Why lie about flaming stuff lighting up Vegas sky?
Even if you’re not an alarmist, you can be weirded out that two broken rockets have flamed across the Vegas sky in seven months.
I witnessed (and YouTubed) the first giant, broken rocket falling in fiery chunks across the Southern Nevada sky back on Dec. 22.
“We’re all gonna die” was my first thought before realizing the enormous rocket-on-fire wouldn’t crash into Vegas. The next day, the military said it was Russian rocket debris.
Another broken rocket aflame soared overhead Wednesday. The next day, authorities said it was a Chinese rocket re-entering the atmosphere.
So let’s check in with Las Vegas’ most famous UFO investigator, George Knapp of KLAS-TV, Channel 8, and “Coast to Coast AM.”
Knapp was frustrated Nellis Air Force Base initially called Wednesday’s sky intruder a meteor.
“The military is so afraid of anything that might be construed as a UFO that their spit-out standard explanation” for weird sky phenomena is to use safer words such as “meteor,” Knapp says.
The Pentagon supposedly keeps track of “every nut and bolt and piece of space garbage floating around up there,” he says.
“So how do they not know that a gigantic object like that one was about to come streaking into the atmosphere?”
Yeah, I don’t feel great about this whole fieryrockets-from-above thing. Why is this a Vegas thing? And we don’t even merit a head’s up from the powers that be? Are they afraid we’ll overreact? NORM!
My buddy Norm Clarke has retired from the R-J, and it already feels lonelier without him.
Norm is a great guy, upbeat, happy, welcoming, grateful, gracious, sweet, smart and a story machine.
It’s been a strange year in Vegas and America, and Norm’s departure makes 2016 feel even more surreal.
We’ll just have to keep up with him on Facebook and Twitter. See you there, and be nice. ROUGH PLAY
The NBA Summer League brought a lot of NBA stars to Vegas, and a lot of positive attention.
Now, unfortunately, comes maybe the only public problem of a (small) legal nature:
NBA center/power forward DeJuan Blair was cited with misdemeanor battery at Drai’s nightclub in the Cromwell hotel.
Las Vegas police tell us they responded to Drai’s about 1 a.m. Sunday. Blair and a woman were arguing about the line to get into Drai’s when he picked her up, tossed her out of the way, and then she struck back, as scooped first by TMZ.
Blair denied throwing her. He wasn’t jailed. A citation is like a ticket. And he was exited from Drai’s. Not the world’s biggest crime.
But it figures the one public incident from Summer League would happen in a club line, where blood pressure seems to shoot up for everybody. Club lines are a reality show waiting to happen. WHAT’S IN A (BAD) NAME?
The Las Vegas Ice Cactuses. The Las Vegas Pokemon. The Screaming Pesci’s.
These are the latest terrible hockey name suggestions by ESPN, which asked people to submit “your worst Las Vegas NHL team nicknames.”
More results: The Las Vegas Nevadans. The Showgirls. The Regret. The DryHeat. The Wynn-ers, Slots, Hangovers, Home Remodelers, Wiseguys, Lounge Lizards, Knights and Sand Fleas.
A tourist on sabbatical, Bernie Meile, emailed me a new one: The Sinister Saints. Someone needs to make a decision eventually. FABRAHAM BIKINI CAM
Farrah Abraham, of “Teen Mom OG” and “Backdoor Teen Mom,” wasn’t content with hitting golf balls at Topgolf ultra-range.
She stripped down to a bikini and lay down by the pool, as you can see on her Twitter, because Fabraham’s life is like a bikini cam.
By the way, even Farraham Instagrammed video of Wednesday’s falling rocket. HOW TO BE ON TV
Friday is the last day you can open-audition to be on “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” at its new home, Bally’s. This is from 2 to 7 p.m. Details at MillionaireTV.com. ANIMAL TIE-IN
If you spend or donate $10 at a Vegas Petco from Friday to Sept. 2 to benefit The Animal Foundation, you get a free ticket to see Mat Franco’s magic act at The Linq. SIGHTINGS
Rocker Sebastian Bach saw Blue Man Group at Luxor Tuesday, after having negotiated that fan’s wedding proposal I told you about the other day. Doug Elfman can be reached at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. On Twitter: @ VegasAnonymous