I am surprised that a pimp would be manipulative

"Nightline" producers and I must read the same newspapers and magazines, because they frequently air stories about things I just read about somewhere else, like when they went to visit some of those isolated tribes in the Amazon jungle that had been pictured in Scientific American via info on Survival-International.org.

So I wasn't surprised when they did a story on how the economic crisis is affecting legal brothels in Nevada, since I had read a good article about this very thing in the LA Times at the beginning of this month.

But unlike the LA Times, "Nightline" did a crap job with the story, since it came off as more of a publicity piece for the particular brothel they profiled. The ladies are so nice! They provide a "stress relief" service! Business is fine, mostly! The Madam is a shrewd business-woman with a Suze Orman haircut and a black pantsuit who just happens to take her vicious German Shepherd with her everywhere she goes!

And Neal Karlinsky, who is usually a good correspondent, was practically giggling through the whole thing. Geez, Neal, get a room! You seemed pretty amused with the orgy room, and it is 60% off these days.

Nightline's website claims that this was a story about how "desperate woman turn to world's oldest profession during economic downturn", since job applications are up at the Mustang Ranch. But the story was really more of a PR tour of the facilities, and that's not news, that's salesmanship.

Which brings me to my pimp problem. It was a madam in this case, but a madam is just a lady pimp with better marketing. Madams need a more pimped out name, like bertha. Like "Mess with me and my Bertha will break your legs, sucker!" Tough, like that.

So Nightline followed pantsuit Bertha and dog to the airport, where she and a doppleganger colleague (matching pantsuit) greeted a new recruit, a lovely young lady who applied to the prostitute job over the internet and, good news! she got the job! The Berthas swooped in as she came down the elevator so common courtesy would keep her from ditching the whole thing, and the Berthas had a black limo waiting to take her to her exciting and glamorous new life of having sex with strangers for money. Limo = class.

Nightline also showed us how the Berthas were kind enough to supply her with her own antibacterial soap and monthly HIV and herpes tests. Glamour!

After I watched this story, I got really incensed with the airport pickup and the limo and the black pantsuit. "What'd I do?" asks the pantsuit, but really, Pantsuit, you are part of the shenanigans. Don't act all innocent. That whole charade is a psychological snare to gloss over the nature of the job. It's like being interviewed in a fancy conference room where the free coffee flows when in actuality you're going to be working two floors down in a cubicle in the basement for 50 cents a mug. Only worse, because you have to have sex with lonely truckers.

I was so mad at Bertha I and Bertha II until I realized that they are pimps, and I can't be mad at pimps or Berthas for being smooth-talking and emotionally manipulative because that is what they do. That's how you keep the ladies down on the farm (ranch, in this case).

My mistake, Bertha! But "Nightline", boo to you. You totally got teased and released.

I saved democracy in Nevada

Walter at the field office.

I mean, I think I did. I probably did. My husband and I drove up to Carson City in order to volunteer for the Obama campaign in this swing state, and we weren't the only ones. The sign in sheets were separated between "California" and "Local", and they had plenty of volunteers. What I'd heard about the Obama people was true -- they were extremely organized, dedicated, efficient and persistent. They had five -- five! -- offices in Carson City alone, a city of 35,000 people. I think they considered us totally lazy Communist slackers for participating in such a small way.

We went canvassing on Monday and Tuesday to urge people to vote in neighborhoods that had already had plenty of knocks on their doors. BUT only one lady yelled at us for how many door knocks she'd gotten over the past week. Most people weren't home, but the ones who were were pretty nice, especially the people in their 80s. Everyone was voting for Obama already, since our lists were mostly registered Democrats, and the O signs in the neighborhoods we went to far outnumbered the McC signs. So we were really just harassing stragglers to get to the polls. It rained on us briefly and sprinkle-snowed briefly, and the scenery in fall was simply beautiful.

We also drove up to Reno to check it out and get a quickie divorce like women in 40s movies. We forgot to get the divorce.



The Casino up the block from the field office. Cactus Jack voted Libertarian, of course.


This is what I learned about Carson City and Reno Nevada:

1. It's Ne-vad-a like glad, not Ne-vahd-a like "Ah, I got a vahse in Nevahda". "I'm glad I'm in Nevada". Or Aaaaa! There's a neon sign after me in Nevaaaaada!
2. There are slot machines in the supermarket.
3. Everyone has a dog. I'd say 80% of the houses we went to had dogs viciously slamming their bodies against the locked doors (all dogs are non-partisan). The lady who yelled at us had a cat.
4. The USA Today that I read the morning we went canvassing said the high school graduation rate in the state is 45%.
5. I think kids maybe aren't seeing the importance of graduating high school when there are slot machines in the supermarkets.
6. It's beautiful. The Sierra Nevadas are amazing. Want to see a beautiful view? Look up.
7. There are 25 legal brothels in Nevada. The laaads come to Nevaaada. I learned this from a LATimes article I read on my blackberry while driving around there -- looks like the economy is hitting them hard, too.
8. Carson City does not have a lot of frills, lifestyle-wise. Reno, in contrast, has more cute little stores and coffee shop cafes and pedestrians and is just more swinging in general. It has bigger casino resorts and is more touristy.
9. We never did locate Carson City statehouse, and there just aren't that many possibilities of where it could be.
Bonus California 10. We spent a night in Death Valley and no one died. Letdown!


View from the roof of the very nice and worth-a-visit Nevada Museum of Art in Reno.


Not all Nevada forests are on fire, just this bit around Lake Tahoe. WL wanted to take my picture, but I wasn't sure of the proper expression to have even in front of a natural and harmless fire. It just seemed rude to smile, you know?


Natty when we got home. Pretty sure she voted for McCain; she looks pissed.