CROWDS AND CABS ... AT CES!

Anyone who has ever been to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas will tell you, the best way to get an accurate reading on the crowds is to ask a Cab Driver. Last year, the response was the same everywhere: "It's dead." This year, however, it's a completely different story. "It's alive," they all say. Official estimates yesterday put the crowd at 112,000 with two days to go. That's good news for an industry that has been especially hard-hit by the recession and great news for Las Vegas. Speaking of cab drivers, the one I just had (pictured below) spent most of the ride from the convention center to Mandalay Bay telling me all about his blog -- Herbert Hoover Was Right -- which, simply put, credits Herbert Hoover for coming up with a decent plan to provide water to the arid Southwest without depleting other arid regions. No one listened to Hoover, so the cab driver has made it his mission ever since he was 12-years-old to spread the word. Or thousands of words, to be exact, all in a single entry posted last March. "I just wanted there to be a public record," he said. Good for him, I say, though be forewarned: It takes a while to wade through his blog ...!