Anybody looking to build a culture-friendly climate in Las Vegas won't get much help from the philistines at the Dogpatch Daily, er, Las Vegas Review-Journal. When Tony Award-winning songstress Christine Ebersole alighted last Saturday, the excellent Anthony Del Valle was dispatched to review her concert of Broadway standards. (His verdict: "sensitive ... simple, respectful")

So far, so good. Then the sleepy old Rip van R-J waited three days to run Del Valle's review. I did my fair share of "overnights" during my Twin Cities years, so I know the paper could have had it on the Web by Sunday or in print by Monday. And people wonder why newspapers are dying.

Given such glacial pacing, perhaps it's just as well the paper probably didn't review Sunday's presentation of Rossini's Stabat Mater at Guardian Angel Cathedral (in the shadow of Wynn Las Vegas). It was an admirable presentation of a difficult score -- especially considering that an organ had to substitute for the woodwind and horn parts -- and well-attended, too. That only comes as a surprise because performing-arts groups like this have to put their message out in the face of a gaping yawn of indifference from Bonanza Road.

At the Sun, editors with too much time on their hands end up writing this kind of dreck. Say, isn't there a disturbingly high rate of construction accidents about which you could be editorializing? (A comment like "as safe as possible given the volume of construction" [emphasis added] is particularly un-reassuring.)

Lanni speaks. To Jon Ralston. At length. Whether or not you agree with everything he says, it's a generous serving of food for thought.

Adelson's payday. Sure enough, the online grousing about his $3.1 million compensation package has begun. Heck, that's chicken feed -- really -- compared to what the CEO of America's worst airline gets for not letting the doorknob hit him in the butt. In view of how grossly overpaid most American CEOs are, the ones in the casino industry, while hardly practicing a monastic lifestyle, generally come at a bargain price.

And finally, just for laughs, it's ...

Another cutting-edge casino concept from the incomparable mind of Stanley Ho. Really, you can't make this stuff up. What can I say? It's so ... so ... so Baton Rouge.

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