I used to see it everyday, but just barely. Surrounded on all sides by newer, bigger, shinier buildings, The New Frontier (and I was told while I worked there that the “The” was always capitalized) never stood a chance on the modern day Strip.

The implosion has been covered through and through by the newspapers, but the old joint had stories far beyond its documented history.

I was fascinated by a story that Howard Hughes once built a secret passageway from the Desert Inn to The Frontier and often quipped that we should find it and sneak over to the Wynn to use its color copiers. I never did find it.

Continue reading "The New Frontier imploded - Las Vegas Strip down one more historic landmark" »

Posted November 14, 2007 10:59 AM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Alright, I’ll admit it, I’m tired of writing about O.J. Simpson, but when I saw this picture, I knew I had to work whatever creative juices I had in me to pump out a post to accompany it.

Look, the hilarity of the situation can only match the tragedy of The Juice’s fate.

Now me, I’m willing to look past that whole getting acquitted for murder thing. It’s old news. I was in junior high (these days you call it middle school) when he was acquitted. The courts sided with him and he walked a free man. Fine.

I’ll give that to him.

Continue reading "Simpson’s Las Vegas plight more than a ‘comedy of errors’" »

Posted November 8, 2007 1:33 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Man, I should have written this a couple weeks ago when it started. We’ve finally kissed the oppressive heat of summer goodbye and now we have a small window of perfect weather before winter comes in and has its way with us.

That’s the thing about the weather in Las Vegas. Ask anybody and the first thing they’ll say is that it gets too hot in the summer. Hell, this is a desert; you can’t really expect much else.

Most people complain about it, some people get used to it and some people just plain like the heat. Can’t say I’d enjoy such intense heat all year round, but it’s certainly not without its charms. Summer nights in Las Vegas are some of the best you’ll ever have.

But no matter what you think of the heat, you can’t complain about those several weeks of perfect weather that bookend our summers. And it is perfect, through and through.

Continue reading "Enjoy the weather while you can Las Vegas" »

Posted October 5, 2007 10:50 AM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Well, it turns out Starbucks has lost its soul and coffee fragrance, and doesn’t know where to find it.

So says an internal memorandum to employees by Chairman Howard Schultz that may have been leaked to the Seattle stringer of The Washington Post. The story turned up on page one of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday, March 5 as an offshoot of a Seattle Times story the previous Saturday.

Has Starbucks really lost its flavor? Not really, judging by the coffee served in more than two dozen establishments chaotically listed on page 246 of the current Embarq Yellow Pages (To where have you embarked us?) Not really, because you have to wait your turn to place your order at the coffee bar mornings, afternoons and evenings at virtually all of the establishments in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Primm Valley. And that includes the most interesting of Starbucks establishments in Las Vegas—the French street café version under the canopy of the Fremont Street Experience.

Schultz cries all the way to the bank. He’s ready for his w(h)ine and cheese reception. The Big S is now Big Business. From fewer than 1,000 locations, the memo grieves, the company has expanded to about 13,000 stores that no longer smell like coffee due to so-called flavor-locked packaging. The coffee drinking places are crowded with baby boomers, Gen Xers and other Millennials. You can even buy Starbucks coffee and coffee drinks in supermarkets these days.

Continue reading "Starbucks proliferates in Las Vegas with plenty of flavor and enthusiasm; soul not lost in Sin City" »

Posted March 7, 2007 3:43 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Las Vegas was ranked the number one “fattest city” in the U.S., according the March issue of Men's Fitness magazine. I, for one, find this difficult to believe given the number of 24-hour workout locations in Las Vegas. The magazine set forth its markers for making the grade:

“We spend months poring over statistics on the things that make real people fit or fat, from weather patterns to junk food, from availability of public recreational facilities to TV viewing habits. We dig through data on how much exercise people get, whether they use their gym memberships, how healthfully they eat, and how much time they spend sitting in traffic. We even quiz city park departments and mayors to learn about local exercise venues, civic leadership, and programs designed to get citizens off their couches and moving.”

So I picked up the phone and made the same calls as Men's Fitness magazine claims to have made to see what info I could gather.

To address the “weather” issue, any fitness expert will tell you that you should work out in a “warm” environment. Las Vegas fits the bill. At least outdoor recreation here doesn’t entail snowsuits, hats and gloves.

