__________ is/are overrated.

[1995hoo]

... fifty cent piece ....

I've always found it mildly amusing/interesting that a lot of people refer to the half-dollar as a "fifty-cent piece" because almost nobody refers to any other US coinage by referring to the value in cents (recognizing, I suppose, that you could consider the dollar an exception insofar as "dollar" denotes "100¢"). That is, almost everybody refers to the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter, not to the "1¢ piece," "5¢ piece," etc. But for some reason, "50¢ piece" is common as to the half-dollar. I've never really known why that is.

(And to be clear, I do not mean to pick on you here. Your post simply prompted the thought.)

[formulanone]

... fifty cent piece ....

I've always found it mildly amusing/interesting that a lot of people refer to the half-dollar as a "fifty-cent piece" because almost nobody refers to any other US coinage by referring to the value in cents (recognizing, I suppose, that you could consider the dollar an exception insofar as "dollar" denotes "100¢"). That is, almost everybody refers to the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter, not to the "1¢ piece," "5¢ piece," etc. But for some reason, "50¢ piece" is common as to the half-dollar. I've never really known why that is.

(And to be clear, I do not mean to pick on you here. Your post simply prompted the thought.)

It's different from the 50 Cent Piece, which isn't allowed through a TSA checkpoint.

[bugo]

Vegas employees are whining that the number of tourists have been declining. More tourists equals more tips. Vegas management is doing all of this as part of a deliberate strategy to price out all of the lower and middle class people.

WWE is doing the exact same thing. Ticket prices have skyrocketed since Vince McMahon lost control of the company. This is a huge mistake, because professional wrestling is traditionally blue collar, working class entertainment. When the 1% gets tired of sports entertainment, they will stop buying those expensive tickets and the company will be fucked. They will have likely sold WWE to the Saudi government by then, so they don't care.

AEW is way better anyway. And the tickets are reasonable. It is on the rise, while WWE is on a slow decline.

[JayhawkCO]

(Also, it is sort of funny to be worried about crime and drugs in Vegas. Does the name Bugsy Siegel ring a bell?)

That crime was directed towards a very specific set of people. Random fentanyl addicts a block away from billion dollar real estate is a different animal.

[mgk920]

I guess it was probably how businesses quietly weaned off carrying fifty-cent pieces, but on a much smaller scale. They just stopped caring about it, and by 1987-88 I don't recall hearing much of a fuss over it, probably because there was an in-kind replacement. I'm sure more people preferred quarters by that time since you could much more easily use and carry it around.

Las Vegas also uses Kennedy half-dollars pretty heavily, because they make blackjack payouts much easier—a 3:2 payout on $25 is $37.50. (In Oklahoma they would use yellow 50¢ chips for this, but a casino-quality chip costs about $1 to "mint", so the amount lost to negative seigniorage from people not cashing the chips in is considerable. Las Vegas figured out if they just used half-dollar coins alongside the chips they could externalize the production cost to the US government.)

I remember getting a fifty-cent chip once on blackjack split many, many moons ago. I looked it up and apparently the fifty cent piece (like the dollar coins and two dollar notes) gets minted at irregular intervals.

Sounds like the same problem we had the in educational supply business; the sack of 100 plastic pennies cost as much as that of any other denomination, so we didn't sell anywhere near as many. After all, a tight budget (or disbursed spending accounts) meant just using spare change at face value rather than spending $3-4 for the plastic equivalent. I would remind educators that the plastic stuff was less likely to magically disappear over time.

When pennies were still being produced, I would actually very occasionally get one of those plastic ones in change.

Mike

[Scott5114]

(Also, it is sort of funny to be worried about crime and drugs in Vegas. Does the name Bugsy Siegel ring a bell?)

That crime was directed towards a very specific set of people. Random fentanyl addicts a block away from billion dollar real estate is a different animal.

Metro is kind of worthless. Their main beat is patrolling LVB and Fremont and making it look clean for the tourists. Whatever they consider a problem gets pushed off to the edges of the "Resort Corridor" and then that sort of stuff sticks around where they got shoved.

A lot of them get pushed off of the Flamingo/LVB intersection and end up living in the flood control tunnel that goes under the Strip.

At one point there was a "Resort Corridor Justice Court". The idea was to give the tourists a court that could handle their petty thefts and stuff and not clog up the main county court system (since there isn't a city court over the Strip). What ended up happening was Metro filled it with arrests of homeless people and addicts, so the state shut it down.

If this is my last post, LVCVA did it.

[JayhawkCO]

(Also, it is sort of funny to be worried about crime and drugs in Vegas. Does the name Bugsy Siegel ring a bell?)

That crime was directed towards a very specific set of people. Random fentanyl addicts a block away from billion dollar real estate is a different animal.

Metro is kind of worthless. Their main beat is patrolling LVB and Fremont and making it look clean for the tourists. Whatever they consider a problem gets pushed off to the edges of the "Resort Corridor" and then that sort of stuff sticks around where they got shoved.

A lot of them get pushed off of the Flamingo/LVB intersection and end up living in the flood control tunnel that goes under the Strip.

At one point there was a "Resort Corridor Justice Court". The idea was to give the tourists a court that could handle their petty thefts and stuff and not clog up the main county court system (since there isn't a city court over the Strip). What ended up happening was Metro filled it with arrests of homeless people and addicts, so the state shut it down.

If this is my last post, LVCVA did it.

