I found this interesting blog page that contains old smoking television ads. The page includes an I Love Lucy ad for Phillip Morris containing the requisite 12-year-old boy singing a Phillip Morris ditty. (Isn't that sweet?) Also, on the page you get to see Fred and Barney light up a Winston along with Wilma catching a smoke at the end.

These two ads had me laughing out loud because they would seem so out of place today and would stir up a world of controversy if they were broadcast on TV. Times were so very different.

The last video is Yul Brynner saying not to smoke, from the grave. An effective ad as well, I'd say.

Here's the link: Cigarette Television Ads.

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Actually, I don't know where he's living, but he's not living in the Nevada governor's mansion ... at least, according to this article he's not.

With the governor of the state not being able to live in the state mansion, this has to be one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction scenarios.

The article suggests that "Entire sitcoms have been built on less" and I'd have to agree. Imagine a show that's a combination of Seinfeld and the Cosby show where the premise is the governor is living in a weekly hotel, while his wife lives in the state mansion. Could make for some good TV. (If anyone uses that idea, I want 10% royalties.)

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If you can somehow afford to not work for 3 months straight and feel like being a NASA guinea pig, they are offering $17,000 to people to spend 90 days in bed. All you have to do is spend 90 days straight in bed as part of their study and they'll give you a cool $17,000. I had considered this at first because I thought it was $17,000 a month which I thought was pretty decent, but at slightly above $5k a month, I'd have to pass.

What's the gambling tie-in? Well, this offer reminded me of the Brian Zembic live-in-a-bathroom-for-a-month bet and other wacky gambler bets I hear about at the poker table. Only thing, in this case, it's sanctioned by a respected government agency. This could even be an opportunity for someone to make a side bet over and above the $17k from NASA to make it worthwhile.

For more information on this excellent opportunity for a broke and lazy guy or gal, visit this link: NASA Offers $5000 a Month For You to Lie in Bed.

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In the all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end category, the Payard breakfast that I reviewed in April has raised its price from $16 to $22. It's still a great breakfast, but now it's not as great of a value. Rising food prices are probably forcing this upward shift at restaurants everywhere.

Also, my review of Sedona, Kennedy, and Al's Garage mentioned a free players menu with great entrées for anyone playing VP even at the 25-cent level. I received feedback from someone who said he went to Al's Garage and they had no such menu. Kennedy is immediately next door, however, so if you want the free food, go there.

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Here's an ad for the Cafe Martorano. I took this picture at the walkway from the Strip to the Caesars sports book. I originally saw this same ad in a Rio hotel elevator.

My question is this... would you be more likely or less likely to visit this restaurant after seeing this ad? According to some reviews I read, this is his normal kitchen attire:

You gotta read these reviews though! (Trust me.. read all of them if you have a few minutes.)

Cafe Martorano Reviews at TripAdvisor.

Cafe Martorano Reviews at Yelp.com.

And a couple positive reviews at:

Cafe Martorano Review at VegasPopular.com.

Cafe Martorano Review at LasVegas.net.

And onto the next picture....

I have never seen them changing the enormous letters on the sign at the Palms before. I happened to be there at 3:30 am this morning and had to catch a picture:

Any idea what he's spelling out? I think the next letter was a "C".

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MGM Mirage just made a significant change to their point system, They now give you one point for $4.50 coin in on video poker where they had previously given you a point for $3.00 coin in. This changes the free play from .33% back to .22%. Slot play is a point per $1.50 coin-in.

The MGM Mirage casinos in Vegas offer a lot of full-pay games, and are likely still a good choice if you're looking for a good gamble and good comps, but tighter is tighter.

On a positive note, they are offering double holiday gift shoppe points for all play from June 1 to August 31. These points can be redeemed for gifts or free play at the end of the year. Last year this offer was only during the month of August so they've added two full months to the promo. This would be a good time to plan your trip since you'll get the added benefit of double holiday points.

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Caesars' poker room just completed a WSOP circuit event that was a sizable $5,000 + $150 buy-in, with the $150 going to the house to pay for dealers, overhead, and yes, go to Harrah's profit as well.

Larger-than-life tournament pro Allen Cunningham won the event. I say larger-than-life because with his boyish looks and his subdued personality, he's had as much NLHE tournament success as just about anyone. He's either a machine, or a luckbox, or a combination of both. After all his successes, I'd have to go with the "machine" label.

