Michael Greenberg. Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life. New York: Other Press, 2009. 240 pages. Longtime fans of Doctor Who, the British sci-fi tv classic, talk about watching it “from behind the sofa.” Scared out of their wits by the Doctor’s...

If nothing else, today I learned that I’m not the only one with casino carpet as a wall decoration (three guesses about which carpet it is). I got an email from a gentleman whose father manufactured carpets during the 1950s and 1960s. He made this...

For a few years now, everyone who is anyone in casino design has known that theming has gone the way of the 99-cent shrimp cocktail. But has it actually gone the way of the $29 room rate, surprising everyone with a boomerang comeback? This LA Times...

I’ve got a new column in the Las Vegas Business Press about how food and beverage offerings (well, mostly food) can help or hurt a casino: Napoleon once said that an army marches on its stomach. The same is true for the masses of gamblers,...

Editors of Babble.com. Dirt is Good for You: True Stories of Surviving Parenthood. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2009. 256 pages. This book is intended for “urban, hipster” parents, which I’ve concluded is code for “since we pay $2500 a...