But check LAT, "Taking on the Vegas haters":
They're tourists, bloggers, travel writers and newspaper pundits — an opinionated crowd with one thing in common: They're Vegas haters.Jeez, it's Vegas, for crying out loud. Folks just need to chill.
And, oh, do they have their reasons, their ammunition.
They abhor what they see as the mindless Mardi Gras of the Strip and arrogant hand-in-your-pocket connivances of the casino bosses. They criticize such Las Vegas entertainment mainstays as the comedian Carrot Top and the sickening largesse of those all-you-can-eat buffets, not to mention the scruffy characters who shove tacky girlie-show cards into the hands of passing tourists.
And why, they ask, are so many slot machine players perched in wheelchairs, wearing oxygen masks, puffing on cigarettes? Has the place no decency?
"I have to go there to see my family at Christmas — I feel so dirty," one letter writer responded to a blog post about people who despise this town. Author James Ellroy, who feels at home in even the darkest milieu, highlighted the city's disgusting nature, which he called "a testimonial to skeeviness."
A guest opinion-page writer from North Carolina pointed out that, by comparison, Las Vegas lends even Orlando, Fla., an old-world charm. "I can't even stand its name," wrote Tom Nelson, a media professor at Elon University. "Going to a show in Vegas? Where're you staying in Vegas? It's Vegas this and Vegas that. Las is lost. It is a city curtly summoned like a dog. Vegas."
This city, by its nature, is thick-skinned. Think some vampy runway model flaunting some scandalous outfit; she couldn't care less what people think.
But sometimes the insults cut too deep, even for this place. That's when Vegas fights back.
More at that top link.
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