Las Vegas's 100th Birthday

Statement

I stand in support of this resolution which marks the 100th birthday of one of the most fabulous places on earth, Las Vegas , Nevada . Las Vegas is a city where virtually anything goes, a city that has been deemed so "unfailingly piquant and over the top that it is sui generic, its own highly peculiar self." Where according to Time Magazine, "in no other peacetime locale are the metaphors and ironies so impossibly juicy." Or where, in the words of Hunter Thompson, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

Where else can you find a city with its own language—where you have to know the lingo to succeed. What are markers, comps, tokes, shoes, and spoons? Who is a high roller, a shooter, a stickman, a boxman, or a pit boss? Who has "juice"? What happens when you "hit me"? Where is "the eye in the sky"?

Where else can you find the Eiffel Tower , the Statue of Liberty, the Doge Palace , the Great Pyramids, and Lake Como all within a two-mile stretch? Where else would you have larger than life statues of Michelangelo's David and a headless Lenin, hero of the proliterate, next to circus tents and pirate ships?

Where else could the mushroom cloud become a tourist attraction or a building implosion become a media event?

Where else are favorite role models featherclad showgirls and flying Elvi? Where else can you ride a roller coaster atop a 135-story tower and get married just down the street at a drive-through wedding chapel with a mechanical arm that throws rice on your windshield?

What other city has over 15,000 miles of neon tubing and 125,000 slot machines?

Where else do volcanoes explode and tigers disappear?

Where else can you get a 50 cent shrimp cocktail and hit a million dollar jackpot without ever leaving your barstool?

Where else is black jack dealing an art and valet parking a science?

What other city does everyone in the world want to visit sometime in their lives?

In short, there's no place like it on the planet. Happy Birthday, Las Vegas . You get better every year.

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