Las Vegas nightlife got a double dose of new venues last week and at least one of them can be counted a success. Lucky Strike Lanes opened a branch at The Rio, even if some kinks in the system remain to be worked out. But when you’ve got automated scoring, glow-in-the-dark bowling shoes and a swanky bar, plus drink service at your lane, what more could one want? An apple martini, you say? They’ve got that, too.

Actually, in some respects a bit less wouldn’t have been amiss. I mean, there are giant-screen TVs at the end of every lane, showing (on this occasion) NCAA basketball, plus loud music over which has been laid a deafening thunka-thunka-thunka "house music" beat that actually drowns out the music it is meant to accompany. Isn’t bowling entertaining enough? Guess not. No wonder visitors to Las Vegas don’t like to sit still for full-length shows: This city is geared toward people with the attention span of goldfish.

Fatigue from an overlong work week caused me to bail out on the Friday night opening of Polly Esther’s, but a club expert went in my stead. Seems Thursday’s "soft opening" had been scrubbed and the Friday event perhaps should have been canceled, too. My spy described Polly Esther’s as "pretty lame," redolent with the smell of paint and littered with ladders. And a dirty floor, too. Sounds like this one will be lucky to make it into 2008.

Is Wynn ossifying? I direct your attention to this blipvert from KCAL-TV, not for its perfunctory news content, but for the scary footage of Steve Wynn’s increasingly immobile face, which is taking on the appearance of molded plastic. With that in mind, I ask you, dear readers, which movie villain does Wynn most closely resemble: Max Schreck in Nosferatu? Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs? William Castle’s Mr. Sardonicus? Darth Vader? Jack Nicholson as The Joker? Or perhaps Cesar Romero’s classic interpretation (far right)? Or, a sentimental favorite, Frank Langella as Skeletor (third row from top)? Readers, the choice is yours. Let the plebiscite begin!