Reporters’ Notebook

THURSDAY WAS TAKE-YOUR-CHILD-TO-WORK DAY, and a good-sized crowd of offspring of Las Vegas city employees turned out to attend and participate in the mayor's weekly news conference.

When one tot asked Mayor Oscar Goodman if he played any sports, the mayor said he walks and encouraged kids to stay active.

"I've never known kids who are involved in athletics to get in trouble," he said. "It's only when adults get into professional sports that they become Pacman."

DAVID McGRATH SCHWARTZ

LATER DURING THE NEWS CONFERENCE, a young lady informed the mayor that she had a gift for him. As he unwrapped the present, Goodman soon recognized it as a martini glass from the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. Apparently having flashbacks to the ruckus the last time he mixed youth and booze, he offered a precontroversy defense: "I didn't start this one."

DAVID McGRATH SCHWARTZ

TO GOODMAN, THE 61 ACRES ADJACENT TO WORLD MARKET CENTER are the "Jewel of the Desert," the most valuable vacant land in an urban area and assorted other superlatives.

Our federal delegation describes it less charitably as "an underdeveloped and economically disadvantaged brownfield area of Las Vegas, Nevada." That quote is from a letter, signed by Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign and Rep. Shelley Berkley, that requests that a federal agency approve a tax credit for giant furniture wholesaler World Market Center.

Goodman, meanwhile, will continue trying to sell the "Brownfield of the Desert" to prospective developers.

DAVID McGRATH SCHWARTZ

THE WRITINGS ON THE DRY-ERASE BOARD IN UNLV ASTROPHYSICIST BING ZHANG'S OFFICE ARE AN AMAZING DISPLAY OF NUMBERS, letters and formulas, although for the layperson it's impossible to make heads or tails of what's written on it.

When asked what's on the board, he pointed toward different areas and explained which formula he was working on at the time.

He then paused for a moment before pointing toward something written with a red marker in Chinese.

"And that's just the name of a good Chinese restaurant," he said.

LAWRENCE MOWER

THE REVIEW-JOURNAL OFTEN GETS MULTIPLE E-MAILED LETTERS TO THE EDITOR GENERATED FROM THE SAME PLACE, AND TYPICALLY WITH THE SAME SUBJECT LINE. So it appeared last week the paper was getting "astroturfed," the term for formal public relations campaigns designed to look like grass-roots efforts, when two messages came in bearing the subject: "Nevada can do better than Jim Gibbons."

Turns out someone was just trying to elevate business on the governor's sagging approval rating. The senders? Viagra for Sale and Cheap Viagra.

ERIN NEFF

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID APPARENTLY SOMETIMES DREAMS OF BEING A REEDY-VOICED CHANTEUSE.

At a Nevada AFL-CIO dinner on April 21, a recorded video message from Reid was played. In it, the Nevada Democrat recalled some of his favorite pro-union singers, including Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez.

Of the latter, Reid mused, "I wish I had her voice."

MOLLY BALL

HOW DOES DEVELOPER AND FORMER PROFESSIONAL GAMBLER BILL WALTERS REALLY FEEL ABOUT LOIS TARKANIAN, who originally was the lone vote against his attempt to build homes next to the city's sewage treatment plant?

"She's well-intended, and I don't mean this with any disrespect, but she's dumber than a road lizard," he told the Wall Street Journal in a story published Monday.

Tarkanian, apparently not taking any disrespect, said, "I certainly didn't think my vote was dumber than a road lizard's vote. I made the right vote."

Tarkanian, who has a Ph.D and served on the school board for 12 years and has been a lifelong educator, shrugged off the criticism.

"I think that comment may show more about who he really is than anything else," she said.

DAVID McGRATH SCHWARTZ