For sure, and to be clear, I am very sympathetic to addicts/homeless/etc. There aren't a lot of great solutions. Merely stating it as a point of fact that it's what makes Vegas different from just going to a random casino in Kansas City or Black Hawk and choosing to play there instead.

[hbelkins]

Jimi Hendrix.

[kphoger]

Jimi Hendrix.

I haven't listened to very much Hendrix, but my general impression is that he's well-rated for the novelty of the sound he created and the impact he had on music's general direction, but not for the skill with which he could play guitar.  But that could be said of a lot of musical greats.

For example, nobody claims that Kurt Cobain was one of the greats because of the skill with which he played guitar, but I don't think I'd say he's overrated.

* cue "Cobain is overrated"

[formulanone]

Jimi Hendrix.

You're just like crosstown traffic

[Max Rockatansky]

Jimi Hendrix.

I haven't listened to very much Hendrix, but my general impression is that he's well-rated for the novelty of the sound he created and the impact he had on music's general direction, but not for the skill with which he could play guitar.  But that could be said of a lot of musical greats.

For example, nobody claims that Kurt Cobain was one of the greats because of the skill with which he played guitar, but I don't think I'd say he's overrated.

* cue "Cobain is overrated"

I was just about to say something Cobain being overrated before you put the asterisk in your post.  I think the timing of his death plays a factor into his modern notoriety.  Then again I was never much a Grunge fan when it was an active fad.

[TheCatalyst31]

Jimi Hendrix.

Nah, Hendrix is great. If you want an overrated guitarist from the late 60s, that's Eric Clapton.

[Rothman]

Jimi Hendrix.

I haven't listened to very much Hendrix, but my general impression is that he's well-rated for the novelty of the sound he created and the impact he had on music's general direction, but not for the skill with which he could play guitar.  But that could be said of a lot of musical greats.

For example, nobody claims that Kurt Cobain was one of the greats because of the skill with which he played guitar, but I don't think I'd say he's overrated.

* cue "Cobain is overrated"

I was just about to say something Cobain being overrated before you put the asterisk in your post.  I think the timing of his death plays a factor into his modern notoriety.  Then again I was never much a Grunge fan when it was an active fad.

Meh.  Nevermind was huge long before his death.

[Max Rockatansky]

Jimi Hendrix.

I haven't listened to very much Hendrix, but my general impression is that he's well-rated for the novelty of the sound he created and the impact he had on music's general direction, but not for the skill with which he could play guitar.  But that could be said of a lot of musical greats.

For example, nobody claims that Kurt Cobain was one of the greats because of the skill with which he played guitar, but I don't think I'd say he's overrated.

* cue "Cobain is overrated"

I was just about to say something Cobain being overrated before you put the asterisk in your post.  I think the timing of his death plays a factor into his modern notoriety.  Then again I was never much a Grunge fan when it was an active fad.

Meh.  Nevermind was huge long before his death.

At the time (in the 1990s) I preferred Punk Rock bands.  Those haven't held up well for my ear over time either.  I find myself mostly listening to 80s and late 70s stuff nowadays.

[bugo]

Jimi Hendrix.

Nah, Hendrix is great. If you want an overrated guitarist from the late 60s, that's Eric Clapton.

Hendrix was innovative and creative and transcended genre. Clapton was ho-hum and milquetoast. Clapton influenced a bunch of anodyne blues wankers like Joe Bonamassa, but Hendrix influenced nearly every electric lead guitar player after 1967. Jimi did some things that nobody had ever done before. Clapton can't say that.

[kphoger]

Clapton was great because of his skill.  Hendrix was great because of his innovation.

[SSOWorld]

Vegas in 2049.  Because it's going to happen.

[kkt]

Vegas in 2049.  Because it's going to happen.

That's only 23 years away.  For all those buildings to be built, they'd have to be in the planning stages already.

[Max Rockatansky]

Vegas in 2049.  Because it's going to happen.

That's only 23 years away.  For all those buildings to be built, they'd have to be in the planning stages already.

San Diego gets it worse by 2049:

[kkt]

Vegas in 2049.  Because it's going to happen.

That's only 23 years away.  For all those buildings to be built, they'd have to be in the planning stages already.

San Diego gets it worse by 2049:

Is that a flying car that runs on an extension cord?

[Max Rockatansky]

Vegas in 2049.  Because it's going to happen.

That's only 23 years away.  For all those buildings to be built, they'd have to be in the planning stages already.

San Diego gets it worse by 2049:

Is that a flying car that runs on an extension cord?

Turns out that even in 2049 folks in San Diego don't care for people from L.A.

[Scott5114]

Vegas in 2049.  Because it's going to happen.

Why are we going to need three more Luxors by then?

[kphoger]

Mystery Flavor Dum Dums

Sometimes I'm in the mood for something fruity.
Sometimes I'm in the mood for something like root beer or butterscotch.
In neither case do I want to be surprised with the other.

[JayhawkCO]

Mystery Flavor Dum Dums

Sometimes I'm in the mood for something fruity.
Sometimes I'm in the mood for something like root beer or butterscotch.
In neither case do I want to be surprised with the other.

It's like when you're trying to get a lemon jelly bean and then realize you got buttered popcorn instead. Ick.

[kphoger]

It's like when you're trying to get a lemon jelly bean and then realize you got buttered popcorn instead. Ick.

There is literally nothing worse than that.