s absolutely flabbergasting for someone not from Chicago, NYC, SanFran, and a few other cities. There’s a lot there, a lot to see, and not all is junky (I liked Tussaud’s more than I thought I would)!
If that post came off as big-city arrogant…not meant that way.
Man this thread is gonna make me come across as such the prude, but is anyone else a tad turned off by the catch phraise, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”? Doesn’t it seem a mite unseemly for a city to market itself as a place where folks are invited to do things that -um - they would rather the folks back home not know about? Or am I misinterpreting the saying - and the manner in which it is used in advertising?
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with indulging in excess, but it just seems a little off for an entire community to adopt that as it’s motto.
