Last year I read in a gambling magazine that the Stratosphere is the only casino on the Strip that is in the Las Vegas city limits. I have not been able to find the city-limit boundaries. Can you shed some light on this?

The Las Vegas Valley is prone to flash floods. Have there been instances where transients were washed out of or drowned in the elaborate storm-drain system?

My question is about slot machines. Thirty years ago when I first started vacationing in Las Vegas, slots were little more than an afterthought, exiled to the far corner of the casino where little old ladies with coin buckets and dirty fingers pulled handles and went cross-eyed from watching the reels spin. Today, they occupy well more than half the casino. To what do you attribute the increase in the popularity of machine games?

Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm being watched from the catwalks above me when I'm gambling. What can you tell me about how often the eyes above are actually paying any attention and what areas do they watch the most. It seems to me they would be more interested in the table games where cheating is more possible.

The famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign is such a symbol and easily recognized as an icon of the city. Has it (or its less famous Welcome to Downtown sign) ever been involved in any type of accident or damaged? I know when I visited at the beginning of October they were working on a parking lot to keep picture takers safe, but I just wonder about the possibilty of crime involving the sign.

In your answer for QoD 11/12/08 you used the term 86'd. What does that mean and were did it originate?

Years ago, my girlfriend (now wife) and I had our picture taken by a passerby in Las Vegas in front of a sign that read, "Free Aspirin & Tender Sympathy." Where was that sign and is it still there?

We just returned from a stay at the Palazzo. I remember watching it being built from our room at the Wynn and the lot looked pretty small. Can you tell me what used to occupy that space? And how does the size of Palazzo’s space compare to other hotels on the Strip?

In the Today's News section on 9/19 you referenced the NGC's Black Book. The new entry to the book was for #36. If this book is for slot cheats it seems that there should be way more names than 36. What is this Black Book and how do you get into it? (Not that I want to get in it!) Thanks.

A large group of us (15) are meeting in Vegas and want to have dinner at an old-school Rat Pack-style Italian restaurant with large tables, great spaghetti, and killer martinis. Suggestions?