Rick Sommer's Blog

Notes from Las Vegas—October 2008

On the Strip–We are in a huge suite at Caesars, one for whales (gamblers who bet large). A living room larger than any we have had in our houses. Two bedrooms on either side. Howard and Jane have a “hostess” who arranged it. Because we aren’t sure what this will cost, if anything, we urge Jane to “go to work” as early as she can. Jane is a maniac for poker played on a machine; it looks like a slot machine. It has a random generator that displays cards. Jane can vary her bet but she usually max’s out, or $12.50 for each push of the button. She plays with lightening speed. When she wins she wins big.

Walking the Strip–The Strip is alive with pedestrians. I walked up to Walgreen’s, three long blocks. Not sure where everyone is going or from whence they came. A lot a kids drink beer and/or have large hurricane-like glass containers. The mode of dress in Vegas has deteriorated dramatically. Grunge has returned: flannel shirts unbuttoned to reveal a T-shirt with a Corona beer bottle painted on it. Cargo shorts, those with drooping side pockets and quite possibly the least attractive piece of clothing invented by man, are everywhere. Color co-ordination has succumbed to a riot of colors. When one does see a well-dressed man or woman, heads turn.

Beautiful Architecture–During my walk I spent time viewing City Center. Kirk Kerkorian is ninety and is building what may be the most beautiful development in the West, or at least some of the most beautiful buildings. City Center is a cluster of about ten buildings. The Dunes golf course was ripped up to make way for this new construction. Sheets of reflecting glass with corners coming to razor sharp angles. Flying buttresses reach out. Sweeping curves provide offsets to the sharp angles of neighboring buildings. Once completed it will be spectacular. Financing for this development is still in question but rumor has it the Chinese and Dubai loaned him $8 billion, at above average rates. The concept is to build co-ops, casinos, grocery stores, McDonalds, doctors offices, a mini city right on Las Vegas Blvd. On this Saturday there was construction crews working the big cranes.

How DO you play craps?–Each craps table has four employees or dealers working it. The stick man works outside, where customers walk along an aisle. He faces into the “pit”. He pulls in the dice with his stick and calls the game. He watches the dealer to his left to be sure the payouts are correct. Two dealers stand on the other side of the table and are responsible for their half of the table. Each dealer has a maximum of six players, so each table can handle a max of twelve. There was once another dealer, called the “box man” who watched the dealer on his left and dolled out chips. He also handled the money and deposited it into a box, below the table. But the box man was eliminated about a year ago, saving money. So, the pit boss, who once strutted around and watched everyone, now has more duties. He watches both dealers as well as the stick man. The eye in the sky watches the pit boss, and everyone else. They are everywhere.

Kathryn–Kathryn is a 40-something bottle blond, about 5’4” and dressed in a black dress. She wears a silver necklace and a silver ring (obviously a winter) with large diamonds on her wedding finger. She appears to be about to go to the office. She is standing next to me at a Caesars craps table. She engages the dealer across from her in trying to learn the game. He patiently (this is mid-afternoon and not busy) explains what is going on and a few of us engage Kathryn with banter. She finally gets out a $100 bill and tries to hand it to the dealer. She doesn’t understand the dealer cannot take cash from her hand and she refuses to let go of the bill. There is a mildly tense minute when her embarrassment in not understanding and the dealer’s impatience with her are about to erupt. The game stops and we momentarily detest Kathryn. Finally, she drops the bill, the dealer scoops it up and drops it into the box and hands her four $25 chips. “Can’t I play for less?” No, this is a $25 table, meaning each bet must be at least $25. After watching the rest of us for ten minutes she drops a chip on the pass line as the come out role comes up a seven. “Winner, seven!” Kathryn gets $25. Fast forward about half an hour: Kathryn is holding her own. She now has about $150. It is now her roll, the dice passing right to left to each player as the player to your right craps out. The stick man passes the dies to her but she doesn’t immediately pick them up. “Is this a Coke or Pepsi casino,” she asks? I howl. “Well”, she explains, “I hate Pepsi.” The dealer tells her she can have anything she wants. A waitress comes over and takes her order. Kathryn picks up the dice and rolls three sevens in row. She and I both make $75. Once she “establishes” her number I make place bets all over the place, as do the other players. Most of us believe beginning women players are lucky so we bet heavily. She hits about four numbers in a row and I am up probably $275. After yet another good roll I ask what she is doing for dinner. We all laugh a little and then she sevens out. I had broken the code. Do not interrupt a good roll. Do nothing to change momentum. I leave for another table and wish Kathryn good luck. I never saw her again during our stay.