Anyway, I know most of the dealers at Caesars. Some of them don't like me I'm sure. Most of them do, I hope. One came up to me in a bitter mood saying that Cunningham tipped nothing. He won a half-million dollars but left nothing for the dealers. This dealer was not all-too-pleased with it.

This is a difficult argument from all sides. The house charges a fee to play. Should the players still tip on top of the house take out? It's not the players' fault if the house decides to keep the majority and pay the dealers the minority, is it?

I'd say that the biggest detriments to being a professional gambler are three-fold. One is discipline. Two is taxes. Three is tips. Tips come right out of the bottom line, but in many cases, they're absolutely required. A professional gambler who never tips will have a much harder time in many instances.

So who's right? Should Cunningham have left $10,000? Think about that. That's enough to buy a small new car. And would that have been enough? Do the dealers expect 10% or $50,000? Some dealers may think that way.

What I find in gambling and tipping is that there is very rarely a number that is within reason for the gambler to tip that the dealers will also be happy with. In other words, if you tip what they expect, you'll never make any money. If you tip less than they expect, they'll hate you.

Some may say, "Let them hate me." But there are intangibles that come along. Let's say there's a dispute at the poker table that you're involved in and you're a known stiff. They might rule against you. Sure they gotta play by the book, but there are always subjective situations that come along. And while it may not apply to tournaments, if you play cash games, you may want to get in a juicy game that has a long waiting list, but if you're a known tipper, you might get in the game ahead of others.

I think the battle between professional gamblers and dealers concerning tips will be never-ending as long as they're allowed. I've heard in other countries, such as Australia, you are not allowed to tip the dealers and the dealers are paid a higher wage. This is probably the best way to keep your customers happy since there's no pressure on either side.

Question to you, if you had played this tournament and won $500,000, would you have left a tip? And if so, how much would you have left?

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This isn't going to be helpful to most people because it's at a small bar far West from the Strip (about 10 miles) and also because it's at very odd hours, but it's a good offer nonetheless of you can make it. The Lodge at Haulapai gives you $20 free when you put $20 in one of their video poker machines between 11 PM and 7 AM Sunday night to Monday morning.

I didn't go there Sunday night to get the $20. I went there because I was hungry and they have a pretty good menu. I put $20 in the machine so I could get free drinks and the bartender walked over and put another $20 in for me. I did have to fill out a little form with my name and address.

I ended up losing about 10 hands in a row, but I was still up and had $25 left when I was done. Always nice when you're losing on the game, but you still cash out a winner.

Another nice thing about this bar was that that they offer 7/5 Bonus Poker. While I would likely not play that game in a casino because casinos offer better paytables, it's a 98% game and one of the highest returning video poker games I've seen in a bar in Vegas. Most bars offer 97% and lower games.

So if you happen to be on the far west end of Vegas late on a Sunday night, and especially if you've got a small group where you can maximize the $20 bonus (get 4 or more people to each get $20 free), this is a nice stop for a nice edge over the house and a couple free drinks. The food is good here and the bartender was very friendly as well.

This is also a non-smoking establishment. Smokers have to go outside. So if you'd like some smoke-free air, this is probably a good choice as well.

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I must have walked by this restaurant 100 times in going to the Caesars sports book and the poker room. I had never eaten there as I just figured it was another Mexican restaurant in Vegas and the prices seemed pretty high. I didn't know what I was missing!

The first thing I did was get a $50 comp from the poker room. It turns out this only covered the drinks, but it was still a nice savings on the overall bill. Let me explain why it's so pricey.

For one, it's owned by a celebrity chef Bobby Flay. According to his Wikipedia page, Flay dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and started working making salads at a restaurant in New York that his father co-owned. The other owner was so impressed with Flay's natural ability that he paid for his tuition at the French Culinary Institute. Since then Flay has opened several critically acclaimed restaurants and has penned numerous top-selling cookbooks.

An even better reason for the higher prices is the extreme flavor of the dishes. In general, most Mexican restaurants I visit in Las Vegas have a menu that consists of many tasty but bland dishes. Mesa Grill is anything but bland. The dishes are individually potent with flavor.

To begin we tried two appetizers: the Yucatan Chicken Tacos with grilled red onion and a peanut-smoked chile-barbecue sauce, and the Goat Cheese "Queso Fundido" with rajas and blue corn tortillas. Here are a couple pics:

The chicken tacos were served with fresh mint and cilantro, roasted red onion, and a peanut sauce. These were bursting with flavor. The chicken is marinated and grilled, cut in strips, and is served on skewers. This is really nice because it makes it easy to make a taco. You don't have to fiddle with little pieces. Spread a little peanut sauce on the tortilla, add a little of the mint, cilantro, and onion, and then slide the chicken onto the tortilla and pull out the skewer. Quick, easy, and delicious.

