[youtalkfunny]

You say "implosions", and these stories leap to mind. Here's all I know about casino implosions.

--I watched the Sands come down. I was standing in Harrah's parking garage. A few seconds after the Sands hit the dust, the shockwave hit us, and the garage started bouncing. That was no fun. The cloud of dust was heading our way, so we all split.

--I was driving east on Flamingo, headed toward the Strip. When I saw the Aladdin off in the distance, I thought to myself, "They're blowing that up today, aren't they?" My eyes went back to the traffic. When I looked up at the Strip again, a few seconds later, the Aladdin was gone. My neighborhood (Arville, behind the Gold Coast) would be covered with a quarter-inch of dust by the end of the day.

--With implosions becoming trendy, somebody asked the late Ralph Englestad if he had plans of blowing up the dumpy Imperial Palace. "We're 98% full every night. Why would I want to blow it up?"

--Harrah's has since purchased the IP. If they ever decide to try to implode that one, I want to be there to see it. Every wall in every building on that property is a foot thick. The place is a fortress. It would take a nuclear device to have a chance of bringing that thing down.