Holiday Inn, Rodeway and other hotels and motels and such

Department of Useless Information and other wanderings of the mind.

The first Holiday Inn was built on Summer Ave  in Presleyville, aka Memphis, TN. The second one, and the first outside of Memphis, was built in Jackson, TN. The second hotel I ever spent a night in was the old Maxwell House in Nashville. The Navy paid for it and I remember getting on an elevator in which a drunken woman of later mid years showed immediate interest. Her Maid took immediate protective measures, stopping the elevator long before I reached my floor and shooing me off.

Ah, such is life. Here I was about to be taken advantage of and this Maid person had to start making value judgments.

The first Holiday Inn I stayed in was at Bangor, Maine. I was being transferred from Argentina and on a seven (7) day road trip home for 30 days of leave before I reported to the next duty station. Just my wife and me and two kids in a car that was so full that the kids traveled in the back set… setting, laying and sleeping on a level surface of strategically placed suitcases, with padding, about 6” below the top of the front seats.

Yeah, I know. The PC people would go absolutely nuts today. The kids loved it. They played, slept and accused, “Momma, she pushed me!” 

And it was July …and the car had no air conditioner.

Seven days and neither were harmed by the ride or their parents although there were some moments…....

The only good duty station is the one where you were and the one where you were going.

The next Holiday Inn I stayed in was in Russellville, AR. The Navy was long past and my civilian boss had decided where we should stay. The Railroad YMCA, $4.00 a night. Deciding that they needed me more than I needed them I checked into the Holiday Inn at a special weekly rate of $12.00 a day. I then called my boss’s secretary. I told her what I had done and noted that my companion had joined me only after my threats and that if there were any problems I would check out in the morning and my next stop would be at home on my way to join IBM.

My boss called back immediately and assured me that the problem was with Accounting demanding we spend less but he would “take care of it.” We both knew he was bsing but I wisely thanked him, went down to the ice machine, filled the bucket, beat on my companion’s door and we went to my room, built ourselves a VO and water and tried to figure out which of the three restaurants in town we would have dinner in.

It’s nice to be loved. Even nicer to have a job offer in your pocket.

Russellville was dry as a bone. Nearest place for a drink was 35 miles away at a VFW. Who said life would not have its ups and downs??

Holiday Inns and I have had many more ups than downs but it was at a Rodeway Inn in which I heard the world’s best put down. Three of us were having drinks in the bar when a friend made several hits on the waitress. None were successful in obtaining a telephone number or even the slightest hint he would ever get one.

So we went out with clients and had dinner and came back and got up the next morning and worked all day and met in the same bar the next PM where we had the same waitress serving us. She approached our table, smiled and said, “I hope you all are just fine today!”

To which my friend replied, “Well, I’m still horny.”

Without missing a beat she replied, “Know what honey? In your case I can understand why.”

I made sure she received a very nice tip.

Back during the first energy crunch I stayed at a Holiday Inn that wanted to conserve. It was your typical roadside motel. All of the rooms were entered from the parking lot and had heat pumps under the window. When I got in the room I discovered that the heat pump required the room key to be turned on and if the key was removed it would shut down. It was blue nose cold outside and in the room and I was going to have to go out for supper and come back to a cold room.

So I left the key in the heat pump, went and ate and stopped at the front desk and asked for another key since I had left mine in the room.

In those days of yesteryear room keys were KEYS of METAL not pieces of plastic that will become useless if you carry them in your pocket next to your cell phone.

I got one, went to my WARM room, went to sleep got the next morning and checked out. As I was doing so I asked the clerk if they were saving much electricity with the key in the heat pump thing.

“Don’t know,” she said, “but a lot more people are leaving their keys in the room and needing a second one than they did before we changed the heaters."

Ah, people. They’ll beat a foolish system every time.

I remember thinking how stupid the hotel’s owner was in spending money on something that didn’t save energy and just cost money.

But then I hadn’t yet heard of the manmade global warming hoax and Solyandra.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper 

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Little Akio, or from the mouths of children

The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American History. Who said 'Give me Liberty ,or give me Death'?"

She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Little Akio, a bright foreign exchange student from Japan, who had his hand up: "Patrick Henry, 1775," he said.

"Very good! -- Who said, 'Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth'?"

Again, no response except from Little Akio: "Abraham Lincoln, 1863."

"Excellent!" said the teacher continuing,"Let's try one a bit more difficult -- Who said, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country'?"

