VegasBeat -- Timothy McDarrah: Al has silver tongue for the Silver State

Tomato. Tom-AY-to.

Potato. Po-TAY-to.

Nevada. Ne-VAAH-Da.

I haven't been in Las Vegas too long, but it ain't hard to tell who is from the Silver State and pronounces the state name like a native.

For example, when ABC promotes its new Thursday-night show "Push, Nevada," the network announcer invariably pronounces it "Ne-VAH-da," as if he's from anywhere but Nevada.

However, when "Monday Night Football" play-by-play man Al Michaels started talking last Monday about the offbeat mystery drama from producers Ben Affleck and Sean Bailey, he said "Nevada" as if he lives here -- drawing out the middle "a."

Michaels promised to talk about it more on tonight's broadcast of the St. Louis Rams at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The correct pronounciation "is a particular source of pride," Michaels told VegasBeat over the phone late last week.

The veteran broadcaster said he is "a proud student of history, geography and language" and that he was flattered when told that several readers had contacted VegasBeat to point out Michaels' correct pronunciation.

"This is not the first time something like that got noticed," ABC Sports exec Mark Mandel told us.

"Push, Nevada" stars Derek Cecil as a mild-mannered Internal Revenue Service agent and invites viewers to solve puzzles hidden in the story, which revolves around missing money.

At the end of 13 episodes, the winner of the mystery contest will claim the "stolen" money, which will exceed $1 million.

Remember Atari?

Rade Stojsavljevic remembers Atari games. Even "Pong."

But what he has helped to create over the past five years is, well, of an entirely new dimension.

He is part of the team of designers of the new computer game "Earth & Beyond," from the Las Vegas techies Westwood Studios, near Smoke Ranch Road and Rainbow Boulevard.

The by-subscription online game, the first online role-playing galaxy, is a brilliant step in the evolution of the genre.

As a pinball aficionado myself, I have been slow to come around to games with the various characters, weapons and spacecraft that "Earth & Beyond" offers.

But at a test run the other day, it was easy to appreciate the stunning graphics and cool sounds.

All the computer writers who were there seemed quite enthralled by the game.

"It is like episodic television," Stojsavljevic explained. "We will continue to add new characters and other elements to keep it fresh."

Thousands of people can log on and play concurrently, adding another level of challenge.

It is available at electronics stores starting Tuesday.

Mattress games

A few readers have called after driving past Phillips Furniture on Lake Mead Drive in Henderson. The business has had a sign in front offering beds slept in by "Salt Lake City Olympic athletes."

We called the store to verify that they were in fact beds used by 2002 Winter Olympians, or were in fact prison or hospital extras and the furniture store had a clever signmaker.

"Honestly, I have no idea where they came from," said a man who answered the phone at Phillips, adding they were bought surplus.

Peggy Manter, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., told VegasBeat that most of the "nonintellectual property" from Salt Lake was in fact sold or donated to charities.

But until the final Olympic report is issued this winter, there was no way to immediately know if the bed claim was legit, she said.

Magic money?

A lot of promotional items arrive on our desk, from baubles to baseball caps. The items are stored for a charity auction the Sun holds each holiday season.

But no one has ever sent cash -- until now.

As part of the big push The Rio is making to let the world know the magicians Penn & Teller are starting an extended run there this weekend, we got a (small) box of quarters in the mail, along with a chocolate rat.

The coins are supposed to be brought to The Rio parking lot at 10:30 a.m. Thursday for an event called Four Million Quarters and One Very Large Crane.

The rat? Insert your own joke here.

Actually, it probably has something to do with the comic-magicians' appearance at 8 tonight on NBC's "Celebrity Fear Factor."

Penn & Teller are also slated for "The Wayne Brady Show" Oct. 4 and "Hollywood Squares" Oct. 7 through Oct. 11.

Chips ahoy

The Palms today introduces limited-edition poker chips to mark the new season of the CBS crime drama "C.S.I." The premiere was filmed at the hotel and airs Thursday.

The Palms is also distributing a series of chips to mark the 20th anniversary of Playboy's home-video collection. The chips are being released on Friday.

But the biggie is the Ozzy Osbourne chip, which will appear when he does, at Rain on Oct. 25.

"He sent us a scary photo of himself -- but we made it even worse," the Palms' Gene Trimble said.

Check out

Robin Leach spelunking in the glass wine tower at Aureole in Mandalay Bay for an upcoming "Extra!" segment ... Retired New York City cop Ray Garvey shooting anything but blanks at Riviera Comedy Club, where he opened Sunday. He has played bit parts in 11 Woody Allen movies ... Tony Curtis with Binion's Horseshoe exec Gene Kilroy and producer Arthur Rosson Jr. at Stephanie Passera's Kitchen Cafe ... Charo leaving a tip "way over 20 percent" for her Mediterranean shrimp scampi for waitress Alisa Greer at the Olive Garden on Flamingo Road ... Howie Mandel buying a gelato before taking in the Rush show at MGM Grand Garden Arena ... Final pay-per-view numbers for the Oscar De La Hoya-Fernando Vargas fight: more than 900,000 buys, which generated about $45.6 million.

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