Comrade Grumpy
Comrade Grumpette
Cig Tossers
May 3rd, 2012
Ah, spring. Fresh, clean air. Crisp sunny mornings. Flowers blooming everywhere. There’s nothing like a morning walk this time of year to make you appreciate the corpse-like bouquet of a cigarette, abandoned and still burning on the sidewalk, flicked out of a car by someone who thinks that whole crying-Indian-anti-littering campaign in the 1970s doesn’t apply to them. Read more »
Comrade Grumpette
Tape-Measure Receipts
April 26th, 2012
Paperless is the future, right? So why is my grocery-store receipt long enough to be toilet paper for a small nation? It’s not that I bought so many items we need a ledger capable of parsing the federal deficit—I’ve got two bags of groceries and three bags of receipts. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Misfortune Vultures
March 1st, 2012
Lately, I have been waking up at 4:07 each morning with a splitting headache and the sense of being trapped in a long, echoing hall full of real-estate agents, attorneys and talk-radio personalities. The first group is trying to interest me in getting into things I cannot afford, the second group is trying to interest me in getting out of things I cannot afford, and the third group is telling me that I am stupid and responsible for the destruction of the American economy. Read more »
Comrade Grumpette’s Peeve of the Week
Powerless Lunches
February 2nd, 2012
I was told that the kids get 20 minutes to eat. It’s the same throughout the Clark County School District. The kids also get a micro-recess: 15 minutes. The principal explained they don’t have time for recess: They keep adding things to the curriculum, and it’s just too difficult to fit everything in. I now let my kids play more after school and on weekends. I give them smaller lunches and a larger, wholesome breakfast. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Broad Street Bully
January 12th, 2012
As every self-respecting downtowner knows by now, Oscar’s Beef, Booze and Broads opened at the remodeled Plaza Hotel in December. The name of the joint was another attempt to insert the “old” Vegas into the new. Some such attempts work; this one does not. Beef, booze: fine. We all know our former mayor’s affection for a gin and a good porterhouse. But can we draw the line at “broads”? Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Our Deaf Urban Ears
January 5th, 2012
So, what happened to Union Park? One day in 2009, while reading the morning paper, I saw that it had been renamed Symphony Park. It was a marketing move. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy
Highs and Lows from the UNR game
November 15th, 2011
High: The message on the back of the T-shirts: “I have to go to Reno every two years for a football game. What’s your excuse?” Low: What happens every two years at those football games. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy
Highs and Lows from the GCU game
November 12th, 2011
High: Justin Hawkins mistaking himself for Rebel legend Fearless Freddie Banks and scoring 25 points to lead UNLV. Low: The shot that the real Fearless Freddie (UNLV 1983-87) took in the Legends (a.k.a. old-timers) game at halftime. Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Hey, Match THIS Pledge …
November 3rd, 2011
It’s that time of year again, when one of my favorite things in the world—National Public Radio—becomes the most irritating. For what seems like all of autumn, one of the smartest, classiest, most progressive media institutions of our time resorts to the fundraising method that’s a blend of used-car salesmanship, church collection plate and Hee Haw. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Wayne’s World
October 27th, 2011
I try to be an informed citizen. So when Las Vegas played host to the Republican debates Oct. 18, I popped popcorn and settled in to watch the national disaster coverage with the hometown bent. I expected an assortment of civic travesties, but not this: CNN interviewed Wayne Newton as “a longtime GOP activist.” Read more »
