Dear Zappos employee: Downtown tips for suburbanites on the move

1. Don’t complain about the heat

Don’t complain about the heat. No exceptions. This is Las Vegas, not the rest of the country where complaining about the weather is natural. So what if generations of Southerners have griped about their region’s heat and humidity, yet embraced them in song and literature? Complaining about heat in Las Vegas can be construed as an affront to the city and its native people. Chances are you have moved here from a place where complaining about the wind (Chicago or San Francisco) or the cold (a state in the upper Midwest where minus-20-degree days last most of the year, broken only by one month of soul-killing humidity) is commonplace. That was there. This is here. You can take the heat. You like the heat.

2. Verboten: Mindy Kaling

Actress Mindy Kaling is not welcome downtown without a tour guide. If you need to ask, don’t. Just Google Mindy Kaling and Luv-It Frozen Custard. Or read this Las Vegas Sun story.

3. Natives vs. outsiders

Natives vs. outsiders: You will likely hear these terms often. A native is someone born in Las Vegas. An outsider is someone who has moved to Southern Nevada in the past 20 years or the past 20 hours (some don’t distinguish between the two). The rivalries between downtowners and suburbanites and long-timers and short-timers have created a strange concoction of McCarthyism, Warren Jeffsism and Bush-era patriotism wafting from downtown conversations.

“Outsiders” is a term used frequently for writers who live elsewhere but report on Las Vegas’ economy and culture. Sometimes their reports are false and lazy, and we respond with our own stories. Other times the stories are well-researched and accurate, but you must speak out against them anyway. If a mall on the Strip is habitually empty of shoppers and someone from another city reports that, mentally stone them with evil thoughts.

Mainly, remember that if you are not born here, you are an outsider. You have no legitimate argument. Learn to live with it.

4. Sip it, don't gulp it, at Bar + Bistro

Sip, don’t gulp, the Margorilla at Bar + Bistro. Don’t underestimate the might of this dangerously delicious alcoholic beverage. Drinking too much too quickly could lead to a fall down a concrete staircase and a day of bed rest with bags of frozen edamame on your lower back and head.

5. Hate on the 'burbs

Publicly deride suburban gated neighborhoods and share stories about how you accidentally followed a car into a neighborhood that looks just like yours on your way home from a long day at the office (which some of us have actually done). In fact, move downtown and say goodbye to those crazy gates altogether. The only things gated in your new ’hood are the parks — Boulder Plaza Sculpture Park, Neon Boneyard Park and, figuratively, Huntridge Circle Park. (We just can’t have nice things!)