[fingpilot]

I was in Vegas all last week. Supposed to leave friday evening.

There was a national real estate brokers convention in town. The smokiest, rudest, pushiest, cheapest, most gawd awful group of people ever to descend onto the strip. I was in the largest hotel on the strip. By wednesday evening, I was about done. The rest of the crew asked to change hotels, somewhere away from the crowd. We were exploring options thursday morning when the passengers called and said they were done, and get us the F outta town.

All week, there had been a daily-increasing fever about the NBA All-Star weekend coming to town. Ads being draped on each and every hotel featuring an NBA star, and some of the drapes were record setters for size. Picture the SpazDik tower completely draped top to bottom. One entire face of the Pyramid with a face.. a very particular face..... Thursday morning, we hear about that face saying, on a live radio interview given while boarding the plane for Vegas, saying he 'hates gays'.... in not so PC terms. The only union more powerful than the teamsters in LAS is the entertainment workers union.....

We (the crew) all assembled in the lobby to a crush of madness.. as NBA 'stars' and wanna-bees were all mobbing the check-in counter...... which was 50 stations wide. We HAD to go there because we were checking out a day early, and could not use the 'express check-out'. A fist-fight broke out in the line next to us. Over who should be the 'bomb MVP'.... The clerk on the other line next to us backed away permanently from the counter when an indecent proposal was offered by the bejeweled 7-foot guest trying to check in.

After we cleared the lobby, there was another 'incident' in the valet car line when another 'guest' and his 'security detail' had an altercation about where his stretch Hummer was going to be parked (not in front of the red carpet) for 3 days.

We got to the airport FBO and watched a steady stream of 'working girls' deplaning from all over the country in private jets. 12 planes of 18 each. Each with a 'security detail', a cell phone in each of his ears. I was surprised at the lack of luggage these girls travelled with. One small roller.

Fast forward to this morning. I am in NYC. The talk in town here is the bedlam in Vegas all weekend, and thru this morning. Police vanishing. Gunfire in the strip clubs and casinos. Unpaid tabs, casinos closing to avoid the madness, 24/7 restaurants closing for the first time in history to avoid the crime, Southwest Airlines having a check-in line that overwhelmed the airport.

The city of LAS is trying to downplay the bedlam. They want an NBA franchise.

Can you imagine?