There Is No There There

I was once with a group of women who couldn't believe I'd never been to Las Vegas. (I didn't admit my children have never been to Disney World, which is far more shocking.) They assured me that the very best restaurants could be found in Vegas, many of them replicas of posh eateries from all over the world. As a former New Yorker, I couldn't imagine going to Vegas to eat at New York restaurants, but I didn't say anything.

The other day I read an article about an investor recreating New York's Plaza Hotel in Vegas. It will look like the Plaza only "vastly bigger." Will patrons be able to sip extra dry martinis at the Oak Bar, and then stumble outside to see hansom cabs heading for Central Park, or perhaps enjoy a little shopping at FAO Schwartz across the street? No, but they will be able to see the Wynn casino resort and other mega chunks of high life rising around them.

When you get bored with Olde New York, Paris isn't far away. Or Venice. If Europe's too tame, there's always the Taj Mahal. Why travel to different countries when you can save all the bother and book a flight to Vegas? There's no need to get a passport, and you can skip those immunizations against nasty third world diseases. You won't see tired pleasure domes from yesteryear mucking up the place. When Vegas hotels get old and fusty, they blow 'em up.

Gertrude Stein was referring to the lack of "there" in Oakland, not Vegas. Oakland suffers from, among other things, its proximity to San Francisco. If someday I find myself in sin city, I'll probably avoid the Las Vegas Plaza. It would be a terrible blow to my psyche if I discovered that there is there there.