Sledding on Mount Charleston is a hazard

After reading the article on the dangers of sledding at Mount Charleston (Thursday Review-Journal), I can only say, “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

Having had to pry a friend’s jaw open to stop him from choking on his tongue nearly 20 years ago, I am appalled at the lack of facilities on the mountain for sledding. Apparently people will continue to do it, so why not create a sledding facility like at Brianhead in Utah? I would imagine it would be considerably more safe, fun and certainly cheaper than “dozens of fire department/ambulance calls” and Flights for Life.

For all the money poured into Mount Charleston via federal funding and tourists, I can’t imagine we couldn’t clear a path void of trees and rocks in a 20-year span.

Brian Burns

HENDERSON

Car pool

To the editor:

I hear so many complaints about the car-pool lanes on U.S. Highway 95. But common sense says that the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes are here to stay. Their purpose is to encourage people to car pool.

If Summerlin Parkway to U.S. Highway 95 north has five out of 100 cars using the HOV lane, the drivers in the congested lanes should get the message.

People do not have to live close by to car pool. If all hit a common area on their way to work, they can park in a designated area with others and continue on their way — all in one car.

SHARON COOK

LAS VEGAS

Wynn-Wynn

To the editor:

So Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson are fighting like two kids over parking spaces.

Has Mr. Wynn considered that if people park at Wynn because Mr. Adelson’s The Venetian doesn’t have enough parking spaces, these people will have to return to Wynn to get their cars and might just drop in for a little gaming, dinner or cocktails?

ANTHONY TIDEI

LAS VEGAS

Luggage woes

To the editor:

Randall Buie’s comments about the luggage debacle at McCarran Interational Airport are right on the money (Wednesday letter). I fly in and out of McCarran quite often and always have an extremely long wait for my luggage, regardless of the airline involved — although Northwest seems to be especially bad.

My family and I flew Delta to Atlanta for Christmas. Upon arrival in Atlanta, the world’s busiest airport, we went from the gate directly to the luggage carousel. When we got there, our luggage was already on the carousel.

Upon returning to Las Vegas, we waited at the carousel for more than 35 minutes before any luggage started coming off. This sends a very bad message about the service industry in our city. Many arriving travelers end up in bad mood before they ever leave the airport.

Larry Fuss

LAS VEGAS

Name game

To the editor:

I feel compelled to challenge the conclusion of letter writer Siobhan Williams (“Hillary’s accomplishments stand on their own,” Thursday).

Hillary Rodham would be just that without the “Clinton” attached to her name. It is highly unlikely she would have been a viable, non-resident candidate for a Senate seat in New York or a contending presidential candidate without the “Clinton” surname.

While she may be an incredibly accomplished female in her own right, her present celebrity status and political strength is as a Clinton, not as a Rodham.

Orinne Morehead

LAS VEGAS

Family tree

To the editor:

I have enjoyed reading your ongoing Page 1B feature, “Meet the Candidates.” I especially enjoyed the “You Might Not Know” nugget in the Barack Obama profile, which pointed out a recent genealogical research effort that revealed Sen. Obama is a distant cousin to Vice President Dick Cheney.

This struck a genealogical memory of my own.

My family came here from England in 1634 — 374 years ago — to escape religious persecution, and landed in Massachusetts. My genealogy reveals that notables — or un-notables — to which I am related include:

President John Quincy Adams, President Chester Arthur, Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, President Harry Truman, President Grover Cleveland, President Gerald Ford, President Richard Nixon, The Rockefellers, J.P. Morgan, William T. Sherman, T.S. Eliot, Henry W. Longfellow, Walt Disney and many others.

The point: People should do their genealogy and find out to whom they are related. According to some research I have read, the original Pilgrims have more than 2 million descendents in the United States.

One individual once said, “If you don’t know from where you came, you won’t know who you are.”

IRA G. KIMBALL

LAS VEGAS

Plays one on TV

To the editor:

Siobhan Williams’ Thursday letter to the editor, complaining about a Michael Ramirez political cartoon, has it wrong. I quote Ms. Williams: “The cartoon shows Hillary Clinton as a surgeon saying, ‘Don’t worry, I have experience. I’m not a surgeon, but I was married to one for eight years.’ It seems to be sending the message that a woman should not be running for president.”

No, Ms. Williams, the cartoon has nothing to do with whether Hillary is a woman. Rather, it is sending the message that a person without actual experience should not be running for president.

Hillary Clinton has no documented executive experience of any kind (other than presiding over the health care debacle of the early ’90’s). Being close to power doesn’t qualify her to have power any more than sleeping last night at a Holiday Inn Express would.

RAYMOND KELLY

HENDERSON

Same old

To the editor:

Well, here we are. A different year with the same old inept Congress loaded with career politicians who are starting their annual trip down the Yellow Brick Road.

These poor souls have worked so hard during 2007 that they decided to reduce their 2008 schedule to mostly four-day work weeks. This was necessary to compensate for the pay increase they accepted in 2007 that gave the rank and file members of Congress just $168,500, with the leadership receiving more.

Congress labored long and hard in 2007 to load up the few things they did with more than 11,0000 pork-barrel projects (which they have renamed “earmarks”) at a cost of about $20 billion to the taxpayers.

Congress did find time for some fun, and issued their annual meaningless resolutions like the one that dredged up century-old events in Turkey and alienated one of our few allies in that part of world. That’s always good for a laugh.

And Congress had to feverishly work to the end of their 2007 session so they could cancel the funding for the border fence so we don’t have to inconvenience anyone trying to sneak into the country illegally.

As the curtain came down on these comedians, they proved that they are true performers and gave us something we were all waiting for: Banning the light bulb!

I can hardly wait to see what 2008 brings.

Gerald Lock

LAS VEGAS