Shane–There were four of us on one side of the table, it was about 10pm. I had just finished dinner with Pam, Howard and Jane at Bradley Ogden’s. It was a good dinner; I had fish while the others had steaks. We had great banter with the headwaiter, a Leonardo DeCaprio look-alike. We had a bottle of Lambert Bridge Zinfandel for $90. It was about the cheapest wine on the list, some going for over $5000. More expensive wines are sold in Vegas than anyplace in the world.

I was just settling into the craps table when Shane walked up and stationed himself to my left. I always try to position myself next to the stick man so he can hear me properly when I make verbal bets. And, also so I can see the entire board. Shane reminded me of Phil Collins. He was about 5’7”, short, short hair; ruddy complexion which I judged to be from too much alcohol, and when he smiled his teeth didn’t show. He carried a large glass of red wine. Out of his pockets he pulled eight or nine large chips. I had not seen chips that large since playing roulette in Monte Carlo. I love saying that. Anyway, I didn’t know the denominations of Shane’s chips until he threw one on the table and asked for a $1000 hard eight (two fours). He got forty-nine one thousand dollar chips as change. He then placed $4000 across the board, every number. The next dice toss was a hard eight and we both high-fived each other; I won $45, he won $7000. We both kept the bet on. Shane asked if I’d like to try his Screaming Eagle. I took a huge sip from his glass. Amazing. By this time I asked him if he always played this way, so large. “Why the f not, I won $150,000 at Baccarat tonight. And last month I won $1 million.” In between throws of the dice he explained himself. It helped that he had been drinking since noon. It also helped that he was drinking Screaming Eagle, the $5500/bottle wine from the restaurant list. He and three of his pals had just finished dinner at Nero’s, a steak house at Caesars. It cost $17,000. Five hundred for steaks and $16,500 for three bottles of Screaming Eagle. As we talked, he told me how he got his money. He had sold his company to some “ass-holes from New York” for $500 million. His company services the oil rigs in the Gulf off of New Orleans. I complimented him on building such an attractive company. He then pushed towards me, tilted his head towards my ear and whispered, “I inherited it”. What did you do with the money, I wondered aloud. Turns out he bought municipal bonds, enough to give him $1 million a month, tax-free. The rest of the money “just sits there”. He told me the New York boys paid him 5X cash flow, implying the company threw off $100 million a year. When I suggested that this didn’t seem like the NY boys took advantage of him he replied that it was, indeed, fair. By this time Shane was out of wine and yelled out to no one in particular, “We need a bottle of Opus One!” From nowhere a cocktail goddess dressed in a mini-toga appeared to take his order. “Opus One, two glasses and put 20% on for you! Ya wan some”, he asked? Hell, yes. Opus One is a Rothschild wine from Napa. And sells for $250, but at Caesars its $350. When the waitress returned with the wine the game halted as I used her corkscrew to delicately remove the cork. I put the bottle on the craps table and prayed it wouldn’t spill. To stop a game like this is unforgivable but Caesars will do anything for Shane. He was in the building’s largest suite and pays nothing for it or wine or food, or anything. I poured a glass for us both. Yummy. By this time there must be $30 grand on the table. I had never seen so many chips on a table. Every possible bet was covered. The place was going wild as we raked it in. The dealers were overworked and a second pit boss worked the table. It was over just as quickly as it began and sphincters tightened all along the table. While it was a great roll and most won we had all left a bundle on the table. Shane must have left $7,000. Just then every man in the casino suffered whiplash as three gorgeous twenty-something’s pranced down the main aisle. How they kept the tops on their boobs is a mystery. “Get me a hooker!” was Shane’s response to the darling dolls. He was getting pretty drunk. He had probably won $20 grand but was showing greater interest in a lonely, lovely black jack dealer across the aisle. He moved on and I kept the Opus One and drained it into my huge glass. By midnight I was flying on a very expensive high.

