Today's Review-Journal has a nice piece reprising the career of outgoing Harrah's Entertainment Vice Chairman Charles Atwood. It's quite a record of accomplishment. OK, the London Clubs purchase was a $570 million dice throw that didn't come up boxcars, but that was largely due to circumstances beyond Harrah's control: Namely, the Tony Blair administration's hapless and at times witless attempt to implement casino expansion in the U.K.

The story does drop one hint at what might have impelled Atwood's decision to leave: "His last big project was securing a contract in August to develop and manage a state-owned casino in south central Kansas." Contract duly secured, Harrah's pulled the plug on Kansas, so perhaps Atwood felt he'd lost face ... or just had one of those last-straw moments where your job ceases to be enjoyable. His Sunflower State efforts having gone for naught, maybe Atwood saw that, wherever his future lay, Harrah's wasn't it.

Charles Atwood's next project ... and it's not Harrah's Kansas.

Atwood's next priority is downtown Vegas's Smith Center for the Performing Arts. I've heard some grumbling about frivolous spending connected with that project (although the dollar figure cited by the R-J overestimates the cost by $160 million). If that's been the case, surely Atwood can bring that old-school Harrah's efficiency to bear.

Sherm Frederick is actually onto something when he opines that the Las Vegas Strip is ripe for deconsolidation. (And while we're on the subject, why was it ever a good idea to allow the Strip to devolve into a virtual duopoly?) One-offs Sahara and Riviera continue to eke out a bargain-niche existence a full decade after people were pronouncing them all but finished. I know: It was one of the first stories I wrote after I hit town, 10 years ago next month.

Unfortunately, Frederick sabotages his premise by indulging in uninformed speculation at its worst. Or by lauding Station Casinos for its "best management" practices. Once upon a time, yes. But was it smart to steer the company into a $5 $8.8 billion LBO? Or to spend an aggregate $1.5 billion-plus on two vanity-palace locals casinos? (You could build six Eastside Cannerys with that money and have spare change.) Or to announce -- and then pull back from -- Durango Station and the $10 billion Viva in the teeth of a recession? And "guaranteed play" machines? Those really took off, didn't they?

Maybe if Station hadn't been breaking the bank on "Jerusalem Gold stone, natural limestone and oxidized iron and copper" (as described in the R-J's 16-page panegyric to Aliante Station), it wouldn't have to outsource hotel reservationists' jobs overseas. Or welsh indefinitely on its contributions to employees' 401(k) plans. In defense of the latter, Trump Entertainment Resorts -- not necessarily a firm you want to emulate -- is also doing it and companies bigger than Station haven't ruled it out. As for the former, this customer has been outsourcing his discretionary dollars to other locals casinos since that news broke. If you're sitting a "DaVinci Diamonds" machine in a Station property, wondering where the heck your gin-and-tonic is, it's probably being mixed in Rawalpindi.

This just in: Station got a kick in the pants from its bondholders, who don't care for the terms of a proposed debt exchange. Sayeth Reuters, this "leaves the casino operator in a precarious position and could result in the company tripping terms in its bank loans, which could lead the company to file for bankruptcy protection, said Barbara Cappaert, analyst at KDP Investment Advisors."

Gee, what's not to like about getting 20 cents on the dollar for your Station Casinos debt, if you're a subordinate debtor? These are tough times, man. Just think about Frank III and Lorenzo Fertitta, laboring to make ends meet on an aggregate 2007 pay package of $292 million.