The 'hood' area of the yacht folds out to become a big platform, usable as either a helipad, a place to do donuts with your supercar, a stage for when you use your resources to re-animate Nick Drake and have him perform, or anything else you want. The yacht also is capable of working in differing 'modes,' so it can be…

Sounds like this SNL commercial parody:

Deleted because I skimmed over the first paragraph.

Came here to see if anyone made a Lewis Black joke. Left satisfied...thank you.

Just a couple months ago I was informed by a Notre Dame alum that MD has "the best undergraduate and graduate schools in the country, look it up." This person didn't offer any additional instructions on where I could "look it up", unfortunately. I was amused (though not as amused after this past weekend's…

Dick move, dude. It's like we're laughing, we're laughing, everyone's having fun, Putin joke, we're laughing, BAM! LOYAL OLD DOG DIES WAITING FOR HIS MASTER. Just like that, buzz harshed.

Huh. Good counterpoint, and food for thought.

I recently tried to pick a Jetta at an airport car rental, but apparently it was "out of order", so out of morbid curiosity, I went with the 200 parked next to it. While it was generic as hell and I hated the rotating knob gearshift, on the whole it wasn't bad.

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?