Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Scott Dickensheets:

We do have some things to be thankful for

Look around. Unemployment, foreclosures, budget crisis — you know the grim litany of Las Vegas woes by now. So, with next week’s holiday in mind, it’s fair to ask, what do we have to be thankful for?

I happen to have a little list:

• That the Runnin’ Rebels are, as of this writing, 2-0 (4-0 if you count exhibition games). Aside from a monster second-half comeback by the economy, there’s no better mood elevator for our civic life than a romping, successful season by Lon Kruger’s squad.

• This headline (from the other paper): “City of Las Vegas’ financial picture sees improvement.” What it really means is that the city won’t lose as much as it predicted. It’s a Thanksgiving miracle! Said the city’s finance director, “This is getting in the range of something that is workable and manageable for us.”

• That John Ensign plans to run for a third term. “All I can do is just do my job and present my case to Nevadans, and see what they think,” he told Politico. (Translation: I’m just trying to get in the range of something that is workable and manageable.) Sure, Ensign may be cowled in richly deserved shame, possibly facing ethical charges and is so clearly a weasel he’s probably been ear-tagged by the Forest Service. But at least he’s doing his part to ensure that the next election is as sideshow-lively as the last one. That’s govertainment!

• That, according to published reports, Ensign enjoys a 71 percent approval rating among Nevada conservatives. At last, the right has given up on that whole “family values” thing they used to tout.

• That there are three books of local interest that’ll help you fight the traditional Thanksgiving drowsiness caused by tryptophan and bad football: “Dead Neon: Tales of Near-Future Las Vegas” (edited by Todd James Pierce and Jarret Keene), 14 tales that re-imagine this city in several possible futures; “The Perpetual Engine of Hope” (edited by Geoff Schumacher), a collection of short stories based on iconic Vegas photos; and “My Week at the Blue Angel,” Matt O’Brien’s collection of nonfiction pieces about this city, centerpieced by the long title essay, set at the famous downtown motel.

• Events like this: Sunday at 7:15 p.m. in the Lululemon store at the Fashion Show mall, Cheryl Slader of Blue Sky Yoga will lead a yoga class, so you can get your bend on, after which she and the participants will stuff bags for the homeless. It’s open to the public. If you can, take a few items of general use by the homeless (pop-top cans of food, Band-Aids); if you can’t, attend anyway and stuff a few bags.

• That Harry Reid might actually use the lame-duck congressional session to push reform of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and has said he’ll introduce the DREAM Act citizenship legislation, as a stand-alone bill.

• That the Tea Party kindly marshaled its resources to re-elect Harry Reid.

• That terrific local fiction writer Alissa Nutting (her new short story collection: “Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls”) will give a reading at 7 p.m. Nov. 30, at UNLV’s Greenspun Hall. Alissa, what can people expect? “A night of unusual ghost stories,” she says, “featuring filicidal grandmothers, fathers made of water, and cigarettes made of hair.” She had me at “filicidal grandmothers.”

• That, when our other perpetual engine of hope, the Nevada Legislature, convenes in February, “There are no sacred cows in 2011,” freshman lawmaker Ben Kieckhefer told the Nevada Appeal. That is a sensible, utterly necessary approach that I predict will last all the way until someone actually threatens a sacred cow.

• That the feds have approved a 500-megawatt solar energy facility between Beatty and Pahrump. Jobs. Sustainable energy.

• That David Wrobel, chairman of UNLV’s history department, will spend 90 minutes of his Sunday afternoon patiently explaining “The Battle Over Liberal and Conservative Ideas.” (2 p.m., Las Vegas Library.) Highly recommended for anyone interested in political facts as opposed to dressed-up talking points. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding a seat.

• That home prices in Las Vegas are likely to fall 16 percent by next June and then another 7 percent in early 2012 before ... whoa, wait, sorry. That’s left over from the Halloween list.

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