PERISCOPE

Peter McKay, 25, of Manhattan, plays with a group of friends about once a month. And though disputes can get heated (possibly because they consume a few drinks beforehand), McKay fancies himself the new Perry Mason. "I would say I win the most of my friends. I'm pretty darn good at it," he says.

Besides its popularity among young urbanites, there's added resonance, says Gretchen Schaefer of the American Tort Reform Association. "It is a sad commentary on the frivolous lawsuits that are filed in the U.S. The civil-justice system is out of control." Creators Jeff Gross and Joel Rogers say they want players to laugh, and aren't trying to poke at those who sue for legitimate reasons. And as for strategy, Gross's tip is, don't underestimate your opponents. "I played the game with two 11-year-olds and a 12-year-old, and they kicked my butt."

--Lisa Helem

Museums: Blast From the Past

Rarely do museums blow you away. Yet at the new Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, guests experience a simulation of an aboveground nuclear test--complete with trembling benches, explosive noise and a swoosh of air. After that, the audience watches a film about the history of testing at the Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas. Those tests were a huge spectator event from 1951 until an international treaty ended aboveground testing in 1962. "This doesn't even do justice to what it was really like: the heat, the light, the intensity," says director Bill Johnson, whose 8,000-square-foot museum is a Smithsonian affiliate. Museum displays include a collection of pop-culture items from the Ike era, like an atomic-themed "Li'l Abner" comic and postcards pushing Vegas as "The Up and Atom City."

Anti-nuke protesters and advocates for the thousands of "downwinders" who suffered cancer caused by the radioactive residue are irked that their side of the story is barely mentioned at an institution largely funded by former test-site workers. (The museum's curator says a changing-exhibit gallery will "expand on those ideas.") Critics have likened the blast simulation to turning the collapse of the World Trade Center into a thrill ride--a "carnival attraction," says Ivan Eland, director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute in Washington, D.C. "That may go over the top a bit." In Vegas? Imagine that.