BSR

Don't misunderstand: I love Kelly Pickler, really. I admire that she went from a tough childhood (dad in jail, mom abandoned her) and a life as a roller-skating waitress at Sonic to become a fairly successful country star. Good for her!! But oh my gawd, she is blond with a capital B! When she was on American Idol, she had a good number of critics who argued that nobody could possibly be that dim and that the dumb hick act (like not knowing what's calamari or how to pronounce it) was patently phony. All her critics should be forced to watch that clip. But any attempts at apology would be terribly awkward. What do you say? "I'm sorry, you genuinely are dumber than a bag of rocks"??

The absence of rate information on the site is very odd to me. Why waste prospective clients' time and the agency's time constantly exchanging rate information? Maybe it's a case of "if you have to ask ... " Since I do have to ask, no Dawson for me, I guess. Crapster! he's right here in Vegas too!! And did you catch the little detail about a 30% deposit on all dates longer than an hour? Uh oh ...

cany, not sure what you're referring to ... the Wicked Spoon buffet @Cosmopolitan? Haven't been myself, but a foodie friend went once and liked it, for a buffet. I've heard great things about the Golden Steer, more about the ambience and service than the food. It's very "old Vegas" - i.e., tuxedo-clad waiters, white tablecloths, salads & desserts prepared tableside. I've never been myself. But if you do go, you HAVE TO make sure you get the Robert DeNiro look-alike waiter. A foodie friend showed me a picture they snapped on their phone. Holy bleep! the guy is the spittin' image of DeNiro!! If you call and specify that you want the DeNiro look-alike as your waiter, they'll know what you're talking about. People ask for him all the time. I have to go one of these days just for the experience. A few off-Strip recommendations: Gandhi or Origin India. Try Gandhi for traditional Indian cuisine. Good food and great prices! Try Origin India for more innovative fare, kind of like "nouvelle cuisine" Indian. Origin India is a little pricier than Gandhi, but still far less expensive than the Strip. Lotus of Siam. The best Thai food in Vegas. I'm a huge fan of Thai, been to countless Thai restaurants in Boston & NYC. Gotta say, Lotus beats any Thai restaurant I've been to in those two cities. Rollin Smoke. The best BBQ in Las Vegas! I grew up in Kansas City, which means I'm a total barbecue snob. Only 3 BBQ joints in Vegas actually wood-smoke their meat. All the others just sprinkle a little Liquid Smoke and throw it in the oven cuz they're bleepin' lazy. Boy, does that chap my ass!! Anyway, the link I posted will get you 10% off their already reasonable prices. Yonaka. It's not traditional Japanese sushi, more Japanese/PanAsian fusions conjured up by a very talented chef whose staff affectionately calls him "The Mad Scientist." My favorite dish here is Niku Berry - grilled beef tenderloin with strawberries, pistachio butter, enoki mushrooms, and sugar-dried fennel. Sound crazy? Just wait 'til you combine all the ingredients onto a big spoon and put it in your mouth. Check them out on Yelp. Vegas foodies LOVE this place! Raku and Raku Sweets (no website yet because it's brand new). Raku is a Japanese charcoal grill - fresh, high-quality ingredients mostly cooked over charcoal. They offer many dishes you might not have tried before. I've tried a bunch, have never disliked anything, and loved almost everything. Raku Sweets is the Vegas version of NYC's very successful Chikalicious, that is, a 3-course dessert bar. You get an amuse-bouche (a small pre-dessert), dessert (the "main course"), and a small post-dessert dessert. If you're thinking it's all too much sweetness, Japanese pastry uses far less sugar. You can actually have 3 dessert courses without any cloying sweetness. It's in the same strip mall as Raku. It's so new it doesn't even have a sign yet. Look for the big silver spoon in front or just ask the folks in Raku where it is. If you have a car, try Suzuya, another Japanese pastry shop. I had no idea Japanese did such fine pastry until I discovered this place. All you ever see for dessert in Japanese restaurants is mochi or green tea ice cream. But the crepes and pastries at Suzuya are divine, as good as Raku Sweets, but far less expensive. I loved Raku Sweets, but it's pricey. Their 3-course dessert is $19, or $25 after tax & tip. But it's worth it once for the experience.

As a foodie and a Vegas resident, I disagree, there are far too many places you can go wrong eating in Las Vegas. The Strip is quite expensive. If you compare the menu prices of NYC restaurants w/their Vegas copies (e.g., STK), the prices are actually higher in Vegas than NYC! There's a lot of great dining on the Strip, but it'll cost you, plenty! Worse yet, there are countless morasses of mediocrity that charge eye-poppingly high prices for the sh*tshows they serve up. One tip: avoid any restaurant with an in-house DJ ... the trying-way-too-hard-to-be-coolness-of-it-all pretty much guarantees that you're overpaying for very mediocre food, e.g., Hakkasan @MGM, Andrea's @Wynn. I'd also avoid all the "gastropubs" -- e.g., Pub 1842 @MGM, Public House @Venetian, Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill @Caesars -- unless you simply must pay $19 for a crab cake (yeah, that's singular). Finally, avoid any and all barbecue on the Strip. None of it is real wood-smoked BBQ. In other words, they just bake meat in an oven & pour BBQ sauce all over it. Sometimes the fake & bake stuff isn't that bad, except on the Strip, where anything BBQ'd is absolutely awful. My opinion: the best moderate-priced (there's no such thing as "cheap" on the Vegas Strip - even a small slice of plain cheese pizza at the Caesars food court costs $6) food on the Strip is at the gourmet burger joints -- e.g., BurGR @Planet Hollywood, Burger Bar @Mandalay Place, BLT @Mirage. It's not all hamburgers at the burger joints. They have "burgers" made of chicken, fried fish, salmon filets, etc. They're surprisingly good while prices, for the Strip, aren't that bad. If you feel like giving your credit card a workout, I'd suggest Jaleo @Cosmopolitan (Spanish tapas) or Sage @Aria. If you want to give your credit card a horse-whipping, go to Atelier de Joel Robuchon @MGM. It's my favorite restaurant in town. Just brace yourself for the shock of your $80 entrée coming out exquisitely presented, and the size of a deck of cards. PS: the gelato place at the Wynn used to be awesome! But the bean-counters got to it, and now for your six bucks, you'll get two scoops of Dreyers.

Wow, I can't believe no one's mentioned this one yet. Come on! I can't be the only guy here who realized he was gay when all the other boys in school were going gaga over Daisy Duke while I couldn't stop staring at Bo and Luke. In my grade school, anyone who showed up a bit early had to sit in the cafeteria until the bell rang for home room. The mornings after Dukes, I swear all the boys showed up early just to gush about how incredible Daisy looked in the latest episode. Well, except me, of course.