The queso fundido was very cheesy and dense with flavor. At first, just try a little bit on a chip. Taste it and then wait a minute. You'll continue to taste it for the full 60 seconds. It's such a rich dish that this one tray could probably satisfy 4 or more people, but since there was only 2 of us, we went ahead and ate it all.

We then ordered only one entrée. Partly to keep the cost of dinner down a little and partly because neither of us is a big eater. We ordered the Green Chile Cioppino with lobster, scallops, snapper, and mussels served with a blue corn stick and scallion butter. Here's a pic:

This dish was $40 so when we received our plate we expected to see a bit more food on it. It was, however, very filling and delicious. The scallop was large and meaty. The lobster tail and the crab claw were meaty and easy to pull the meat from. The mussels were delicious. We wish there had been more green chile sauce because we both fought over spooning up the last bits of it. By the way, this dish is heavy on the garlic. I mean HEAVY.

Mesa Grill seems to take a special interest and pride in serving delicious and gorgeous drinks. We had the house margaritas which were among some of the best margaritas we've had anywhere in Las Vegas. They are $12 each, and since we each had 2, (for a total of 4) there went the $50 comp.

Here's the margarita, along with a house mai tai, a martini, and bartender Steve opening up a couple bottles of wine.

Note Steve's exuberance as well as the Chimay beer for those of you who are beer connoisseurs. They have a specialty beer list of 7 or 8 or so beers, of which the only I had ever heard of was Chimay.

We're not normally dessert eaters but in this case I had to order dessert for the sake of a complete review. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, they had a tantalizing dessert menu along with a dessert sampler where we could try 3 desserts for a fixed price. We went for the Warm Chocolate Cake with Dulce de leche and toasted pecan ice cream, the Burnt Orange Cheesecake with gingersnap crust and tangerine-tequila granita, and the Warm Caramel Pineapple Empanada with orange-pineapple ice cream and caramel-tequila sauce. Here's a pic:

Again, each morsel of each dessert was rich and flavorful. I'm running out of adjectives, but believe me, these were out-of-this-world. The chocolate was sweet but not too sweet, with a tasty bitter aftertaste. The citrusy cheescake had a crunchy crust and a creamy middle and was melt-in-your-mouth. The pineapple empanada was pineapple perfection.

It is important to note that this is not a Mexican restaurant in the traditional sense. This is Southwestern cuisine, which has some similarities to Mexican but is really quite unique in its own sense. For the complete menu, visit the Mesa Grill Web Site.

The total bill was $150 which is quite high I admit. Since I had the $50 comp, I left $125 total including tip. I don't think that it's possible to get out of this restaurant cheaply, but I do think you can leave here happy and satisfied. If you're into rich, bursting, unique flavors, you'd do well to make this a stop on your Vegas vacation.

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No... I don't expect you to want to eat a Golden Gate shrimp cocktail and a scoop of ice cream at the same time. That doesn't sound particularly appetizing. If you wanted to though, you could do both for a total of 99 cents.

I was reading one of my favorite news article aggregation sites, Fark.com, and it listed a link to a blog article about the recent price increase of the 99-cent shrimp cocktail at the Golden Gate. I was aware of the price increase but wanted to get that blogger's take on the matter. The link went to a site called NewsFromMe.com.

The blogger on that site gives his take on the price increase from 99-cents to $1.99. He does mention it's still 99 cents if you have a GG player's card, but then goes on to lament the increase and say that it's another indication of our recession economy. Well, that might be a little bit of a stretch.

He does go on to mention an interesting history of the Golden Gate of which I was not previously aware. According to him, the Golden Gate was originally the Hotel Nevada in 1903 and had the first phone number in Nevada. The phone number was 1. Also, the hotel was called the Sal Sagev for a while (Las Vegas backward). There are some other interesting facts as well.

Free Ice Cream

On a mostly unrelated note, the NewsFromMe.com site mentions another deal for today, April 29. You can get a free scoop of ice cream at participating Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops throughout the US and Canada. To find participating shops in your area, visit the Ben & Jerry's Web site.

Unfortunately, while the first scoop is free, you'd have to pay for the other 7 scoops.

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