–The next afternoon I returned to the same table. “Screaming Eagle” said Robert, the pit boss from the previous evening. The guys next to me wanted to know what he meant so I recounted the events from last night. They loved it.

The Beatles–LOVE is the title of Cirque Du Soleil’s latest effort. This Canadian outfit has become one of the greatest moneymakers in all of show business. Traveling companies are everywhere. And in Vegas they have three permanent shows in buildings built especially for each production. LOVE is a tribute to the Beatles. Because I am a longtime fan LOVE was high on my list of things to see. I was not disappointed. As Pam has said since, “I had a smile on my face the whole time”. Yup. George Martin was the producer of almost all original Beatles albums. George’s son produced LOVE. He had to get Paul and Ringo’s permission to tweak the originals. It is a spectacular success. The gymnastics of the Cirque boys and girls is sometimes beyond belief. The danger they constantly face is terrifying. The music is so good it makes one want the night to go on and on. The sound is so good. After a while the sound gets even better as speakers in each headrest are activated. Got weed? This production is worth a ticket to Vegas.

My Late Night Haunt–O’Shea’s is an old timey casino across the street from Caesars. I have played craps there in the past because it reminds me of Binyon’s which is in downtown Vegas. I love the old, creepy places of Vegas. The characters one meet usually makes for a memorable evening. Plus, their minimum bet is $15 and I seem to do better in that environment. It turns out O’Shea’s is owned by Harrahs. They own Caesars and two long blocks across the street. O’Shea’s sells $2 Miller drafts and I love giving the cocktail waitress a five dollar chip. “Oh, thank you so much.” The waitresses here are not the goddesses as at Caesars dressed in mini togas. These are fifty-something’s that are probably moonlighting from their day jobs and dressed in what ever they found in their closets. The “restaurants” at O’Shea’s are Burger King and Subway. A cover band blares behind me and I have to use sign language to communicate with the stick man. There is a girl at the far end, with a very low décolletage that fascinates us and she has a fantastic run with the dice. She must have held the dice for thirty minutes, a lifetime in craps. I was down about $300 before she started shooting; afterwards I was up $600. No other game can get you broke or rich so fast. I was playing next to a young Asian man. As the girl kept making numbers I shouted to him that craps was the “best”. “And the worst,” he screamed. We both quit after the girl sevened out and went to the cage to cash out.

Showtime!–The Bette Midler show was essentially the same we saw fifteen years ago at Radio City. But Bette is so unique and her repartee so terrific that we really enjoyed her. It didn’t hurt that our host got us fourth row seats. The theatre in which she performed was built for Celine Dion at a cost of $100 million. It is part of Caesars, just off the lobby. It holds 4200 and is probably the most beautiful I have seen other than Radio City. The lines of the three balconies are beautifully swept. After the performance we ate at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill. We were all looking forward to this but the anticipation turned into resentment as we were kept waiting at the hostess desk for our reservation. Food was good but the moment was lost. Too bad.

Joe’s Stone Crabs–Pam loves stone crabs. So, when we stumbled up Joe’ Crab Shack in the Caesars Forum we waltzed in for an early lunch. We were lucky to have the Maitre D’ for our waiter. He is a pro, having spent eight years at the Miami Joe’s and six here in Vegas. We told him where we were from and he delivered one of the great lines of the trip: “Oh, I spent my first honeymoon at Nags Head.” His recommendation were spot on but we ordered much too much. I had a cup of crab bisque and fish & chips. The bisque was the best ever, tiny diced scallions mixed with larger pieces of crab in a not-too creamy or floury soup. Pam had the cold crabs with several sauces, her favorite being the mustard mix. We also ordered several sides, the best being fresh corn kernels that had been fried quickly with shallots then sprayed with fresh lime. We have subsequently successfully duplicated this dish at home. We splurged on a bottle of great white from the Dry Creek area Sonoma. Nap time.

