A Few Things to Ponder

So Long Stardust

Last Saturday my son participated in a Karate Tournament held at the Stardust. It’s hard not to feel sad about the Stardust’s impending demise; so few of the hotels I grew up with are still around. The Stardust is a place where you can still figure out where to go without a map or a security guard’s directions. Try that at any other Strip hotel.

Airola is Bad News for Voters

The local news media has been all over Sheriff’s candidate Jerry Airola, but amazingly people are still voting for him. Both the Review Journal and The Sun carried front page spreads that detailed the way he’s misled voters into thinking he’s a cop. (Big hint, folks – if both the RJ and The Sun concur on something, PAY ATTENTION.) He’s not a cop and hasn’t been in over ten years. (George Knapp is doing a great job uncovering the real Airola – read his column at CityLife.) Airola countered with claims that he’s qualified to be Sheriff on the basis of his business acumen. Both publications responded with stories on Airola’s checkered history owning a water purifier company and his current helicopter company. Airola answered that by saying that at least he didn’t have as many law suits filed against him as Metro. His latest clever retort after current Sheriff Bill Young and union representatives held a joint news conference denouncing his specious claims? They’re just the “good old boy” network. No, Jerry, they’re actual law enforcement officers.

Airola has plastered himself all over town with media buys in every area – he’s got more billboards than a new Strip show and more TV ads than Glen Lerner. Sadly, with an electorate that votes more on name recognition than anything else, he’s likely to be Doug Gillespie’s opponent.

Clooney in Town

George Clooney and friends were in town this week to film scenes for the upcoming Ocean’s 13. Until earlier this year, Clooney was signed onto Las Ramblas, one of the many failed high-rise condo projects in town. I thought his proposed dress code in the casino was a fabulously retro idea. (Although probably unnecessary, at least for female visitors, most of who would have been dressed to the nines in the event George walked by). I keep hoping that he’ll buy a place in town because, frankly, we need some good press and this man oozes good PR in equal doses with sex appeal. Now that Las Vegas is known as the second city in the nation to make it illegal to feed homeless people, we need all the help we can get. I tried to find a negative story about Rosemary’s nephew and except for a little dust up with Arianna Huffington over some posts on her blog, you can’t find anything bad written about him. He’s traveling to Darfur, winning Academy Awards, or making Anne Coulter mad, but I never see him on the National Inquirer with “Clooney meltdown! Rehab imminent!” splattered across an unflattering photo of him. Doesn’t he have any exes willing to dish? You know no man can be that nice all the time.

Bad Doctors Nothing New

In case you missed it, the doctor shot by a distraught patient is recovered and back at work. I’m sorry to say this, but I’m just surprised that more doctors in this town don’t get shot by angry patients. I could write an entire book about my bad experiences with doctors in Las Vegas – rude, condescending jerks who were also uncaring and incompetent. During the 60’s and 70’s, everyone knew that if you got anything worse that the flu, you’d better hightail it out of town for proper treatment. The 7,000 people who move here each month, however, don’t know your odds of finding a good doctor are about the same as hitting a royal flush on a poker machine by the front door of the casino. If you find a good doctor, count yourself lucky. If he or she also has an office staff that speaks English and knows what they’re doing, follow that doctor wherever she goes.