Change to Pay-for-Parking Underway

Visitors to Las Vegas have long been used to and expected free parking at casinos as one of the perks that casino operators offered to attract customers. However, the era of free parking is ending as MGM Resorts International’s properties start to charge for parking this week.

Monte Carlo, New York-New York, Bellagio, Aria and Vdara are the first ones to implement the controversial paid parking program on Monday June 6, 2016, charging customers up to $10 per day. Luxor, Excalibur, and Circus Circus followed on Tuesday June 7; MGM Grand and Mirage are joining in today. Visitors to Mandalay Bay and Delano customers will lose their free parking privileges on June 13, 2016.

Local residents can still park for free until the end of the year. Members of MGM's M Life loyalty program who earned the Gold, Pearl, Platinum and NOIR status will receive free self-parking. Short term parking up to one hour is also complimentary.

While customers can book other properties that do not charge parking for now, the worry is that all other resorts on the Las Vegas Strip may soon follow the trend.

Postcard US-2002271 to Australia shows many MGM properties on the Las Vegas Strip that are affected by the changes, with MGM Grand on the left, and Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, and Monte Carlo on the right.

Free Comic Book Day

Postcard US-3139091 to the United Kingdom an advertising card for the Alternate Reality Comics, one of several Las Vegas comic bookstores that hosted the Free Comic Book Day events earlier today.

Free Comic Book Day, first started in 2002 and taking place on the first Saturday of May, is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers into independent comic bookstores. In 2005, it coincided the movie release of Avengers: Age of Ultron this weekend.

At the Alternate Reality Comics, greeters were dressed in costumes and helped to direct customers to free selections where a customer could get up to 4 free comic books. The store also hosted local artists who would draw for you.

Free Super Bowl Postcards

From NJ.COM: The remnants of a free Super Bowl postcard left outside MetLife Stadium. By Ed Beeson 

Understandably, almost all things related to the 48th Super Bowl between at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey are either expansive (i.e. tickets, parking permits, or stadium foods) or time consuming (i.e. train rides home after the game). However, according to Ed Beeson/The Star-Ledger, fans to the Super Bowl XLVIII did receive picture postcards with commemorative stamp, courtesy of the NFL, as one of the few freebies.

So far, all the postcards featured on my blog are the ones I sent or received or possessed. I am breaking the tradition today by putting this postcard to my wish list. If you have an extra copy, blank or mailed, would you please send it to me? Contact me for postal address.

Little Free Library

Postcard US-2545772 from Virginia, USA shows a Little Free Library that the sender set up in front of her house. A Little Free Library is a “take a book, return a book” gathering place where neighbors share their favorite literature and stories. In its most basic form, a Little Free Library is a box full of books where anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and bring back another book to share.

It started in 2009 when Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, built a model of a one room schoolhouse as a tribute to his mother, a former school teacher who loved reading. He filled it with books and put it on a post in his front yard. It now grows into a network of more than 10,000 registered Little Free Libraries in the world.

The concept of Little Free Library is unique as real people are sharing their favorite books in their community with a carefully curated collection, and the Library itself is a piece of neighborhood art.

You can find a Little Free Library near you on a map, and learn how Little Free Libraries work in 2 minuets.