Question of the Day - 15 August 2021

As reported in the QoD posted in May, the Las Vegas Miser was a popular Las Vegas Advisor feature way back in the '90s. It was, obviously, a spoof on, and rhymed with, the Las Vegas Advisor and it took Couponomy and the bargain focus of the newsletter to an often-illogical and always-amusing extreme. We also, for the first time in all these years, identified the Miser as Anthony Curtis' younger brother Erik. 

Thanks for asking for some Miser observations on Las Vegas. It gave us a chance to revisit (brush a lot of dust off) some early issues of LVA. Here are the highlights. 

The Miser's first contribution was in Volume 2 Number 1 of the Advisor, the April 1984 issue. Among advice about never playing a "no-armed" bandit or at a roulette table where the dealer places the ball after the wheel stops spinning, there was this little ditty about tipping washroom attendants: "Tip if they smile/But not too much/Tip if they help/But not if they touch."

Fast forward to the December 1992 issue. The Miser had just finished reading the "latest" issue of the LVA to find news about the Landmark, Silver Slipper, and Marina -- "three extinct casinos and information as old as Paleolithic man! Who's writing this stuff? Elvis?" Then he looked at the masthead. November 1987. "Whoa! Guess that's what you get with the post office's bulk rate. And I thought I was a miser!"

In October 1993, the Miser wrote about attending the wedding of two popular Las Vegas illusionists at the time, Lance Burton and Melinda Saxe. He wasn't invited; he crashed by wrapping a gift and handing it to the usher when he walked into the reception. "The bride wore a white Houdini straight jacket. The groom wore a black box." He then "levitated over shrimp scampi, et two Caesars salads, made some wedding cake disappear up his sleeve, and poof! Gone." As for that gift, it was an empty box. "That way, when they open it up, they'll give each other sly looks and say, "C'mon. Put it back." 

The May 1994 column was shortly after Max Rubin's Comp City was released, in which Max describes how to get the "whole magillah." The Miser asked the floorman, "Hey man, how long do I have to sit here to get the magillah?" The floorman responded, "Um ..." "Do you have the power of the magillah?" the Miser continued. "If so, give me the magillah." They all had a good laugh -- then the floorman gave him a hat. "As I always say," the Miser concluded, "one man's hat is another man's magillah."

Finally, the Miser's last contribution was for the March 1997 issue, with a few "Miser's Secrets." Our favorite: "The best place to find money is directly below the Stratosphere's Space Shot ride. It's also the best place to find what the Stratosphere restaurants serve."