Writing Travel

Five-star five-diamond food poisoning

I'm back from Vegas with a cautionary tale on what not to do if you get food poisoning at the Michelin star restaurant of a 5-star, 5-diamond casino resort.

This is not the story anyone should hope to bring back from a first trip to Las Vegas spent at a top-echelon property.

I'll cut straight to the gist: if you ever suffer foodborne illness in a Las Vegas casino resort, no matter how many stars it might boast of, get medical attention right then and there.

The logistics of following this piece of advice could prove troublesome if you are afraid to venture more than a few steps away from your hotel room's toilet, but be forewarned. Without medical documentation of your digestive trauma, you are likely to find you have no leverage with the resort for compensation.

This is the lesson I learned last week after reporting my daughter's attack of acute gastroenteritis to management at Wynn Las Vegas.

Her illness began about four hours after she ate mussels at Daniel Boulud Brasserie, the Wynn's Michelin star restaurant.

Sleepy Geek? Spend less time on the Internet

According to the London Daily Mail of August 25, "People who spend time on the internet or watching television before they go to bed are more likely to FEEL like they don't get enough sleep."

Is this just a post hoc assumption, or is there truly a cause and effect relationship? Could it be that people (like myself) who experience nonrestorative sleep will feel sleep-deprived in any case?

I'll concede that some of my sleepless hours can be attributed to staying up too late reading web pages, but I'm just as likely to read a book into the wee hours if sleep eludes me. Guess that puts me into the minority of people who actually read books and who may indeed spend more time with book in hand than watching television or surfing the net.

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Ten things not to say to someone with an chronic invisible illness

A few new lines, plus the all-time favorite: "But you look so good!"

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