We Got Class

Watch Out Big Apple Core

One of my favorite movies is "The New Centurions" with George C. Scott. The story is about police and how they do their duty. In one scene a group of hookers is being loaded into a paddy wagon roughly and unceremoniously by a racist, sexist, crude cop. One of the girls turns to him and says, "This ain't right the way you treat us. We is mother %*&#-en LADIES."

Although the movie is not set in Las Vegas, our town is often painted as a place of no culture or class. Over the past couple of decades the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority as well as the Chamber of Commerce and many hotel owners have worked hard to overcome that image. UNLV has become a respectable institution known for more than a good basketball team. It boasts with of the top two colleges of hotel administration in the country. Hotels strive to reach top rankings and it is beginning to show.

Travel club AAA recently released its list of Five-Diamond Award winners. The Venetian hit the jackpot with its first such award, and joins Wynn LAs Vegas (second year), Skylofts at the MGM Grand (second year), Bellagio (seventh year), and Four Seasons (ninth year) for a total of five Five Diamond hotels.Restaurants that received the award include the MGM's Joel Robuchon (second year) Alex at the Wynn (third year) and Le Cirque (fifth year) and Picasso (seventh year) both at the Bellagio.

That gives Las Vegas nine Five Diamond winners, a feat equaled only by New York with four times the population. If a diamond is a girl's best friend, five of them make grown hotel and restaurant owners quiver.

Dr. Forgot