If it's a relatively local problem, you don't have to get home, you just have to get out. I carry a small address book with me, just in case I'm lucky enough to be within reach of a friend.

It's nothing personal, guys, I just hate Las Vegas.

And if you think any of the local news really tells how it is, get a police scanner and listen. I've cross-checked what I heard on the scanner against what was in the news the next few days. Lots and lots of robberies; lots of bank robberies (ever had to go to three banks before you could find one open for business?); dead bodies found in alleys, dead bodies found by kids setting up their new tent prior to going camping with the scouts, dead bodies found by hunters. Dead bodies that were once homeless people who were living in holes in the ground covered by tarps and plywood, who were burned to death when someone would toss gasoline into the hole followed immediately by a torch. Lots of shootings, hardly a night passed in my neighborhood without hearing gunfire. Ever driven a limo for a funeral and had the whole funeral party ambushed? Ever parked your limo in the outskirts of a casino parking lot while waiting to be sent somewhere and suddenly felt cold steel in that hollow below your ear?

And you know the real insult? The only thing I've ever won in my life was.... you guessed it: a 3-day trip to Hell with a show and airfare included.

Sue