BSR

My aunt stayed at The Linq recently, said the room was fine. It’s in a fairly central location. Lower rates can be found at the Flamingo and Horseshoe as well, but some of their rooms are seriously showing their age whereas I think all the rooms at the Linq are at least new-ish.

He’s packin’ 8.5 inches. He wrote it right there in his ad, so you know it’s gotta be true.

Even the diamond market is crashing: Diamonds lose their sparkle as prices come crashing down

I’m so happy for Madison! She was one of my favorite WTAers, but to be honest, I kinda gave up hope that she’d win a Slam. Big serve and lots of power from both sides, but it didn’t take much for her game to go off. Her longtime boyfriend, now husband, Bjorn Fratangelo retired as a player after an injury in Aug 2023 and became her full-time coach. Glad to see the arrangement paid off. Keys will turn 30 in a few weeks. Given that the sport’s superstars have won Slams in their mid-30s, Madison should have a good stretch left in her career. I’d love to see her win another one.

I will be in BA for 3 months, May 31 to Aug 29. Aside from doing tons of reading to improve my written Spanish and exploring the chapero (“escort” in Spain, no idea how porteños say it) scene, what do I do in Buenos Aires for 3 whole months? I can’t read and f*** every waking hour. Well, maybe some of you can, but not at my age. So how do I fill my days? I could join a local gym, even thought of bringing a couple of rackets to start up tennis again, but I feel like I need some structure. This 3-month stay is sandwiched between 2 stints in Madrid where I’ll be attending a language school, which gives me the structure I’m looking for. But as for BA, I’m very much open to suggestions. Thanks in advance!

menaughty, what did you end up deciding? I bought my ticket and picked out my language school in Madrid, where I’ll be for 90 days (March 1->May30). This is my first trip back to Spain in decades, last trip was for a friend’s wedding ~25 years ago. From Madrid, I’m going to Buenos Aires for 90 days, then back to Madrid for another 90 days to get my C2 DELE (just a personal goal, no professional motivation). I already know where I’ll live and a good idea of how I’ll fill my days in Madrid but haven’t a bleepin’ clue of what to do in Buenos Aires for 3 whole months. It’s just a place I’ve always wanted to visit, plus I’m looking forward to fall-like temperatures in BA after the last scorching Vegas summer (hottest in the 20 years I’ve been here). I do plan on doing lots and lots of reading (Spanish, obviously) to prep for my C2 course, but you can’t read every waking hour. I started a separate topic in The Travel Desk for suggestions on what to do in Burnos Aires. Please weigh in over there with whatever recommendations & advice. Thanks in advance.

After the horrible flooding in and around Valencia, I would avoid the area until they’re further along in their recovery.

Grass (as in lawns, not legal marijuana) is one of the biggest culprits in water consumption. Natural lawns are becoming rarer and rarer in Las Vegas because the SNWA restricts planting new grass and charges a steep price for watering whatever lawn you do have. That’s how you can tell most CSI scenes were shot in Los Angeles despite being set in Las Vegas, because the houses seen on the show have grass front yards.

A different take: "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy sex ... wait, what idiot said money can't buy happiness??"

The term "millionaire" was coined in the 1920s, when a net worth of $1 million meant you were pretty damn rich. Today a net worth of $1 million means you're ... comfortably middle-class?

“Be a Luigi”?? If being a Luigi means unilaterally murdering anyone you think is evil, then I condemn that. But if being a Luigi means being gorgeous as f*** with a body even fitness models would envy, then yeah, absolutely, be a Luigi.

Most tragic of all are the deaths caused by the wildfires, at least 10 so far. This story was particularly heartbreaking ...

Google showed 2 cases of straight couples being arrested and jailed for PDA. In the spirit of equality, I have to think the same applies to gay couples. But good gawd, if you're LGBT and so foolish as to be ignorant of UAE laws, I dunno if I can summon much sympathy.

How many Sharia Muslims do you know?

Depends on who’s on your jury. To avoid politics, I’ll use a baseball analogy. Imagine a split-second call at 1st base, Red Sox vs. Yankees. I can say with 100% confidence that 12 Sox fans will say the Red Sox batter was safe at 1st and that 12 Yankee fans will say he’s out.

This guy was great. I loved the bit about sounding like a pulling straw, LOL. He reminds me of what Joan Rivers used to say: “I make a joke about everything because if you can laugh, you can cope. Done!”

I think a lot of gays claim to hate homophobia when really they hate Christianity, and Christians’ opposition to gay marriage or drag queen story hour gives gays justification for their anti-Christian hatred. As for Anita Bryant, she very publicly campaigned to repeal gay antidiscrimination laws for a year or so, then quickly faded from political activism. Her career fell apart due to the controversy, although one could argue since she was never that big or popular to begin with, there wasn’t much of a career to destroy. Her personal life also unraveled: a painful divorce, bankruptcy, tax liens. It sounds like she died broke and in obscurity. I get no joy from hearing that, but I’m guessing plenty of others do.

Whenever someone writes a stevenkesslaresque post, I can respond to only one point at a time. Dwindling snowpacks? California ties 1952 record for all-time Sierra snowpack (the article refers to the winter of 2022-23) Oops, I read @mike carey’s post just now … I’m reading preliminary reports that at least one of the fires was set by an arsonist. Criminal gangs are taking advantage of the evacuation to loot houses, but unknown if the gangs are the arsonists or are just taking advantage of fires set by someone else. But I’m sure the looters’ fundamental motivation is that they’re angry about climate change (sorry, I couldn’t help myself, teehee).

If state & local governments fix the water-pressure problem after this tragedy, that means they could have proactively fixed it beforehand. The risk of massive wildfires is hardly new.

How silly of me to forget the axiomatic truth that climate change is the fundamental cause of every single problem on the planet: functional illiteracy, workplace discrimination, the Kardashians, etc. California hasn’t built a single new reservoir since 1979, when the state’s population was 23 million. Today’s population is 39+ million. Plenty of the annual Sierra Nevada snowmelt simply runs into the ocean to save the delta smelt, a fish nobody really cares about but some people like to pretend. All the major factors that caused this tragedy — drought, high winds, dry chaparral — have plagued Southern California for decades. State and local leaders (would love to name names, but no politics) have betrayed the people in devastated areas because they failed to proactively take on these chronic issues. These same failed leaders are the first to scream, “but climate change!” Oh, shock.

Droughts have chronically plagued Southern California since (I’m guessing) forever. If this most recent drought is to blame for waterless fire hydrants, then the question becomes why did California fail to prepare for drought?

Yes, I know. I never claimed the Menendez murders were recent.