The Week in Review

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 10: Just when you thought our gaming overlords were going to squitz themed casinos like toothpaste into every last cranny of the Strip, along comes MGM Mirage with an idea that's sort of like that, but not. The gaming monster unveiled Project CityCenter, a 66-acre "urban metropolis" that's got to be cool because there's no space between the words City and Center. TotallyAwesome! The project includes not only your usual 4,000-room hotel-casino deathdome, but also three boutique hotels, condos and retail space. The Strip: home to world-class restaurants, nightclubs, museums, nature exhibits and now forward-thinking urban planning. Maybe the rest of Las Vegas can be a RealCity like that someday!

THURSDAY, NOV. 11: They say it's better to go out with a bang than a whimper, but in the case of Yasser Arafat--phew!--a whimper'll do just fine, thanks. The PLO leader more or less died to death Thursday, croaking after an extended illness that had rendered the former fierce guerilla leader into a lip-quiver wearing a Marriott hand towel. He was perhaps best known for keeping the issue of a Palestinian state at the forefront of the Middle East peace process, worst known for getting it done by encouraging radicals to make terror confetti out of themselves. Enjoy your bearded virgins and strawberry goat milk, Arafat, or whatever that Koran afterlife vacation brochure says.

FRIDAY, NOV. 12: Every time we glimpse the visage of Kathy Augustine, our minds can't help but be filled with the rich, smoky, soulful voice of Bob Seger selling us Ford trucks as he Camel-croaks "Like a Rock." And, indeed, Augustine has been like a rock, withstanding the stream of calls for her resignation on charges of ethical shittiness. But there's a fine line between being solid like Gibraltar and having rocks in yer head, as the Assembly voted unanimously to impeach the controller. Now, if at least two-thirds of the Senate votes to convict her, Augustine will suffer the ultimate disgrace of being removed from office--guaranteeing a school or a park will be named after her.

SATURDAY, NOV. 13: Rap artist O.D.B., founding member of rap group Wu Tang Clan, died in a Manhattan recording studio Saturday. Alas, to think if the man known for gunfights, drug problems, legal woes, shoplifting arrests, threatening girlfriends and rehab clinic escapes had lived...only to be shot to death in a drive-by and enshrined in urban-culture imagination as a poet fated for a tragic end. You know, like Sylvia Plath or Tupac.

SUNDAY, NOV. 14: Pop quiz! Iran is enriching uranium. You want it to stop because it might someday nuke Mount Rushmore and drown the U.S. in a flood of heritage juice. Do you a) invade or b) engage in a series of complex diplomatic talks with France, Britain and Germany? If you answered b), you're right. (Still, sorry--no presidency for you!) After extended talks with our global-test Eurofriends, Iran agreed to stop its uranium-enrichment program, CNN reported. Hurray! Now, at least, we know beforehand that the upcoming U.S. invasion is baseless.

MONDAY, NOV. 15: The Bush cabinet sh-sh-shakeup continued Monday. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige--yeah, don't let the revolving door hit you in the ass-sacks on the way out! But Colin Powell's resignation came as the real bummer, as the last redeeming shred of sanity now leaves a White House that is fast becoming Krazy Chimps Unlimited: Coup on Banana Island. So, long, Mr. Powell. Please, resist the temptation to do an iPod commercial.

TUESDAY, NOV. 16: Don't be misled by the aprons, hats, night-school GEDs, supersized barge-asses and cheese-grater acne--the women of your neighborhood McDonald's want to get naked. So proved Playboy.com, which launched the latest installment of its popular "Women of" series with its "Women of McDonald's" pictorial, showcasing six hot female employees baring McMuffins and all. The wan corpora-drones of McDonald's are thrilled. "We neither condone, nor encourage participating in this type of activity. It is inconsistent with our brand," spokeswoman Anna Rozenich said in a statement e-mailed to CNN/Money. Indeed! A besmirching of the virtues of propriety, moderation and temperance of which McDonald's is a paragon! You want a meat-grease crapple piewich with that line of bullshit?

--ANDREW KIRALY