Clustercluck

Stories about this topic — a Senate candidate who championed bartering as a means of controlling health care costs  — led to this story, which is about people wearing chicken suits when they vote.

Requisite warning label: Bad jokes abound. However, I quite liked this line: "It seems Secretary of State Ross Miller's ban did not stop some peeps from flocking to vote Wednesday."

It's fair to say there are some significant First Amendment issues to drill into here, so naturally the first thing I did was look for places to get a chicken costume. Tip: Don't type "chicken suit" into Google, because all you get are a bunch of tuxedo rental stores.

I didn't have much luck, but I did find this.

Meet Juicy Lucy

After almost three years in Vegas, I assumed you just get a little more jaded about these things, but I was driving down Tropicana the other day and HOLY CRAP! Is that a woman diagrammed as a piece of meat?

Yep. Sure is. That's Juicy Lucy, the mascot for Grind Burger Bar and Lounge. Yes, that's her real name.

So score some points for being attention-grabbing (hey, I'm writing about it, right?). But this is probably how cannibalistic serial killers look at their victims — and you make it the public face of your restaurant?

There's been a bit of an outcry, such as this commentary in the UNLV paper. The R-J turned it into a debate on free speech, calling those who don't like the mascot "prudes." And it gets a mention in a restaurant review that says the burgers are pretty darn good.

The points have already been made about objectifying women and viewing women solely as sources of pleasure and meeters of a man's needs (in this case, his need for tasty meat, apparently). I'll add another criticism: It's lazy.

It seems people here think the only way to attract attention is to show a scantily clad woman. Some examples are here (the slutty cop at the bail shop will always be my favorite). And then there's this billboard:

Think about the money that goes into putting up a billboard advertisement. They went to all that trouble, and all anyone could come with as a concept is, "Looky here! Tits!"

Naturally, Grind House has an online store, but there's one critical difference — on the merchandise, Lucy's actually naked. I guess someone figured that a giant balloon depicting a woman headed for the butcher's knife might be offensive if she wasn't at least wearing a thong.

Okay, so I took a year off

Seems longer. But this city is still as senseless as ever, so I'll take a stab at being more consistent.

For some reason, I'm reminded of the rock star in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe who was spending a year dead for tax reasons. Funny guy, that Douglas Adams.