Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Living Las Vegas:

Las Vegas marks 12/12/12 in 12 ways

Las Vegas Strip

Steve Marcus

A view of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

Enjoy Dec. 12, 2012 — or 12/12/12 — while it lasts. It will mark the last time all three numerals in a date are the same for the next 80-some years.

On this 12th day of the 12th month in 2012, Las Vegas is paying special attention to all things 12. Here are a dozen:

  • Morning show host Andy Kay obtained his ministry certificate online last year and will be performing part of the 12-12-12 mass wedding ceremony, while co-hosts Craig Williams and Al Miller are serving as the witnesses.

    Weddings

    Last year, the morning show crew at KOMP 92.3-FM decided it would be fun to hold a mass wedding on 11/11/11. It worked out so well, the crew will marry 12 couples today at the Chapel of the Flowers. Morning show host Andy Kay obtained his ministry certificate online last year and will be performing part of the ceremony; co-hosts Craig Williams and Al Miller are serving as the witnesses. Approximately 50 couples applied to be part of the mass wedding, KOMP Marketing and Promotions Director Julie Flynn said. All of the selected couples are from Nevada, and the majority are from Las Vegas. Each receives a special package, including flowers, photography, live Internet broadcasting of the ceremony, a room at the D Las Vegas and two tickets to the show “Marriage Can Be Murder.” After the mass wedding, KOMP will host a reception at the D with a wedding cake, live band and Champagne toast.

  • Player rewards

    Several Las Vegas casinos will offer gaming specials playing to the date 12/12/12. Boyd Gaming’s Sun Coast, Gold Coast, Sam’s Town and Orleans casinos are offering 12-times player rewards points on slot machines today. Arizona Charlie's is giving away $12 in free slot play for every 1,200 base points on its players card — after 12:01 a.m., of course.

  • Chris Francis (12) pushes the puck ahead after slipping underneath the check of Aces defenseman William Wrenn during Friday night ECHL hockey action at the Orleans Arena.

    Hockey

    Chris Francis doesn’t draw much symbolism or significance in the 12 displayed on his Las Vegas Wranglers sweater. It’s just the number Francis was assigned when he started playing professionally with the Portland Winter Hawks in 2006-07.

    “It was my number for four years in Portland when I played in the Western Hockey League,” explained Francis, a Las Vegas native.

    The Wranglers continue a two-game series at Colorado tonight, and a hat trick by No. 12 would give Francis a team-leading 12 goals on the year.

  • Frank Sinatra.

    Ol’ Blue Eyes’ birthday

    Where 12/12 birthdays are concerned, there’s one celebrity with a huge Las Vegas past who stands out among the others. The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, was born Dec. 12, 1915, in Hoboken, N.J. Had the famed leader of the Rat Pack still been alive, he would have celebrated his 97th birthday today.

  • M-I-Z Z-O-U

    Feeling especially lucky? Lay a bet on the nation’s No. 12-ranked men’s college basketball team, the University of Missouri, to win the NCAA title. The odds of the Tigers taking it all are 35-1. But be warned: Mizzou has never been to the men’s Final Four.

  • A dozen roses

    The traditional dozen stems that make up a bouquet of roses are based off the number 12, which appears throughout history, mythology and religion, often representing the idea of completeness. But for Eugene Godina and the staff at the local chain of Tiger Lily Flower Shops, roses come arranged in bunches of 12 for much more practical reasons.

    “They come to us packed in bunches of 25,” the flower shop general manager said. “There’s two dozen, and there’s always one extra in case of breakage.”

    A dozen arranged roses normally costs $65 at one of Tiger Lily’s Flower Shops' three valley locations, but Godina said the uniqueness of 12/12/12 might warrant a sale.

    “We hadn’t thought of that, we’ve been so focused on the weddings,” Godina said, noting the shop is providing flowers for 10 weddings today. “But with Facebook and social media, it might be something we throw up there.”

  • 12 Red

    There might be a lot of bets placed on 12 at the roulette tables around town today. Odds are 1 in 37 that you’ll hit 12 on one spin of the roulette. But it pays out 35-1. The difference is the house edge: 5.3 percent.

  • Rodeo cowboy

    Tuf Cooper of Decatur, Texas, is wearing the number 12 during this year’s 10-day National Finals Rodeo run in Las Vegas. Cooper said it’ll be “kinda cool” to be wearing No. 12 when he competes Dec. 12, 2012 — for more than just the obvious reason.

    “When I was about 10 years old, I can remember always writing or drawing ‘2012 World Champion Cowboy’ on everything,” said Cooper, who has won the tie-down roping competition on two of the first five nights of the rodeo. “I never wrote 2011 or 2015. … it was always 2012.”

    Cooper’s agent, Shawn Wiese, said he joked with his client earlier this month that the number 12 was too high.

    “Numbers are based on the money they’ve won,” Wiese said. “I told him he needs to be a four or a five.”

  • Boxcars

    There’s only one way to roll a 12 on the craps table — six and six, affectionately known as boxcars, midnight or cornrows. If you’re feeling lucky about 12 on this day and you’re tossing the dice, the payoff on the single-roll proposition bet on a 12 is 30:1.

  • Colorado's Andre Roberson, left, and Colorado's Carlon Brown, right, are greeted by teammates during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Oregon at the Pac-12 conference championship in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 8, 2012.

    The Pac 12

    The Pac-12 Conference basketball tournament isn’t until March 13-16 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, but conference officials are getting in the 12/12/12 spirit by offering $12 single-session tickets to select tourney games. The 12-hour promotion is available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. today online at Ticketmaster’s Las Vegas ticket site.

  • Flemming Pedersen, 57, prepares pastries for a party in his shop located at 7 South Water St. in Henderson. He'll be busy on Wednesday preparing wedding cakes and other confectionery creations for12-12-12.

    A baker’s dozen

    You might think an enterprising bakery would offer some sort of deal on a dozen donuts today. But Henderson bakery owner Flemming Pedersen already has a lot of extra business lined up for the day. He’s got five wedding cake orders to fill — usually unheard of for a Wednesday — and he has hundreds of pastries to concoct for six parties. The reason: 12/12/12. Chef Flemming’s Bake Shop, 7 S. Water St. in Henderson, will double its staffers to four and increase its number of interns from two to five to meet the day’s demands.

  • Weekly Fling @ Rhumbar | 26 July 2011

    Food and drink

    Look for food and drink specials related to 12/12/12 throughout the valley. Among them: Rhumbar at the Mirage will have drink specials for 12 hours, from noon to midnight; Cabo Wabo Cantina in the Miracle Mile Shops will have beer and food specials; and Ranch House Kitchen in Town Square will have food and drink specials.

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