Wednesday, July 2, 2003

News Outta Vegas

Recently, the Rio Suites Hotel in Las Vegas introduced a gimmick involving its cocktail waitresses. In one of those moves that makes you wonder if someone understands the concept, the Rio got rid of all the servers who'd been hired because of their cleavage and/or buttocks, and now hires based on singing and dancing. Every so often, these "bevertainers" (as they're called) stop bringing you watery scotch and instead hop up to perform on little platforms situated throughout the casino. I haven't seen it yet but reports do not make this sound like a fabulous idea. "Bevertainers," by the way, is a term derived from the word "beverage" and I'm told most people pronounce it by inserting an extra "a," guess where.

Not to be outdone, the Imperial Palace now has "The Legends Pit," which features Blackjack dealers who are celebrity imitators. Thursday through Sunday evenings, a grouping of seven tables is manned by Elvis look-alikes, Madonna clones, Cher doppelgangers, etc. This sounds like the set-up to about three weeks of Leno monologue jokes. The first one that comes to mind is that they had to fire the Michael Jackson impersonator because he wouldn't hit on anything over twelve.

• Posted at 4:09 PM · LINK

San Diego Update

See? I told you there'd be updates about the panels I'm hosting at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. We've just added another guest to the Seduction of the Innocent panel, which takes place on Thursday afternoon, July 17 at 1:00 in room 9. In addition to the previously-announced panelists and rare video footage of Dr. Fredric Wertham, we'll be welcoming Al Feldstein, the writer-editor of EC's horror, crime and science-fiction comics, as well as (later on) Mad Magazine. No one alive knows more about what Wertham's book meant to the comic book industry. Here's how the schedule looks now with Al's name added.

• Posted at 3:20 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Regarding gay marriage, Michael Kinsley has an odd suggestion in the "never gonna happen but it's an interesting way to look at the problem" category.

One of the complications that will hover over most discussions of gay marriage is that most people in this country really don't believe in State's Rights. Some say they do, generally because they think they can win certain emotion-laden battles in a smaller arena. But when they lose — say, when the voters in a state elect to have medical marijuana or assisted suicide or gay marriage — they immediately want the Fed to step in, enforce some higher law...or if there isn't one, make one.

The concept of gay marriage makes the whole concept of State's Rights dicier, since states are supposed to honor each others' laws. That hasn't been a big concern with other issues that seem to be in play, since you can only smoke medical marijuana or assist suicide or abort a fetus in one state at a time. But gays who marry in whatever state first recognizes gay marriage would want to travel, perhaps relocate, maybe buy insurance from companies in another state, etc. And if you give Sam and Fred the right to marry in a state and they do, what happens to their union if the voters of that state later repeal the law?

I don't know what's going to happen here. But I do know it's going to be messy.

• Posted at 12:19 PM · LINK