As you step through the front doors of Aria‘s check-in foyer, a too-heavy musk is jammed up your nostrils. It smells like the same suffocating attar that’s employed in Venelazzo, except maybe heavier. The good news is that if you get a bit away from the front desk, the choking perfume is no longer present. (The bad news is that the airy North Foyer has a distinct eau de ashtray, redolent of an ineffective HVAC system.)
Anyway, the Las Vegas Sun has sniffed out the company that conjures up these polecat odors, AromaSys. The best part of the story is when the company’s president admits that Sheldon Adelson lays it on too thickly at Venelazzo but that AromaSys was told to bugger off when it suggested toning down the fragrance. Sounds just like the Sheldon we know and love.
Who knew? When casino companies can get free, common-sense advice from Jean Scott‘s blog or from the Raving Consulting newsletter, it’s scarcely headline material. But when it comes from an executive who’s been sidelined since becoming a victim of the Mirage Resorts takeover, somehow it’s a big deal. Mind you, Barry Shier doesn’t have anything earth-shaking to share with the public.
Moreover, since he was largely responsible (along with Douglas Pool) for the bungled launch of Beau Rivage and is now revealed as the mind behind the harebrained scheme to build an ultra-high-end resort around an Elvis Presley theme (the King and “exclusivity” intersect to form a null set), I’d be just a wee bit leery of taking the medicine Dr. Shier is dispensing.
Obama in Vegas. The much-touted visit of the world’s ultimate Big Man on Campus has been postponed (again). It’s now slated to happen sometime in mid-February. Could POTUS be waiting to see how long the toxicity of Sen. Harry Reid‘s mega-gaffe takes to dispel? The casino industry has made a big show of lining up behind Hapless Harry and you’ve got to wonder if they think they’ve placed a bad bet. Sue Lowden‘s ghostwriter, Chuck Muth, was one of the guests for Aria‘s opening, would could well mean nothing but if casino moguls flip-flop on Reid, you’d expect them to dump him for “one of their own.” Then again, the casino industry is still a bastion of whiteness, so pretensions of moral indignation would make a flimsy mask for realpolitik.
Economic Darwinism is still creeping up on the horseracing industry. But it’s already claimed a victim in the form of Florida‘s “cruises to nowhere” business. Operators elsewhere in the U.S., take note: Once the Class III gambling genie is out of the bottle, you are indeed cruising to nowhere and your armadas are but a fleet of ghost ships.
No Hall of Fame for you! In our hearts we all knew Mark McGwire was on the juice and now it’s official. What makes Big Mac’s non-revelation newsworthy is that at least he respects our intelligence sufficiently to say he knew what he was doing. Very few players will man up the way Andy Pettite did. Most are still spinning that “I was an innocent dupe” malarkey, like Roger Clemens (like we needed more excuses to hate the S.O.B.)
I’m not a baseball bettor and I wonder if there’s enough money in all of gaming to refund the punters who wagered on games that weren’t being played on the square. Heck, I still view almost every player with suspicion … although if spindly Greg Maddux ever bought ‘roids he ought to consider asking for his money back.
Atlantic City revenues. They’re in, they suck (-10% last month) and I’m too depressed to break out the numbers today. Maybe tomorrow.
The Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa home run race was so much to fun to watch in 1998, now it’s a fact that it was as real as professional wrestling. Come clean Sammy, everyone knows you cheated. Bonds and Clemens would rather go to jail than admit the truth. Those two clowns are rich, arrogant, condescending jackasses. I hope none of these four ever make The Baseball Hall of Fame, they all belong in the Hall of Shame.
I booked a Thursday-Sunday weekend in AC a few weeks before Christmas. Arriving Thursday evening about 9 at Showboat I found nothing to eat except their Starbucks clone coffee shop or room service. In the morning the only breakfast available was the brunch buffet at over $20. I followed the advice of two older ladies and walked the boardwalk to a little diner where I had eggs priced as eggs. At lunch the only eatery was again the brunch buffet so I got in my car and drove to the White House Sub Shop and when I’d eaten I drove 200 miles home. Maybe business will increase with the temperature in the spring, but this town is fading fast.
You mean Aria has an “eau de Sunset Station?” That place didn’t use to smell that badly of smoke til the stations cut off their filter replacer guy. So many players used PED’s during a span that it would be difficult to not point fingers. Easier to leave Aarons record intact and wipe the slate clean. Asterisks are for those who are too afraid to prosecute. “If the guy didn’t hit, you must omit!”
Mark,
You might want to consider a Downtown hotel next trip. You have a choice of accommodations, from the deluxe Golden Nugget on down. Same for eats: fancy dinners at the Golden Nugget & Four Queens to a hotdog from a casino snack bar, and 24-hour coffee shops. If you don’t like one place, just walk over to another one.
By the way… You went to the SHOWBOAT???