Someone once wrote about Las Vegas that it was a town with a pulse, but no heart. It's true.
I like to write about people behaving badly. The thought never occurred to me when I lived in SF, but after moving to Vegas, since people behaving badly are such a common occurrence, it only seemed natural that I would start this blog.
The worst people I have known live in Las Vegas. Long-time La Blogda readers may remember Chickpea, a co-worker who is now making folks at some other company miserable. I think of him still, from time-to-time and I wonder what made him such a control freak, such a schoolyard bully. The man is pushing sixty, and I once heard him say to someone, "I know I am but what are you?"
Yesterday, I was driving down West Charleston, and a man pulled out of a shopping center to make it across the center divide. Traffic was coming the other way, so he was stuck and ended up blocking traffic in our direction. A few people nearly slammed into each other, every one honked, there was much malaise and anger all because of one dumb made. He pulled out into traffic because he was determined not to wait. His ego, his temerity, put himself above the other massive amounts of drivers. If he had to wait, we wall did. A block up the road further, traffic started to back up because an impatient red-light runner had slammed into a small compact car. He couldn't wait, this red-light runner. His life, his time, was more important than the safety of others.
Vegas is a town where if you err, other's pay the price. It's a town where people seem to delight or not care if their actions annoy, inconvenience, or even harm others. People are transients here for a reason: their other town, or towns, have run them out. Maybe not directly, but they couldn't find work, or friends, or peace, so they come here, thinking they will get rich quick, eat all the food they want, drink and smoke 24/7, and live cheaply in nice homes for the money, all the while saving money because there are no state taxes. It sounds like heaven, but heaven doesn't have scorched earth.
On the bright side, there's another saying about Vegas: Ain't never too late for breakfast or too early for a drink.
