A Brief Visit to Hooters and the MGM

Day 10 in Las Vegas
The Coffee Bean, on my favorite black couch

I walked through the Hooters Casino this afternoon. It's a rather casual, no-frills, kind of place when compared to the glitz of the MGM across the street. The word for Hooters that comes to mind is "unkempt", like a child's room that is messy and needs a good cleaning. I suppose that's an unfair judgement since Hooters doesn't claim to reach out to the high class clients of the more glamorous properties, so I shouldn't compare them. I'm just taking note of the little details I notice when I walk through a property.

For example, the first thing I noticed at Hooters was in the elevator. You can usually tell the class of a joint by its elevators and its bathrooms. The garage elevator at Hooters had lights knocked out and graffiti stains. In addition, it shook and rattled and noisily made its journey from the third level downward where it finally deposited me safely on the casino floor.

I don't want to be overly judgemental about Hooters. It's just an observation of the little things, the things that add up to an overall impression of a place.

When I walked across the street to the MGM, of course, I encountered a completely different world. Again it's unfair to compare the MGM to the Hooters, so I will not.

The lions at the MGM were feisty and putting on a show for a nice crowd huddled around the glass cage. I felt sorry for the lions. What must life be like for them? Created for the wild, to be masters of their domain, to conquer nature as one of the grandest beasts in the land. I could almost see in the eyes of one lion a sense of doom, a sense of resignation and defeat as if to say, "How the hell did I end up here in a glass case as show fodder for a bunch of tourists?"

As I walked around and observed the crowds and watched a few hands of poker in the pit I felt like I was in a glass case. Is someone watching me?

On my way back to Summerlin, a radio news report said that billionaire investor Carl Icahn advises the MGM Mirage to file bankruptcy and reorganize their $13 billion debt. No wonder the lion looked so sad.