It’s “Burning Man,” a bizarre hightech Woodstock held annually on the Black Rock Desert. It’s U.S. 50, “The Loneliest Road in America.” It’s state-sanctioned prostitution (and the final closing last month of the infamous Mustang Ranch, complete with tearyeyed hookers caught on TV). It’s the radioactive wasteland of Yucca Flats and the nightly sea battle on the Treasure Island Hotel’s manmade lake. It’s Basque sheepherders who spend months alone in the desert and 127,000 rooms for rent in Las Vegas.

It’s Nevada, and may God have mercy on our souls.