“Except for the sun and the occasional thermonuclear blast, [Las Vegas] is the brightest source of light in our solar system. Its most famous drink, in fact, is the Atomic Cocktail—vodka, brandy, Champagne, splash of sherry. Gamblers enjoying them in the fifties were treated, by paying slightly more for their rooms, to views of Johnny von Neumann’s hydrogen bombs going off sixty-five miles north of town.”

—James McManus, from Positively Fifth Street, 2003.