In addition to being astonishingly shiny, the brand new Cosmopolitan resort/hotel/multimillion-dollar den of iniquity offers an actually rare shopping experience for seasoned Las Vegans. Rather than building yet another shrine to designer egos, The Cosmopolitan has taken a unique approach to shopping in the form of a series of multi-brand boutiques.

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The next time you buy a used book on Amazon.com, you might be doing more than getting a deal.

Skip the too-obvious Cosmopolitan (the drink, not the new resort) and keep warm at the same time with February-friendly hot, sweet cocktails. Brew up a cup of Republic of Tea's seasonal Strawberry Chocolate Red Tea, a caffeine-free sweet treat that benefits equally from a dash (or more) of Kahlua or strawberry vodka (or both).

What do professional clowns do after hours? Create edgy mayhem off the Strip. At the 1230 Clownshow, vaudeville goes 2.

The secret to great date style: Tease the senses -- then indulge them[him]Men have it easy when it comes to date outfits, insofar as male sartorial standards have fallen so low that just showing up in something other than shorts will be considered progress, and that just going for something modest, classic, and well-fitting will be considered dashing.But why stop there? Rely on texture and contrast.

How does musician King Ibu create his rich, soulful, authentic Senegalese songs? In a curiously modern manner: Via e-mailWhen King Ibu needs to add a sabar drum to a song on his latest album, he logs onto a Mac in his Las Vegas home and sends a digital file of his vocals and electric guitar halfway across the world to Aziz Faye in Dakar, Senegal. The song is as likely to be in English as in French, or even Pulaar, an ancient African language.

Me: Transplant who's over the fake Vegas. You: over it too.

Should we scold tourists for crawling on our Strip sculptures? No. Instead, let's give them the interactive art they wantYou may have read accounts about tourists climbing over the elaborately detailed, six-foot-tall, cast-plastic woman's high-heeled shoes on the second floor of The Cosmopolitan, posing and mugging inside the outsized footwear.

My poor brother. He had barely stepped off the plane from Chicago, still shaking off jet lag, before the whirlwind began.