I was an English major and that means I have been wrong about a lot during my time in Vegas when it comes to the business side. One of my favorite errors: The Palms is going to fail. Yes, that was my thought when it opened in 2001. My thinking was that the local's casino was spending too much on promotion, celebrity and one season of an MTV show to survive that kind of expenditure with its off-Strip location. Back then, I would smugly point out to people how the Rio sits between the Strip and the Palms and had been trying for years to do the same thing with almost no success.

I could not have been more wrong. Instead, at least as much as any Strip property, the Palms has brought on the new Vegas: bottle service nightclubs with a young Hollywood glow. Certainly the Palms achieved a name recognition better than many Strip properties. People just happen to stay at the Imperial Palace or the Monte Carlo on the Strip, perhaps, because of a good room rate. But, even if they can't get a room, tourists want to go see the Palms while in Vegas. It has become a destination, as they say.

More recently, I was wrong about Wynn Las Vegas, which I thought cost so much to build that it would make an excellent casino for the next owner after its debt load came crashing down around Wynn. I was especially sure this would happen after Wynn opened with locally loathed nightclubs and unpopular shows like "Le Reve" and, briefly, "Avenue Q." But that hasn't even come close to happening and it looks like the profits from Macau will make this entire issue moot.

But I was sure right about one thing: the Las Vegas monorail. I've blogged repeatedly about the monorail's failings and they continue. Since it only reaches from the MGM to the Sahara, the monorail does not cover the entire Strip; nor does it reach downtown and forget about something obviously useful like the airport. (The monorail airport extension was planned to be completed at some point, though right now that only seems likely if contractors accept Monopoly money.)

Built to run behind the Strip, the monorail even deprives tourists of the fantastic neon views, volcano, water show and hubbub that accompany our most famous street. How could it not occur to anyone that, unlike locals who avoid that stretch of street, tourists want to see the Strip when in Las Vegas!

No wonder the double-decker Deuce buses that travel the Strip are far more popular with visitors. The monorail only offers an efficient trip to vacationers who want to travel between certain casinos. Who could have thought that vacationers prefer sightseeing to efficiency?

Besides being ill-conceived, the monorail has also been fantastically mismanaged. One example: when there were too few riders the price of the tickets was raised, resulting in even fewer riders. Long pegged at junk status, the monorail bond has now been downgraded to an even lower and more wretched junk grade, according to Fitch Ratings. The Review-Journal reports that Fitch Ratings "cited greatly weakened ridership, flat revenues," not to mention no hope of anything getting better anytime for any reason.

Told you so.

I look at those things as things that happened that we can't do anything about now. I'm more interested in the future and moving forward.