Back to Vegas again, folks, this time to the vintage Riviera Casino on the North Strip. The Riviera is a rare remaining slice of old-school Vegas, complete with a long-running topless revue called "Crazy Girls". Some years ago they parked the unique sculpture you see here at the casino's main entrance to help advertise the show. It's since become quite a tourist attraction in its own right; note that certain key parts of the dancers have been polished to a shine by the grubby hands of passers-by. For good luck at the slots, for a giggle, or just for an only-in-Vegas photo to show the folks back home.
A sorta-similar phenomenon occurs at many of the newer, more upscale hotels in town, except with "foo dogs" instead of scantily clad women. The idea here, as I understand it, is that much of high-end 21st Century Vegas depends on the whims of deeply superstitious, baccarat-addled Chinese industrialists, and you need a pair of these guardian creatures at the front door they can rub for good luck, otherwise the whales will freak out and take their billions elsewhere. Which would make Wall Street and the money guys in Dubai deeply unhappy. That's generally less fatal than making the boys from Chicago deeply unhappy, but it's still to be avoided. So as you might imagine, Vegas is a city where one can make a very comfortable living as a feng shui consultant. I'd have a go at it myself, except that I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face about it.
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