Question of the Day - 22 July 2010

This poll generated such voluminous, candid, and useful feedback that we decided to run as many of your responses as we could as consecutive QoDs today and tomorrow. Thanks so much for all of your emails – there are plenty of sound lessons to be learned from all your mistakes and regrets (all too many of which we've made ourselves). Thank you again for sharing:

• "Drinking too much & making an ass out of myself."

• "This isn't my biggest regret (and honestly, I don't think any of my regrets about any Vegas trip qualify as big), but I am sending this as a counter to one of your options. One of my regrets from a few trips is renting a car for the duration of a trip and leaving it parked at the hotel from the time I checked in, until the time I checked out. If you have a specific activity in mind for your trip that requires having a car, rent a car. Otherwise, take a taxi, bus, Monorail, free shuttle, walk, whatever."

• "How 'bout taking more/any pictures?!"

• "1. Getting sucked into attending one of those horrible vacation-condo 3 hour sales pitches. This happened on our first trip to Vegas about 9 years ago. (Didn't buy.)

  "2. Not going to the Siegfried & Roy show. The next year the cat bit Roy and the show was canceled.   "3. Attending a Wayne Newton Concert (several years ago). Poor Wayne's voice is shot.   "4. A really bad buffet experience at the Sahara (don't ask)."

• "Getting sucked into one of those awful timeshares. In other words, paying out of our backside and a freaking whole lot of money for two awful buffets and a lousy B-rated show with people acting like they were the real thing. When now we get comps for rooms at the casino and we know we don't even need, or even use, that lame-arse time share, but we're still paying on the dang thing & with the maintenance fee at close to $800, yes, the stupidest mistake I ever made, not only in Vegas, but EVER!!!"

• "Reached into the wrong pocket to tip the bellman and gave him the gambling money I had put away for that day."

• "Several trips to Vegas and didn't make it to one of Danny Gans' shows...and had planned to see him on our next trip when the news of his untimely death came. Is there a DVD of his show that is for sale, and if so, how do we get one?" [Ed: Not that we've been able to find, but there is an email sign-up option on his site to register for updates about when a DVD is available.]

• "I chose 'didn't see it before it was gone' and have a specific regret in that vote.   "There are no doubt many places in Las Vegas history that are missed by a few, but I've never heard anyplace mentioned as much as the Stardust. Whether the mob connection, the sports book, the whatever, the 'Dust seemed to cast a spell on the people that visited her. Call me plain stupid, but I missed my chance to visit her not once, but several times before she was closed for good.   "Other great icons of the Strip are gone but have been magnificently replaced (Wynn for Desert Inn, Bellagio for Dunes, and Venetian for Sands), but the 'Dust is, well dust, and that's a damn shame for folks like me that never got a chance to visit."

• "Outlet shopping to the point where you have to pay extra for the suitcase full of stuff you bought."

• "I spent more money than I could afford and THEN made the BIG mistake of going to the CASH Machine and getting "ripped" off by their exorbitant cash back rates on my credit card. Took me over a year to pay back the money, they so graciously let me borrow. Stupid, Stupid Move!!! "

• "21 years old, young and foolish. I fell in love in April with a girl 600 miles away. Moved in with her in June. Her mom said she didn't want her daughter living in sin, so we showed her! Got married in July [Ed: presumably at a Vegas chapel?].   "Then we realized we hated each other. Separated in August.   "This was in 1989. It took awhile, but instead of a 'horrible mistake,' it became 'an immature fling.' At least I got to see Louie Anderson and Marilyn McCoo at the Desert Inn!"

That's Part I of your feedback; tune in for Part II tomorrow!

Thanks to the reader who wrote in with this tip: "One of the posted poll write-ins asked about a Danny Gans DVD. The Mirage did sell them while he was still performing. I have one of those. I'm not offering it for sale, but if the person asks around, they might be able to find one for sale."