Sunday, February 22, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

WEEK IN REVIEW: Reporter's Notebook

Red contributes to mayor's tranquility. Desert tortoise Mojave Max predicts early spring. Cows corralled on Craig Road. 'What you see is not necessarily what you get.'

FIRST, A LOW CARB DIET. Then, a "Queer Eye" makeover. Now, Mayor Oscar Goodman's hipster evolution includes a feng shui redesign of his 10th floor City Hall office. Feng shui is the ancient practice of creating harmony by arranging objects in certain alignments and bringing into one's surroundings wood, fire, metal, earth and water. Practitioners credit it with boosting energy and positive thinking. Goodman's office is now adorned with more plants; a fish bowl with a red beta fish, named Red; and a water fountain. Designers also created a more open furniture arrangement. "There's a certain degree of tranquility on the 10th floor," Goodman said of the transformation. "There's no more shouting up there." Lest anyone conclude the mob lawyer turned mayor has gone completely soft, a fake severed horse head still adorns his office couch.

MICHAEL SQUIRES

WHO SAYS THERE'S NO AFFORDABLE HOUSING in Las Vegas? On Tuesday, fire destroyed a mobile home in the Arrow Palms Mobile Home Park near Lamb Boulevard and Bonanza Road. "The value of the home was estimated at zero by the park management," according to a fire department release.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG, ACCORDING TO Mojave Max. The desert tortoise at the Red Rock Conservation Area rose from his winter slumber at 11:14 a.m. Thursday, the earliest date ever that he's emerged from his burrow. "I think it's a very safe bet that spring is upon us," BLM spokesman Phillip Guerrero said. Mojave Max's weather predictions rival those of a famous rodent back east. But unlike groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, Mojave Max doesn't have to see his shadow. He just relies on his internal organs to tell him when the time is right. "He's much better than that old ground squirrel or whatever that thing is," Guerrero said. "Punxsutawney Phil doesn't have anything on Mojave Max."

BRIAN HAYNES

HEARD ON THE SCANNER THIS WEEK: A handful of cattle broke free in North Las Vegas and wandered into traffic on Craig Road. The cows were quickly corralled. For at least one officer, it appears this wasn't his first rodeo. "All us country boys know stuff like that," he drawled.

BRIAN HAYNES

SEN. VALERIE WIENER AND HER OBESITY PANEL held a nine-hour meeting in January. At an unrelated meeting Wednesday, Sen. Randolph Townsend poked some fun at the fitness zealot. "Anyone who has 2 percent body fat, I worry about them meeting for nine hours," Townsend said. "Did your blood sugar level go down? Did you have to go out and have like a Hagen Daz break or something to kind of keep you going?" Wiener, a Las Vegas Democrat, said she got by with a Slim-Fast bar at lunch. Townsend, a Reno Republican, instructed legislative staff never to put him on a committee chaired by Wiener. "I don't think I could last that long," he said.

SEAN WHALEY

VEGAS CLICHE OF THE WEEK: "Things are not always what they appear to be in this city of dreams and disappointments. When a single street is lined with facsimiles of the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Palace of the Doges, a medieval castle and an Egyptian pyramid, what you see is not necessarily what you get," wrote Suzanne Muchnic of the Los Angeles Times.