I was sitting on the shady deck of Page Springs Cellars near Sedona when the guy with a guitar launched into another John Prine tune. My wife stroked my arm — she knows I’m a fiend for Prine — and somewhere in the vineyard, a peacock screeched harmony. I sipped a wine called Mule’s Mistake, that rolled across my tongue like clustered fruit on spiced wheels, and suddenly, the rest of the world just vanished.
I feel sorry for Storm Troopers in “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.” They’re just foot soldiers born in an empire of imperialist leaders who want to sour the universe. At best, they’re patriots of the Dark Side. And here I am, killing them at whim with a light saber. Mass funerals must be held off-screen.
Blame it on a working-class inability to grasp very large numbers, but even today, a “million-dollar house” sounds like it would be a pretty impressive place to live.
Here are a few of the things in news, entertainment, popular culture and sports that we’ve been talking about lately.
Here is a listing of events designed for book lovers. Information is subject to change or cancellation without notice. Additions or changes to this listing must be submitted at least 10 days in advance of Sunday publication to Bookmark, Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125. For more information, call 383-0306.
It was the diversity of Sequoia National Park that caught us by surprise. Merely desiring to walk among the largest trees on earth had been enough to bring me here with two of my daughters, but we also found incredible waterfalls and panoramic views of the Sierra Nevada, and soaked in deep pools along a couple of the park’s rivers. We saw seven bears, including three cubs, during a visit of only four days.
The upper echelon of income earners, once regarded as somewhat immune to general economic woes, is starting to feel the pain of living in a city with the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, local luxury home brokers said.
The casino industry and the general business community have long disagreed on how to subsidize Nevada’s multibillion-dollar biennial budget.
The delay of a $734 million expansion at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut says as much about the economic state of the gaming industry as the Aug. 1 announcement by Boyd Gaming Corp. that it was halting construction of the $4.8 billion Echelon.
FAMILY MATTERS: As much as family-owned businesses have been romanticized over the years as the backbone of the economy, data prove the ventures are fragile. The magazine Family Business Review reports that fewer than one-third of family-owned companies survive to the second generation.
Canyon Springs, Boulder City, Palo Verde, Silverado win league meets.
: We are thinking of planting trees, three African sumac in back of our house facing east and Japanese blueberry in front of the house facing west. Is it wise or should I wait for fall?
: I have a light set in my backyard, which is plugged into an electrical outlet that has two silver flaps to cover the plugs. The system works fine except that I get very nervous when it rains. My fear is that the water will run into the electrical outlet and zap the system. Are my fears unfounded?