Road trip to Utah–Before our Caesars’ stay in Las Vegas we picked up our son, Tobey at the airport and we took off in a rental car for southern Utah. He had flown in from Nashville. None of us had been to the National Parks in this region. Zion and Bryce were targets. The first night we stayed at Flanagan’s in Springdale, Utah. This was across from the park entrance. The rooms were OK but the real star was the restaurant attached. Tobey ordered a good red and we all had a variety of appetizers/entrees. Tobey had pureed artichoke on toast crisps. I had a soba noodle/crap/herb salad that was fantastic. Pam had a wild mushroom torte that she wouldn’t let any of us try. This place was a very pleasant surprise.

–Our second night was spent at Zion Mountain Ranch. This is on Rte 9, just after the spectacular drive up and through Zion Park. This road was a WPA project of 1930. It is cut through the rock, tunnels and all, and may be one of the great drives in America. The Ranch is thousands of working acres, mostly given to bison. The newish cottages are spaced around a large hill and offer great views of the bison roaming. There is a small restaurant where we had a reasonable meal. I asked the young waiter about the fish and he replied he had no idea because he only eats meat. We were all prepared to order the bison chili but they were out. Tobey suggested they go outside and slaughter one; the herd was just outside our window. I ordered the ribs, at his suggestion. Only fair. The weather had turned very cold and when we returned to our spacious cabin we cranked up the heat.

On the trails with Brits–I had a great time egging-on the English people we met. They had converted pounds at about $1.70 and were loving America. Having a good time spending your pounds, I would ask? They always stopped on the trails and chatted. They told us how much better their exchange rate was two years ago. Several were renting Class C RVs. They were camped at Zion in one of the most beautiful campgrounds we had seen. Close by a river; no hook-ups, but a beautiful place. One woman from northern England said that their motto was SKIN. Spend kids inheritance now. The English we meet always exclaim about the size of our country. In England they spend $7 a gallon for gasoline and drive much more efficient cars. More importantly, distances are shorter in England.

Boulder, Utah–We stopped at the Red Canyon ranger station to get directions. The ranger gave us great advice: before going to Bryce, drive Rte 12 almost to its end. We did that and were not disappointed. This one of America’s top ten drives and reminds one of both early John Wayne movies and the Australia outback. It was ooh’s and aah’s around every turn. It was now about 2pm and we were all hungry. Of course, there was nothing, nothing for miles. When we finally arrived in Boulder, Utah we spied the Burr Trail Grill. Tobey pulled in and we entered a time warp. A pretty woman greeted us. She was dressed in 1967 Summer of Love Hippie Finest. Even had a bandana around her hair. Long skirt with an apron. Navajo broach at her throat. Her skin was reddish from recent sun. We settled in and asked how she was. “You know, this has been a perfect day, just perfect.” Immediately set at ease we ordered anything she suggested and were not disappointed. Chicken Quesadillas and home made salsa. Salads with homemade sun dried tomatoes. Fresh lemonade.

–We backtracked on Rte 12 towards Bryce. Our third and fourth nights were spent at Ruby’s, just outside Bryce. This place has been popular since the ‘30’s. From the outside it is not very attractive but it is clean. We found a good soup and pie place down the road where we ate both nights.

Below the rim with my son–A highlight of the trip was a trail walk with T below the rim at Bryce. He had done the same trail the day before and raced up and down, just for exercise. With me in tow he took longer and we didn’t make it all the way down. I had trouble with the 8800’ altitude and the steep grades. But I will forever be thankful I made the effort. I only took four or five photos in Zion but about eighty at Bryce. I could not get over the colors. The days were cold and the air was very clear and the shots came out beautifully, albeit a bit repetitious. If you want to see them let me know.

We are becoming better at these travels. Quick, dart-like visits have become our norm. While we were gone for ten days, five were spent in Utah and five in Vegas so it seemed like two five-day trips. Both places are worthy of repeat visits.

Did ya win or wha?–What you really wanted to know. Yes, I won for the trip, barely, about $400. But winners did not build those big buildings so every time you exit Vegas with a little it is a major victory. We are waiting for a final tally from Caesars but so far the whole Vegas part of the trip cost less that $750. What a country.

Regards, Rick

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