Click image for enlargement. Illustration by David Stroud.

Don't misunderstand. We think Las Vegas' marketing slogan -- "What happens here, stays here" -- is, as marketing slogans go, the best there is.

It's pithy. It's witty. It sounds racy, but really isn't. And, like the best marketing slogans, it leaves something to the imagination.

But here's the thing: It's becoming a tad overused and a bit cliched, a lame punch line for uncreative sitcom writers and an easy fallback for lazy headline writers.

That's why we figure it's a good idea to have a backup slogan in place, an option on-deck for that moment when WHHSH begins that inevitable downward spiral everything that's hot in American popular culture eventually takes.

And that's why we asked you to come up with slogans that someday might serve as a fitting successor to WHHSH.

In retrospect, maybe we should have made it more clear that there's nothing even remotely official about our goofy little exercise. As far as we know, there are no plans to retire "WHHSH" and none of the slogans you sent us actually will replace WHHSH when it's finally put out to pasture.

We're certainly not saying that someone at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority won't see one of your ideas and offer you a big-bucks contract to buy it. Both the Red and White Soxes have won World Series, so anything's possible.

But, to those of you who included all sorts of legal conditions with your slogans: Sorry, but we threw 'em out. Life is too short to deal with lawyers unnecessarily.

However, for those of you who treated this exercise with the same goofy abandon as we'd intended, thank you for your 340-plus letters and e-mails, most of which offered multiple slogans.

While this wasn't a contest, we waded happily through all of your slogans and thought just about all of them were really good. Not to sound like we're sucking up, but the R-J's readership obviously is made up of witty, creative and attractive (we're just guessing on that last one) people.

And while there's simply not enough space to share more than a few of the slogans with you, one that did catch our eye was this, from Beulah Testa of Las Vegas: "Las Vegas: Seven deadly sins, one convenient location."

We also liked this cynical slogan that smacks of undeniable truth from Bruce Stewart of Las Vegas: "Las Vegas. Free liquor, but the water will cost you."

Christopher M. Guerra of Las Vegas touched on both the practical and the karmic with his slogan: "Las Vegas. Come with luggage, leave with baggage."

Taking this sarcastic theme a bit further was this slogan from Mark Bradshaw of Henderson: "Vegas. Taking advantage of human weakness since 1905."

Some of the slogans were a bit catty -- "Las Vegas. Playground of the Hollywood 'B' List," offered by Rob Greene of Las Vegas -- while others showed your pride in Las Vegas.

"Las Vegas, the next best thing to paradise," offered Diana Trujillo of Henderson. Or, for the same sentiment with a bit of a hipster edge, there was: "Las Vegas. How cool is that?" from Brian Rouff of Henderson.

We -- unlike some editors around here -- enjoy puns and wordplay. So, it seems, do many of you.

"Las Vegas: Never a lull moment," offered Ellen Greenspan of Las Vegas, who also sent along "Las Vegas: Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you'll lie."

This pop culture punfest came from Kevin Voelcker of Las Vegas, which we are forced to admire even as we wince: "Oh give me a home, where the J-Lo roam, and the Spears can elope n' play."

Some of you took a cue from the current slogan.

"Vegas. Go ahead, we won't tell," offered Lynne Helfrich of Las Vegas. Or, from Sheila T. Coward of Las Vegas: "The city that keeps secrets."

Many of you focused on Las Vegas' reputation as an adult playground. Michael duToit, e-mailing from Dallas offered this: "Las Vegas, because you never outgrew recess."

Some of you took a subtly racy tack.

"Las Vegas. Everything your mom warned you about," offered John and Karin Gavin of Las Vegas.

"Las Vegas: Where inhibitions are not tolerated," suggested Ronald G. Swartz of Las Vegas.

We suspect Cyndi Tatum of Las Vegas was inspired by the Isley Brothers for her slogan: "Vegas: It's your thing. Do what you want to do."

We don't want to encourage reckless egomania -- there's certainly enough of that in this town -- but we did like "Las Vegas. It's all about you," submitted by Katrina Jeffreys, who e-mailed from St. Johns, Mich.

Chris Brown e-mailed us this slightly confusing but funny slogan from Swindon, England: "Where memories are made that may be difficult to remember."

James Ellers of Las Vegas came up with the teasingly vague entry: "Vegas. Enough said."

And John Castiglione offered potential tourists a challenge with his "Vegas. Everything is here. Why not you?"

Finally, we were impressed by how deftly Bridgette Williams of Las Vegas was able to weave together complex metaphysics and simple economics with her succinct offering: "You can't take it with you ... so spend it here."