The greatest fireworks display company in the world was ready to deliver the greatest fireworks display anywhere, and Las Vegas was the perfect place for it. The idea was to start the last thirty seconds of the year and each of thirty casinos down the strip was going to blow a firework off their roof that included a number starting with the Stratospher Tower blowing off #30 in blue surrounded with white glitter then working down the strip until Mandalay Bay would blow off #1 and over New York New York would be the #2000 from the Statue of Liberty from what I understand.

But there was an inherant flaw. The egos of the casino owners wouldn't allow anyone to be #30 let alone #'s 29-#2. The $100,000 surely wasn't a problem yet the excuse the owners came up with was that they didn't want to foot the bill. Then they said they didn't want the problem of the crowds and the clean-up on the properties after the party, and since they put up so much money to re-decorate the center isle of the strip and all the new palm trees and shrubs cost them millions and they didn't want it all wiped out in one night.

The suggestion that they could fence off the center isle and the properties could do whatever they wanted to keep people from ruining the property, but if they declined the offer to put on a fireworks display for New Year's Eve, they would surely pay even more in lost revenues. But here again their egos got the best of them as they all said their reputations and just the name LAS VEGAS would draw hundreds of thousands, fireworks or no fireworks. So the Grucci Brothers were sent packing and as they walked out of the meeting they warned the casino owners that next year it would cost them dearly.

As it turned out last New Year's Eve in Las Vegas was a bust.Not just a bust but a BIG bust. So when the Grucci Brothers were called this year to save New Year's Eve in Las Vegas they responded with a bill for just over $1,000,000.

Sounds like a lot of money but when they added up their losses from last year, it would just about cover the loss of one of the small casinos, so the million now sounds like a bargain. And this year is going to be what last year promised. The casinos somehow decided who was going to be #30 and who was going to be #1 and I can't tell you who's who since it's been kept a secret, but I can tell you that after last years fiasco, Las Vegas will be the place to be this New Year's Eve.

The $500 - $1,000 room rates of last year are back to normal and everyone else seems to be keeping their heads this year so tickets to the parties won't be $150 or more like last year, in fact the party I'm planing to attend is only $15 per person for a band and party stuff and a bottle of Champagne will only cost $12 and a lot of smaller casinos are planing similar parties for those kind of prices. The realize that they just need to get people here and the money will follow, a simple recipe that has always worked before.

So for anyone who wants to party in the new year, actually the real new millenium , get your asses here , the weather's beautiful in Vegas,it's in the 60's days and 40's nights, THE LIGHTS ARE ON, AND WE'RE ALL HOME. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

-Ken Pearlman