We live in a city with thousands of active exercise possibilities. Just type in “fitness Las Vegas” on your favorite search engine and you’ll get thousands of hits.

If you are looking for my favorite type of workout—free—there are three local state parks: 1) Spring Mountain Ranch, 2) Old Mormon Fort, and 3) Floyd Lamb State Park. Also, Las Vegas has dozens of city parks where you can take a walk to relieve stress, jog to shed those extra pounds or just hang-out to meet a few fellow locals doing the same thing. Many parks have sports leagues you can join for a nominal fee. I know many people who meet-up at local parks to play a game of pick-up basketball, football or Frisbee golf, the latter found at Sunset Park.

Continue reading "Is Las Vegas the fattest U.S. city?" »

Posted February 20, 2007 3:43 PM by Terry Piper | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Just in case the blogosphere out there has been waiting with bated breath for the next episode of the rat and a colleague’s Suzuki Grand Vitarra V-6 4x4 SUV, we now have the promised update. The rat bailed. There still is a rat tale, but no rat tail. Gather ‘round, folks, for the story of The Rat That Never Returned…

If that rat had not gone elsewhere and was presumed to still be inside the vehicle, I had composed a little ditty for the situation, with apologies to the memorable Kingston Trio of the early 60s:

Did it ever return, did it ever return?
No, its fate is still unlearned
It rides forever through the streets of Vegas,
It’s the rat that never returned…

Remember, the rat somehow had gotten from the garage floor into the vehicle’s interior and was subsisting by chewing on and consuming insulation from the car’s wiring. And the rat chewed a hole as big as a baseball in the glove compartment.

Continue reading "Vermin bails from Vegas Grand Vitarra" »

Posted February 13, 2007 4:27 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Pennsylvania has its Punxsutawney Phil, a groundhog, and Nevada has its Mojave Max, a desert tortoise, to signal human beings on whether the weather will warm up soon.

Phil indeed did not see his shadow on Groundhog Day, signaling that the East won’t have six more weeks of cold weather.

Nevada, being Nevada, has a different twist on the matter. Mojave Max, a large desert tortoise and member of a much-protected species in this state, burrows into the desert at the Visitor Center in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, some 20 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Generally Max comes out of hibernation sometime between Feb. 15 and March 15 to announce by his simple presence above ground that warm weather’s around the corner for Southern Nevada.

Since Max doesn’t have a special day to appear, such as Tortoise Tuesday, Max doesn’t receive a lot of press hoopla with guys in top hats and long coats. Not even a guy in a cowboy hat, although if a Bureau of Land Management ranger happened to be around at the tortoise’s entrance, he’d see a Smokey Bear hat.

High temperature for Feb. 5 in Las Vegas was forecast at 73; the forecast for Feb. 6 was 76.

If a temperature trend keeps up for a couple of weeks, Mojave Max might come out of hibernation soon. If it’s in February, local TV channels might be interested, but if he sleeps into next month, Max is out of luck---March isn’t a sweeps month.

Posted February 6, 2007 9:52 AM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Puzzled as to why a would-be dirt bike was parked on a daily basis in our workroom blocking the refrigerator door, I undertook a bit of inquiry that revealed a colleague confessed that a rodent of some size had invaded his Suzuki Grand Vitarra V-6. He was terrified of being bitten by the vermin, I learned, and was risking life and limb riding his bike all the way from Summerlin to the office.

The ratmobile suddenly reappeared in the parking lot outside the office the other day and I was all, “Way to go, Suzuki!”

But the rodent was still inside, my colleague confided. “It hasn’t touched the trap in two days, so I thought it might be gone. You should see the size of the hole it chewed in the glove box,” he said, holding up both hands to use thumb and forefinger to illustrate a circle the size of a baseball.

“Egad,” I said. “I thought you said it was a mouse. That’s the size of a rat!”

Continue reading "Vegas vermin invades Grand Vitarra, creating panic on wheels in a custom ratmobile" »

Posted January 26, 2007 4:01 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Recently the local papers have commented on the slew of candidates — mostly expected, some unexpected, and some outright laughable — for this year’s elections.

I just couldn’t help but chuckle when I ran across one candidate’s website.

Introducing republican candidate for governor of Nevada: Melody Damayo AKA Mimi Miyagi.

