I don't find this practice to be "deeply offensive" or "aggressive" in the least. They stick the book in the nightstand drawer with no signs, notes, or fanfare of any sort. A vast majority of the time, I never even see the thing, because I have no use for the nightstand drawers. When I do see it, I just kinda say…

Yeah, I've also found that the no-frills, business-type hotels tend to have free wifi & a decent free continental breakfast spread. It's the fancy hotels that soak you on nightly rate, then squeeze you some more for wifi, breakfast, parking, etc.

Club levels/rooms have been around for ages (a couple decades, at least). That said, I've only stayed in club rooms a few times in my life, and even then only thanks to complementary upgrades, because I would almost always rather venture out of the hotel for food & drinks.

I live in Chicago, so our "upstate" options are geographically limited; our pets either "go to live on farms" "downstate" or "in Wisconsin".

Your Ameri-boner gif has made my Veteran's Day. I salute you!

Agreed. Their cover of "Baby" is killer:

You're right that you shouldn't have to earn their basic service, which is taking your order, bringing your food & drink, and bringing your check. Those services are included in the price of your meal. But in order to receive their "best service" (honest recommendations, giving the vibe that they're genuinely happy…

It sounds almost exactly like one of those old-school rectangular electric can openers. Not whisper-quiet, but not even loud enough to scare the cat.

I second this. I've been using the precursor to the Encore, the Maestro Plus, every morning for 6 years now. It's a dependable beast, cranking out the perfect semi-coarse grind for our Chemex day after day without fail.

Allow me to summarize your post for the TL;DR crowd:

Damn, that's pretty awesome. I wish Costco did that.

How does that work? Assuming that BJ's, like Costco, sells giant-sized versions of everything, how does a "$1.00 off any 8 oz. Colgate toothpaste" coupon translate to a 6-pack of 14 oz. Colgate tubes? Do they just knock a dollar off the price of the 6-pack?

I came here to mention Scrum's "3-9 people per team" guideline, and saw that you already had it handled.

Costco has coupons as well, which they send out once a month or so. They used to require the coupon to get the applicable coupon, but everyone hated that system, the cashiers used to just keep coupons at the register to scan for members who forgot them at home, customer service was busy issuing partial refunds for…

Good call!

You know what'd be really slick? Go down to JoAnn Fabrics and pick up a foot of carpet that matches your car's interior as closely as possible, roll it around the foam, and either affix it with double-sided tape or put a few thick stitches in it. For a couple bucks more than just the foam, you can have a little…

Lo and behold, here you are.

No, because eleven is one more. Her letter goes to eleven. It's an extra push over the cliff.

Seriously? This many people running to the defense of this ridiculous notion that headphones around the neck or on the head are a valid fashion/lifestyle choice? I'm with you, SteveInWI, if you're an adult and are taking part in a press conference or TV interview, just take the fucking things off for one minute.

Manhattan (at least the lower half of Manhattan) is interesting: it's an oasis of short commutes, presumably because so many people live within walking distance, at most a couple subway stops, from work.