Mr. Las Vegas has a bad knee
Subtitle: and other tales of the people, places, and peculiarities of the modern American Southwest
By: Martin J. Smith
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 192
ISBN-13: 9781493028443
Subjects: Social life and customs; Celebrities; Biography; Anecdotes
Description: "A collection of essays chronicling the heroes, heels, and cultural spasms of an endlessly fascinating frontier. Smith hits the road with marginalized astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, and dives into the middle of a corporate and existential crisis at Sea World, where friendly mascot Shamu had just drowned its trainer. He tests open water swimming with a Southern California woman who eventually swam to Antarctica. He exposes the huckster behind the worldwide Whaling Wall fraud, tours L.A. with a tireless band of Japanese honeymooners, visits the factory where the world's finest fake rocks are made, and retrieves balls for the seventysomething podiatrist who holds the world record for basketball freethrow shooting."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: the land of id; title: Mr. Las Vegas has a bad knee; title: Extinction along Interstate 10; title: Looking for Big George Coyle; title: The fall and rise of a guitar hero; title: Lesbian cairn terrier owners, unite!; title: Are we there yet?; title: The cinematic landmark of "red asphalt"; title: Swimmer Lynne Cox's incomparable wake; title: Lamenting Liberace; title: The birdman of Mojave; title: Honeymooning at warp speed; title: The wild duck chase; title: Woofers on wheels; title: Buzz Aldrin's traveling tube of glue; title: The mark of Mickey; title: The downside of perfection; title: Taking tinseltown with "the greatest"; title: Life begins at 150; title: The toilet-valve titan; title: Corky Ra's peculiar master plan; title: Toenail polish for Fluffy; title: The life and death of AC-3; title: Seaworld's 6,000-pound PR problem; title: Aren't we all just squatters, really?