Vegas Cirque on 3-D Coming

AVATAR creator James Cameron is planning a 3-D movie featuring a story line with gobs of Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil acrobats involved. Planned for 2011.

Baccarat Bed Bug

I am the baccarat bed bug v. Las Vegas.

I invade LV high rollers through their greed door.

I continue to defy the recession by drawing gamblers willing to part with a fortune on a simple game that takes no strategy- no more than a coin toss. The house juice is only 1.1 % vs about 2 % black jack but the game generates tremendous revenue for the casinos.

I create mystique. Exclusivity. Minimum bet per hand $25,000, max $600,000 . A college education. Players build a high fix with these stakes.

Now new Asian casinos need baccarat bed bugs too.

Run Turkey, Run

PIMCO'S Bill Gross writes a scathing critique of the present state of American politics and cautioned investors on the outlook for the economy in anticipation of QE 2 easing.

Go to Pimco Investment Letter November 2010.

Hawaii Peace Corp

As I was ready to exit the Federal Prison dentist position, I was juiced to stay. I had been industrious and inventive, appreciated by staff and inmates alike.

They offered my family a transfer to Hawaii to care for the people in the Peace Corp, coming and going.

HMMM. I was already a Lt Cmdr in rank and in just 16 more years I could retire at half pay and trumpets. For life.

I sought the advise of a dentist friend who retired after 14 yrs with the USPHS with only 6 yrs to go until early RT.

He said, "Ron, the flowers end at about year 12, then they believe one is trapped. Bad transfers occur. The orchids of Hawaii become the weeds of Alcatraz."

Twofers for MR J

99+% of my 25 years of recreational basketball play was pick up, shirts vs skins, mainly on M & Th nights, beginning in Denver. The few leagues we played in we were consistent winners and were formed from players who played rec ball together.

So I have been blessed with many friends from basketball play.

One of my buds, a CPA, great guy was getting married, Mr. J ("MJ"). His bride to be arranged a party so that her friends could meet MJ.

It sounded that he was marrying upscale as her papa owned the most sheep in North Dakota.

Well, the meeting was held in a watering hole in down town Denver. Happy hour was in effect so everyone buying a drink or a slammer for MJ brought him two more to imbibe.

During a lull, MJ disappeared. Finally somebody inquired, "Where's J ?"

They soon found him slumped over, sitting in a bathroom stall, an obvious victim of Acute Alcoholic Induced Diarrhea.

But there was a problem. He hadn't pulled his pants down.

The 911 called paramedics soon arrived and carted him past the well wishers.

He is remembered by the phrase PARTY POOPER !!

"FLASH-CRASH" Ruse Exposed

Meet the "FLASH-CRASH" scapegoat. A report by regulators blamed May's spectacular market break on a single trade by a single "mutual fund complex" identified in the press as Waddell & Reed.

This was as ludicrous as blaming Mrs. O'Leary's cow rather than lax building codes for the Great Chicago Fire. The official explanation of the May 6 tumult, which saw the Dow plunge by nearly 1,000 points before largely recovering, does not hold up beyond a reasonable doubt.

In fact, the jargon-encrusted back pages of the report suggest that far greater damage was inflicted on investors that day by their brokerage firms. The brokers abandoned them to the wildfire. Call it progress: Never before have so many lambs been roasted so quickly.

fr Barrons 10/10/10

Hoover Dam

President Franklin Roosevelt 75 years ago this week officially opened the Hoover Dam in a ceremony at Lake Mead Nv, 20 miles from Las Vegas. His speech was broadcast nationally by radio as an attempt to boost morale midway through the decade of the Great Depression. I was 2 weeks young.

Men came across the vast desert looking for work. 124 men died on the 4 year job, some tumbling down the steep canyon walls. The first and the last to die were a father and his son.

If someone couldn't work he was instantly replaced from a queue of job seekers. The government built a "company town", Boulder City Nv to house everyone.

Lake Mead still is the largest man made body of water in the country. Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Imperial Valley all use the water and power from this dam.