Vegas

I flew into Las Vegas last night on business. I have never been here before. The plane touched down about 9:30 p.m. and the flight attendant announced the the outside temp was 99 degrees Farenheit. I looked out the window. Ninety Nine degrees and no trees. I wasn't in New Hampshire any more.

I hopped the shuttle to the Luxor. I looked around a bit as I rode along.

Vegas is ridiculous.

Vegas could only exist in America.

In fact, I think that Vegas is a powerful and concentrated distillation of a certain strain of American culture. It is at once amazing and (to me) slightly repulsive. It is so completely over the top, so absolutely contrived, so artificial and stimulating and....I'm not sure what. It is a sleight of hand practiced on monumental scale. At a certain level, you have to appreciate the genius of it, but...damn.

And I really haven't seen that much of it. I've been working mostly, and trying not to spend much money. Not much to do here without spending money. That's part of the genius. That's why it could only exist in America.

So I am sitting outside Krispy Kreme inside the Excalibur shopping gallery, logged onto the Krispy Kreme wireless network, passing the time until my shuttle bus takes me to my red eye flight home.

I really love America. What a country!