Week of June 15, 2022

From the editor’s desk

The return of Dragon Lights, a gathering of steam locomotives at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, and Lake Tahoe cruises to Vikingsholm and Thunderbird Lodge are among the special events and historic happenings featured in our summer activities roundup.

Speaking of dragons, Bob Grimm went hunting for a good giant-lizard movie, but he reports that “Jurassic World Dominion,” is a flick with too little dinosaur action among silly subplots.

In honor of Juneteenth, our new federal holiday June 19, guest columnist Buddy Frank looks back at a time when Nevada was dubbed the “Mississippi of the West,” when Black people worked in casinos and hotels, but were not welcome as guests.

Our Western Lit feature highlights an excerpt from “Dark Ride Deception,” Reno author Mark Bacon’s fourth Nostalgia City mystery, which sends his protagonists down a rabbit hole involving a murder—which may or may not be connected to a missing person—while they track down stolen technology that would revolutionize the theme park industry.

Owen Bryant, meanwhile, gives readers a taste of R Town Pizza, a new Detroit-style pizzeria in Reno Town Mall, where owner Marvin Kinney is focused on great food and paying employees a living wage. What a concept!

I’ll see you in the funny papers,

—Frank X. Mullen, Editor