Briefly: I've mentioned before that the gossip columnist for the Review-Journal, the largest paper of record in Nevada, is frighteningly high-profile. His name is Norm Clarke and his column is called Norm! Vegas Confidential (punctuation necessary). And yes, that's the picture the RJ displays above every column.

I have to look at that picture on the page 1 wrap or page 2 every time I open the newspaper.

Update: He really is blind in one eye.

There used to be two suns here in the middle of the desert. In the past, there was the Las Vegas Review Journal, the morning daily with the state's largest circulation, and the Las Vegas Sun, an afternoon paper with a more liberal bent than the RJ. Today, for the first time, the Sun was delivered as a section of the RJ. This would be like opening up the New York Times and seeing the New York Post as Section B.

The history behind this strange development goes back to 35 years ago, during the Nixon administration, when the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 was enacted. The act authorizes competing, collocated newspapers to enter into joint operating agreements in order to preserve diversity when one of the newspapers is facing a decrease in circulation. I'm not familiar with the details as to why, but the Sun and the RJ created a JOA in 1990 and, starting today, will be delivered together until the JOA ends in 2049.

Both papers insisted today that they will maintain their separate voices, whatever political disagreements come between them, and that they're both happy with the development -- the RJ because it saves them money from having to pay for an afternoon paper, the Sun because their circulation increased ten-fold in one day. Whatever their feelings, I find the whole thing rather strange -- imagine if there was a "liberal" section of the Wall Street Journal. What kind of awkwardness, if any, will arise from this weird situation?

The Review Journal is to Nevada as The Boston Globe is to New England. Our subscription started a few days ago and while it's not quite high-quality journalism, reading it is a good way to get quickly up-to-speed with local issues.

This morning, I turned to the frighteningly prominent gossip section and read a piece about how imported Kobe steaks served at pricey restaurants on the Strip can cost up to $190. I thought this worth mentioning to Lee, but it's not exactly earth-shattering news given that Kobe beef costs around $100/lb in Japan. For those who don't know, real Japanese Kobe beef comes from exclusive ranches where each cow is massaged daily and given a beer-enriched diet (and land isn't exactly found aplenty in Japan). Supposedly, and I say this having eaten only Oregon Kobe beef (which I hear isn't quite the same), it makes for incredibly tender and tasty meat.

The strange thing is that I checked the Drudge Report this morning and was suprised to find this gossipy meat article as its main headline. It's well known Drudge doesn't represent journalism at its best, but I have to wonder what makes this man think that something is newsworthy. Has he seen the prices at Per Se?

I have a feeling the RJ is linked to frequently by Drudge, so I'll be keeping an eye out for this sort of thing.

Correction: Typo in headline fixed. Thanks, Liam M.