"Good luck, honey!"

Two bits of weirdness that are, in my experience, unique to Las Vegas, have been intruding into my consciousness lately. I'm hoping that talking about them here will help dispel the distress they have been causing me, similar to the way in which one rids oneself of earworms (songs you can't get out of your head) by giving in to the temptation to sing them aloud.

1. It seems that everybody here takes liberties with terms of affection for complete strangers who are of the opposite sex. At least between customers and casino/restaurant employees, men and women casually and freely call each other "honey," "dear," "love," "darling," "sweetheart," "sweetie," etc. I find this jarring, whether it's addressed to me or I just overhear it. The implied familiarity is simultaneously so intrusive and so phony that I have been unable to get used to it, despite some 11 months of exposure to it. I try not to be bothered by it when it's directed at me, because I know that it's not intended to offend, and, furthermore, that attempts to stop it are completely futile. But I refuse to join in.

2. I'd happily put up with being every female service employee's "honey" and "dear" if I could somehow stop being told "good luck" at every turn. Here's how it goes: I arrive at the casino for a session of poker. I buy chips at the desk, get directed to a table, and am told "Good luck." I arrive at the table, and the dealer greets me with some variation of "Welcome to the table. Good luck." Every 20 or 30 minutes the dealers rotate between tables. The process always includes the outgoing dealer telling everybody at the table "Good luck," a wish that is soon echoed by the incoming dealer. If I run out of chips and have to buy more, I get them either from the dealer or from a chip runner, either of whom will conclude the transaction with another "Good luck." If I order a beverage, I'll tip the waitress (in nearly 1000 hours of poker playing since I've been here, I have not seen a single male cocktail waiter, so I think it's safe to use the feminine form of the word), and hear, in reply, "Thank you and good luck." It has become so pervasive that one of the biggest casino conglomerates now has their telephone operators using a variation on it: I ask for to be connected to the poker room, and hear, "My pleasure. Have a lucky day."

Again, I try not to be annoyed by this, even though it's all purely mechanical and devoid of any feeling, because I know that all of these people are simply doing what their employers tell them to do and/or what seems to them to be situationally polite. But it's grating--like hearing "Have a nice day" 700 times in a row.

It all kind of makes me long for the old, familiar annoyances of Minnesota.