In Las Vegas, Nothing is Real

I know that's not the most original observation, but Las Vegas does really confuse me as a place. Why do people like it? Where's the thrill? The connection to beauty? I went out there with Patty, Shelby and Jane from my pool team, and Romy, a friend of Jane and Shelby's (they're friends from high school, which also blows my mind, but that's another post).
One morning Shelby, Jane and I went for a walk on Las Vegas Blvd. Massive hotels up and down the street. Massive! I said idly, "I wonder how many hotel rooms there are here." The next day in the NYTimes there was an article on exactly that. The answer: 150,000 and counting. MGM is spending $7 BILLION on a new complex. There are more high cranes in that one little strip than there are on the isle of Manhattan. That might be a slight exxageration, but only slight.