Best of intentions

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Saturday, Dec. 31, 2005 | 7:05 a.m.

Perhaps the biggest reason visitors make New Year's resolutions in Las Vegas is, well, what happens here doesn't stay here. It goes home -- around midsections, on credit cards, in hangovers.

So go ahead -- locals and visitors alike -- pledge to run a marathon, climb the Himalayas or make 2006 the year you finally become the person you know, in your heart of hearts, you can be.

Fuhgeddaboudit.

Trust us on this one. If you're hanging around Las Vegas, it's more likely that Paris Hilton will earn a Ph.D. than your resolutions will graduate into 2007.

Take, for example, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a man not known for caution.

"Every day that I have I live it to the fullest," he told Playboy this year during his turn as a celebrity photographer. "I drink to excess, I gamble with both fists, and when I eat, I eat like a gourmand. I can do whatever I want, I'm the mayor."

Now that's a resolution that Las Vegas loves. The town was built on eat, drink and be merry.

Getting in shape, quitting smoking and paying off debts have long led the nation's list of most popular New Year's resolutions, according to the Gallup Poll. (Getting out of shape, smoking and spending are what people do here. Resolving not to do it again is what they do on their way out of town.)

While people pledge to do better, polls show fewer than one in five manage to keep up their resolutions for two years.

In Las Vegas, the odds are worse.

Tourist Dave Casella, who plans to make losing weight his New Year's resolution, knows he won't be able to tackle that until he's safe at home in New Britain, Conn.

His wife, Cindy, affectionately patted her husband's stomach and noted, "It's hard to do here with all the buffets."

If you want to quit breaking your resolutions, you could quit making them. Or you could make better resolutions, as some of the more prominent in the valley have.

Says Strip comedian Rita Rudner: "In 2006 I resolve to floss between my toes."

We'll believe her on this.

Strip entertainer Danny Gans' promise: "My New Year's resolution is to try to embrace the knowledge that happiness is not a destination but rather the journey before us."

We embrace the knowledge that we have no idea what this means, so that should hold up.

Gov. Kenny Guinn keeps it simple. He said he typically makes just one New Year's resolution and -- unlike most Americans -- sticks to it.

"I'm going to wish for a very enjoyable eighth year of my eight-year term," Guinn said. "I'm going to really enjoy my last year of being governor. I won't have to prepare a new budget or get ready for the next (legislative) session."

An enjoyable year? That's a no-brainer. Happiness is not a destination, it's a year without the Legislature.

Many people see New Year's resolutions as a way to force change and bring something new into the new year.

That was news to 8-year-old Omar Edwards and his sister, who were visiting Las Vegas this week from Sacramento with their mother, Charmaine.

Charmaine Edwards, who resolved to "live life to the fullest," told her son that a resolution "is something you want to happen."

Omar, who after some careful consideration resolved to do better in school, will learn that to get something you want you have to work at it.

Goodman knows that.

While his official resolution is to love his wife "even more than I love her today," he's got another resolution waiting for him.

A few years ago, the mayor pledged to lose weight and he did -- dropping 35 pounds.

It's all back.

"In the next week or so I will make another pledge to get back in shape," Goodman said. "And when I make a pledge, I keep it. I never break them."

For the rest of us, Las Vegas stands ready, 24/7, to help break -- and make -- resolutions.

Emily Richmond can be reached at 259-8829 or at emily@lasvegassun.com.