HoJo’s, Mojitos and Ho’s
In the lobby of the Howard Johnson’s lives a surprisingly magically delicious place. They tell me that HoJo’s have always been known for their delectable dining establishments. My own mother once waitressed at one such place, in fact, she missed Woodstock because she had to work a double. But that’s neither here nor there, she can’t stand mud, she wouldn’t have held up well anyway.
More to the point, the best mojito in Las Vegas is to be found at the Florida Cafe in the Downtown HoJo’s. Now, to be fair, you do have to be sure that it is the male bartender whose name escapes me who makes it for you, his is the best. But even if you get stuck with the other lady who doesn’t use the homemade simple syrup and puts the bitters in at the end, it is still better than most of the mojitos you will find in this town. Plus they have conga drum barstools and the best Cuban food in town too. There are those who argue for that other Cuban cafe place over on Flamingo. They are wrong.
Now, the DayDrinker has got something in mind, and while I know that it is not particularly popular and that as someone who drinks in the middle of the day I have not perhaps the sturdiest of soap boxes on which to stand, but all the same, I just have to wonder about all this quasi-prostitution going on in this town. There’s the straight up prostitution, evidence of which is literally strewn about: 
and then there is the quasi-prostitution that was discussed in the latest New York magazine in their article about Rachiel Uchitel and bottle service girls (to be clear, since she apparently was very specific on this point, RU is NOT a bottle service girl). Look, I get it, making $500,000 a year for being seductive is seductive. But reading some of the blogs and even just that article makes you wonder why it is that we continue to put women in this role. A new list was just published on the highest paying woman’s positions (missionary not so much, but apparently doggie style cleans up) and what was startling was the fact that women still on average only make .75 cents to the male dollar. (http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/20/news/economy/highest_paying_jobs_for_women/)
WTF?! And I don’t think I’m alone in saying that the media bias against Hilary would never have flown had she been a member of any other marginalized group.
We laugh when Iranian clerics suggest loose women cause earthquakes, we think ourselves so evolved when it comes to women, and yet Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh (three predominately Muslim nations) have all had female prime ministers, not to mention Israel, the UK and about a zillion other nations and yet we can’t seem to get even a female vice president. I guess I just wonder what these women would be, could be doing if they weren’t busy escorting overpriced bottles of vodka. As a free market believer, I’m trilled the economy is able to support this industry, I’m happy these women are able to make money. But one has to wonder about some sort of overarching societal good that is perhaps being overlooked, that perhaps we might want incentivize other activities? That and it really does make one wonder what those chicks were doing in the Woodstock mud, writhing around for “woman’s lib”.
But in the mean time, I will climb down off the crumbling soap box, back onto the conga drum and indulge in Cuba’s best and still mostly legal export (depending on where you drink it…I’m looking at you glorious bar in town, you know who you are.)