Yes, when the papers reported that the freaks came out to be included on the ballot, I had to wonder.

I’m certainly not one to point the finger at good intentioned individuals who likely have a misconceived perception of reality, thinking elected office is a cakewalk, but I can’t help but find the humor in Melody/Mimi’s website: Mimi for Governor.

I’ll leave the political commentary up to Jon Ralston, who occasionally struggles with his own sense of reality. But I just couldn’t help but wonder, ‘could Nevada’s next governor be a stripper?’

Stranger things have happened. California has the Terminator. Minnesota had pro wrestler (AKA actor) Jesse Ventura. Heck, our country elected a silver screened cowboy as our commander in chief, may he rest in peace.

I think I’d be embarrassed attending a fund raiser for Mimi, wondering where to put the campaign donation. Can you put checks in a g-string?

Let’s hope the voters are serious about hitting the polls this fall (no Mimi, not that kind of pole), and make wise decisions.

Perhaps we could use more unconventional candidates and ideas in the political arena. Or perhaps we should stay the course with seasoned politicians. Jon?

Posted May 23, 2006 9:17 AM by Pete Codella, APR | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Heads up pollen freaks, it’s allergy season in Las Vegas. Those of you like me, diagnosed and treated allergy sufferers, it’s going to be a long couple of months.

According to Weather.com, we’re experiencing low to moderate pollen counts for trees, grass and weeds.

While we’re not a tropical environment with tons of foliage, we do have wind and plenty of dust. Las Vegas surely won’t ever show up as one of Weather.com’s pollen hot spots, but it sure provides a handy tool to determine pollen counts by zip code.

So for those of you who pop a Sudafed with your daily vitamin, have plenty on hand for the next few weeks.

Posted May 15, 2006 4:30 PM by Pete Codella, APR | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email This

Today is March 21. The temperature should be warming up and vegetation turning more green.

However, today Vegas residents woke up to snow on the mountains surrounding the valley and some rain in the valley.

It was a very unusual morning heading to work along I-215 westbound to see all the mountains on the west side of town covered in a dusting of snow.

And of course, on the way I saw something not that unusual on a wet road day … one of those lovely street centered streetlamps was balanced on a Cadillac SUV after being hit and knocked off its base by a truck driven by a young driver. The pick-up driver must have taken the corner too fast, spun around, and dinged the streetlamp, sending it toppling onto the adjacent car. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Continue reading "A wintery spring solstice" »

Posted March 21, 2006 2:58 PM by Pete Codella, APR | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

I was talking today to a 15-year resident of Las Vegas, Stephen, and it wasn’t long before we touched upon the explosion of growth in the city. I’ve been here for 31 years – and residents today would not recognize the old glitter gulch that I decided to call home back then.

I told Stephen about the house my sister, Terri, rented back around 1979. It was a little cinderblock home that reminded me of the one-room home from “Little House on the Prairie,” where the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom were all in one incredibly small room. Terri always needed a place for her horses and so she suffered through. Well, that house was waaaay out at Tropicana and Mountain Vista. I can remember my mother and I asking her what the hell she was doing so far out-of-town! Anyone living here now knows that is practically in the heart of the city today.

Stephen’s daughter lives off Farm Road, in the Northwest area — an area he calls southern Reno! And on the south end of the valley, the folks who built the Henderson airport built it a safe 15 minutes from downtown Henderson, thinking that would allow for growth and keep the noise away from everyone. Last year, my friend Andrew decided not to buy a home in Seven Hills because it was so close to the Henderson airport!

Continue reading "The relative nearness of Las Vegas" »

Posted March 16, 2006 11:53 AM by Robin Jay | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Isn’t it about time Las Vegas got its own major league professional sports team?

I don’t know about you, but it seems communities smaller than Vegas, Salt Lake City for instance, manage to support professional sports (i.e., the Utah Jazz). Why not Las Vegas?

While we don’t have a major league sports team, at least we (and our tourists) manage to support many sporting events.

We have the Las Vegas Gladiators in the Arena Football League, the Las Vegas 51s, a baseball franchise in the Triple A Pacific Coast League, and the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL hockey league.

Continue reading "Las Vegas and its own major league professional sports team" »

Posted March 15, 2006 9:15 PM by Pete Codella, APR | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email This