Wollongong is a seaside city in New South Wales, Australia, an area known for skydiving, sailing, and legalized prostitution -- and the Illawara Mercury stopped into one of these legal brothels to see how things are going. What they find is pleasantly mundane: the regulated business has to make sure they're in compliance with laws, employee drug use is a grounds for firing, employees are just working stiffs trying to make ends meet. If there's one thing that legalized prostitution seems to universally cause is the un-magicalizing of prostitutes -- Pretty Woman, Milk Money, Risky Business, they all make prostitutes out to be mystical, complex creatures that exist outside of normal reality and when you cross paths with one your life will change, when in reality there's an exchange of services for money in a unmagical capitalistic way. On the other hand, the opposite view of prostitutes as dirty, dangerous, and harmful is similarly counteracted by legalization's emphasis on health and cleanliness. While the views of illegal prostitution probably make it more exciting in some ways, the average, everyday view of legalized prostitution in the suburbs is probably better for business.

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The internet: is there anything it can't ruin? First, Craigslist destroys the newspaper; ebooks are destroying publishing; and, most heinous of all, internet porn is destroying the legal Nevada brothel business. Well, technically the economy is causing the problem, but it's much easier to blame the internet, what with its free nude photos and easy access. The story really can't get anything straight; it seems to want to talk about business, but heads off into weird moral channels, including inviting an anti-prostitution talking head with no evidence to back them up. Hey, Bloomberg: save your exploitation sob-stories for talking about the minimum wage; this is one place people are at least doing an honest job, give them some credit for riding out the economic downturn when so many other businesses couldn't cut it.

Everyone jokes about going to Las Vegas to get a hooker, or watch 'reality' shows about women who work in the brothels - but do you really know how it works? The Smoking Jacket has everything you need to know about how Nevada brothels work, and then some. Before you embarass yourself, read this before you book that discount Vegas flight you and the guys are always talking about.

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The Dumas has been struggling for years, having trouble paying taxes and fighting the crumbling caused by age that has put the building's structure at risk. Rudy had tried many times in the past to find backers or buyers, and has finally found somebody to buy it. Two local guys paid the back taxes and are going to restore the icon of American brothels. Hopefully they aren't just falling into the same trap as Rudy - too many good intentions, not enough cash - but here's to their good fortune; it would be sad to see the Dumas disappear.

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As I mentioned yesterday, a writer is hanging out at the Chicken Ranch, putting up series of blog posts depicting his adventures. For now, they can be seen here, although the author hasn't tagged everything quite the same, so also check his main page -- it would have been nice if the writer created a 'tag' for just this story, so they could all be on one page without any others. My only other recommendation: if you're writing for a blog, don't be so newspapery; shorter, more trivial blog posts in between the more meaty posts act like pull-quotes or sidebars, be! cause people like that stuff. The fun of an article on hookers ordering in Subway because of a power outage holds so much more potential than his dry, facutal article.

You snatch up an awesome rental - good location, fits your family, but something's amiss when men start showing up at all hours. Oh, by the way, it used to be a brothel. Sadly, the new tenants weren't in any position to make the existing advertising work in their favor; they had no interest in running a brothel themselves, and having three small children made them uncomfortable with men arriving to "have a good time" - they no longer live in the former whorehouse. (via)

Richard Abowitz of the LA Times is going undercover: living at the Chicken Ranch, one of Las Vegas' nearby legal brothels, in hopes of uncovering just what legalized prostitution means. This appears to be the first in a series of poorly-linked, unedited-rough-draft blog posts, because that's what the kids like to read these days, right? Hopefully it won't be hard to keep an eye on his articles; I'd like to hear what he's got to say, if it's not too buried in blog crap.

Somebody has some smarts in the U.K.: After an order to close a brothel, a nearby vicar has come to their rescue by pointing out that it has done nothing to curtail crime, but affects needy people's income. A brothel attracts drug dealers and violent crime? Where does the police get that idea? Oh, the community is heading downhill with drugs and violence...it must be the fault of that place where people have sex for money! Rather than arresting dealers and abusers, let's kick out the whores. Smart move, there, bobby. Plus, who knew a church would have somebody that understands logic working for them? Those darn Anglicans, making religious people lo! ok respectable once in a while.

You might be feeling the pain at the pump, but have you looked at diesel prices lately? They've been consistently a buck or two more than gasoline for almost ten years; fill up a 50-gallon truck and it'll cost you $250 bucks to ship your tchotchkes over the road. So, there's been less tchotchke transportation in recent months...much to the chagrin of places like the Bunny Ranch in Nevada who've seen their profits dwindle due to reduced customers.Fewer truckers means less whoopty-hoo is going on in the brothels, which means less income for these hard-working ladies, which makes the ladies cranky enough to kick the ass of any guy who uses the term 'whoopty-hoo' for fucking. Good to know that they charge extra for the ass-kicking. Anyhow, the more rural brothels like Bunny Ranch are doing what they can, and hoping that their ladies can get a little 'stimulus package' out of the guys' pants. The Bunny Ranch is offering a double-your-stimulus offer that might help them out a bit. However, what they really need is some good 'old-fashioned "Buy American" attitude. We don't want these fine institutions to disappear, do we?

Cracked, who apparently can't write unless they're counting something, has a list of the most innovative brothels in the world. While none seem to have anything to do with robots, I guess altering the whorehouse business model can be seen as innovative, if you're a MBA with an interest in managing fucking establishments.Of course, I'm all over #3, the Soaplands, those soapy-with-sex brothels in Japan...the name came because Turkey objected to the name 'turkish baths', so soaplands was was chosen. Too bad about this rule, though: like a lot of higher-end prostitutes in Japan, it's off-limits to foreigners.via