Once again, Akio's was the only hand in the air and he said: "John F. Kennedy, 1961."

The teacher snapped at the class, "Class, you should be ashamed of yourselves, Little Akio isn't from this country and he knows more about our history than you do."

She heard a loud whisper: "F_ _ k the Japs.""Who said that? -- I want to know right now!? she angrily demanded.

Little Akio put his hand up, "General MacArthur, 1945."

At that point, a student in the back said, "I'm gonna puke.'

The teacher glares around and asks, 'All right! -- Now who said that?"

Again, Little Akio says, "George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991."

Now furious, another student yells, "Oh yeah? -- Suck this!"

Akio jumps out of his chair waving his hand and shouts to the teacher, "Bill Clinton, to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!"

Now with almost mob hysteria someone said, "You little shit! -- If you say anything else -- I'll kill you!"

Little Akio frantically yells at the top of his voice, "Michael Jackson to the children testifying against him, 2004."

The teacher fainted. As the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, "Oh crap, We're screwed!"

Little Akio said quietly, "The American people, Presidential election, 2008." 

Hat tip to Dave T!

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Cheating at poker

Cheating at poker has progressed over the years. Whereas the supposed problem in the Old West was slick dealers stacking the deck and players sliding a hidden Ace into their hand the most usual cheating today is team play. 

Simply put team play can be used to run a player out with multiple raises or raise a team mate’s big hand so he wins a bigger pot. Somewhat more complex play is available almost exclusively on the Internet where 3 or 4 players tell each other what they have via phone or Internet. This allows a player to know certain things. That is, if three guys threw away an Ace and an Ace flopped then the fourth player’s pocket Kings is good and he knows it. That’s a bit simplistic but it shows my point. And if you can get  20 extra small and big bets in per session that’s an extra $600 in a 20-40 game going to your stack.

In live games that is almost impossible. But two people playing together is not. A buddy raises before the flop. Four people call.  The flop comes. The bettor bets and the raiser raises again. Three players fold. One  player calls. The bettor reraises… and the player in the middle mucks his hand. If the cheaters are smart they bet/call to the River when one bets and the other folds. The dumber ones just check the hand down and one shows his hand and the other folds. A few instances of that and the smarter players at the table either get up and leave or complain, sometimes loudly, to the Floor Person supervising the game.

Unlike the Old West, cheating in casino card rooms is mostly ignored.  While checking the Nuts in a tournament to your friend, if detected, will get you a penalty, team play may get a warning from the Floor Person but in 99% of the cases, nothing else.

Worse, many people see nothing wrong in two buds soft playing in tournaments as well as ring games although multiple complaints sometimes bring banning.

Which is better than “Go for your gun, sidewinder!”

But what to do?? My solution is make suspects show both hands if there is a bet and call, or if there both suspects check. And complain to the Floor Person, quietly if you don’t want controversy. Or just bring the subject while talking to another person. Sometimes just the subject being aired stops it.  But if it doesn’t stop, pick up your chips and leave. 

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Whatever happened to those crazy girls??

You know, I didn't note the time frame of my comments in my last post. It was in the late 70's. Of course before then we had the hippies and free love, free that is if you didn't add in the cost of the doctor visit and penicillin shots. (At least that's what my friends have told me.) Then came herpes and then came AIDS and the world changed. But during the 60's....

The Sixties

For all of you who remember being there . . .
And for those of you who are too young and weren't there
- but sometimes wish you had been . .
..

Remember
the words from the song 

"Where have all the flowers gone . . .
Long time passing ..."?

Have you ever wondered what happened. . .
to all those really cute and crazy, great looking, barefoot, young hippie chicks . . .

. .... ..who didn't wear bra's,
did drugs, smoked weed, and got tattooed. . .

...and had sex with every guy they met during that great Age of Aquarius back in the 60's?

Well, wonder no more!

Hat tip to Dave T!

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

What happened to the babes and where did all the fat women come from?

One of the people I admire is Burt Prelutsky. And not just because he admits to being old. I do it because he writes things such as this:

One thing that I have become aware of is that the female icons of today are not as attractive as they used to be, and I don’t attribute that to my age, but to their lack of faces and figures. For instance, Angelina Jolie has the pencil legs of a 90-year-old and lips that are larger than her arms; Lady Gaga looks like something the cat dragged in; and Sarah Jessica Parker looks like the homely girl that pretty girls hung out with in high school so they’d look even prettier by comparison. When you compare them to the likes of Rhonda Fleming, Rita Hayworth and Doris Day, you’d think you were comparing different species from different planets. (Emphasis added.)

