Oh man, I can't *believe* I forgot to blog about this... I think I Tweeted, but 140 characters does this no justice.
So picture it if you will. Las Vegas Boulevard just a week or so ago.
I'm over at the Mirage because I was hungry and wanted the fare offered at the Carnegie Deli***.
I swear, I am a New York Jewish girl, because I gotta have their chopped liver salad. Just *gotta* have it!
So after finishing my meal and losing a few bucks to the slots, I decided to walk.
I always have to take some time to walk Vegas Blvd to see how it has changed. Plus, you get a whooole different view of The Strip at street level.
There I am walking north on the strip headed toward Fashion Show Mall with a destination of the Trump Hotel nestled in behind the mall, when I see a little alcove-like thing in the wall around the Mirage.
People are lined up there and I figure, well, it's some Vegas thing, a mostly naked show girl, an "amazing double" dressed up as Michael Jackson (only I just saw him a couple hours ago back at the Bellagio) or a Three Card Monte game, who knows.
I was not prepared for what I saw.
Not. Prepared.
I come around the bend and see this lush green inset in the wall with a railing.
Ok, you know when you go to a cathedral or a really large Catholic church and they have the Virgin Mary Grotto? With the statue and the railing and the somber tones?
Yeah. It was like that.
Only the statue people were worshiping was this (click for full size):
If the imagery isn't immediately clear to you, that's a golden rendition of Sigfried and Roy and a white tiger, festooned with fakey shards of crystals shooting out of the cement moorings.
Oh man, everyone was snapping photos like the red carpet. They'd put the kids in front of this thing, or the lady would get in front and the guy would take the photo then the guy would get up there and the lady would snap away, and then the whole family would crowd in there.
People were beside themselves to get photos with this statue.
In a non-ironic way.
Well, I found a break in the crowd and grabbed a couple iPhone photos so I could show The Good Man and we could look at this later and ponder just WTF.
I have no answers.
Other than that's Vegas, I suppose...
***Not intentionally, but we ended up having an "old home" week in Las Vegas. We went to Garduños to fulfill longing for the food of my youth, then later I took The Good Man, a Brooklyn boy, back to the Carnegie for a monster Reuben (corned beef, if you please).
