meadows of sand and glass
"Las Vegas" means "The Meadows" en Espanol, and yet there are no naturally occurring meadows here. Whatever lush vegetation you'd find is by necessity artificial--designed, manicured, and fed by water pumped in from elsewhere. The only natural things here are the sand and the heat.
Bugsy Siegel and a few other entrepreneurial crooks turned this inhospitable valley of burning sand into a neon-and-glass cathedral to the Money God. And for every hundred fools who come here with dreams of making it rich, ninety-nine of them leave poorer.
A crowd of mourners is gathered outside the hospital where aging queen Roy Horn of "Siegfried and Roy" fame lies in critical condition after nearly being pawed to death by one of his beloved tigers Friday night. Though no one else dares mention it, there's poetry in the fact that a wild beast finally stood up and tore into something so thoroughly plastic.