Link

Long before the movie "Ten" came out a friend and I sat at the upstairs restaurant in the old Atlanta airport one fine 11ish morning and after sipping a few adult beverages to cover up the headaches from the previous night's adult beverages I remarked how delightful and well groomed the females in our view were. (Actually I probably said something like, "Damn that is one good looking sweet thing....")

My friend, agreeing with my observation, added, "We should devise a rating system. You know, like they do in the Olympics."

So we did. Now I won't trouble you with the details, but we didn't see a female in over an hour of watching and drinking below a 7. And yes, I remember that "the girls get prettier at closing time" and Jimmy M's immortal comment, "Fat women need love too," but it was, as I said, 11ish in the morning and I had practiced my drinking to the point that four or so VO and 7's didn't warp my judgement the way they would now.

The women were dressed better, had better figures, nicer hair do's, their make up was done correctly and they walked and carried themselves in a way that said, "Look at me. I'm a good looking sexy Lady."

I don't remember much else. My friend caught a flight to southeast LA and I probably flew back to Memphis although I can't be sure.

And lest you think my admiration of Burt's observation and comments is based only on memory, be aware that I still get around a bit. And the women I see in airports and in the casinos when I'm walking around between poker games or on break are almost uniformly 3's and below.

No wonder the birth rate is plunging. A lot of these babes are so fat I don't see how anyone could get close enough to get them pregnant....or want to.

Now we didn't rate the guys. I mean being the sexist selfish ignorant pigs that we were it didn't occur to us.

But I have to say that had we done so we would have seen men dressed smartly in suits and ties or neatly in casual clothes with shined shoes and no tattoos. And if they had a beard it would be neatly trimmed and no "5 o'clock shadows."

Now a huge majority look like they dressed to work on their car and have just completed a 12 hour shift doing same. In addition to being unkempt they are likely to be dirty and their beards are shaggy and many look like they haven't shaved in days.

You see them on TV all the time, except the babes are 10's and they are zeros... again  a valid reason why the birth rate is plunging... But's that's TV and if nothing else TV knows its market.

The two groups deserve each other.



"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

The three stages of a man's life

Cappy sent me this. I'm not sure why I used it because I've been married to the same woman for 54 years and 2 months... Yes, I married a Saint who is tolerant, wise, understanding and forgiving...

But, I have known some friends who went through the process....

Now  that I've gotten started....

A friend asked me about my garden.

It's the best I ever had. Man made global warming (sarcasm alert!) allowed me to get it in early and the green beans have produced and produced and produced. We have some 40 odd packets in the freezer along with whole tomatoes, corn, purple hull peas....

I put in Better Girl tomatoes and they have out done my expectations. As I set them out I put in a table spoon of Epsom Salt, mixed well in the soil and used fertilizer with calcium. No end root of the fruit. And yes, boys and girls tomatoes are a fruit. Also helped the squash and cukes.

Tried a hybrid okra and it has done great. The pod is much longer and smaller in girth than what I've been using. Tastes great. Only I have lost the seed packet and can't remember the name.

I am, of course, required to talk a small bit about politics.

I look at Obama's "tax plan" as pure BS.  I say this because:

The Senate can't introduce a revenue bill. So Harry Reid mouthing about it is nonsense. You might say the entire thing is theater written and directed by Obama, produced by Harry Reid and distributed by the Lame Stream Media, aka ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and the press.

BTW - If you have never visited GOC, you need to. He has 4 videos of John Sununu educating the talking heads. He really porks them and it is funny as hell. Too bad McCain's surrogates didn't have the balls to do the same in '08 but then McCain was too busy trying to be nice.

GOC

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

 “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine

Is Obama a Muslim?

Faye C sent me the link below. Supposedly Fox News has bent to pressure from the Obama regime and won't let Hannity show it.

Link

I don't know if that is true.

What I do know though is that Obama did spend his formative years in a Muslim country and his father and stepfather were Muslims and that at the school he attended he was entered as a Muslim. And although it is denied by some, I think it is plain that the school fit the description as Muslim school, a Madrassa, in function if not in name.

What does this mean? Nothing.

Except when you connect that to what he says in the video you have to come to the realization that he was greatly influenced as a child by the Islamic religion and that this influence is at work today.

Then the question becomes:

Do we want a President that is under this much influence by the Islamic religion?

Your call boys and girls.

My answer is no.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine