Whenever I read about a fire or shooting in Las Vegas where an address is provided, I look it up on Google maps. Yesterday there was a house fire not far from our home there but in a different subdivision. It was on Water Bucket Avenue.

I've written about the strange street names in Las Vegas before, but there are always opportunities for additional disbelief. I envision looking for a house in that town and ruling out the ones on strange streets because I wouldn't want to claim it as my address. Nearby streets:

Copper Head Creek Ave. (no way would I live on a street named for a snake)
Cool Springs
Quilted Bear
Indian Blanket
Pitchfork
Glowing Water
Sweet Cedar
Cheerful Brook
Peaceful Woods
Cracker Barrel
Radiant Ruby
Diamond Heights (this one wouldn't be too bad for a condo on the Strip)
Honey Vine
Twinkling Topaz
Peach Flare
Wild Diamond
Vivid Violet
Butter Churn
Bronc Rider
Burning Hide (doesn't this sound stinky?)

I can just imagine trying to spell out Twinkling Topaz or Peach Flare to some phone support person in India. By now they are used to hearing street names like Elm Street, Main Street, or Broadway, not stinking Quilted Bear.

Now here's an example of a decent street name compared to these others, a little goofy and it probably gets spelled with a W sometimes: Meisenheimer. It's over there north of Vivid Violet, intersecting with El Capitan. I'm not saying I'd buy a house on Meisenheimer, but I'd at least look at it and then decide.

Funny street names aren't confined to Las Vegas, especially after the recent rural road naming initiatives for 9-1-1 purposes, but Las Vegas grew so fast over the past 20 years, in the effort to have unique street names they let the Fire Department assign them using a random name generation software, and it shows.

P. S. If this was written by Mr. Looserobes, there would be some clever embellishment in here, but in this case truth is better than fiction, and I don't have as much imagination as he does.