Personal Narrative

A Strange Conversation

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I received a confirming email from a hotel in Atlanta. I am staying there next week on business. It mentioned the amenities of the hotel, including “in-room workouts”. Being the fitness freak that I am I went to the hotel’s website to figure out what exactly that was – but no dice, nothing there on the subject.

Why not workout in my room instead of the workout room, right? My other thought was that I could hire a personal trainer for a short period of time that may come right to the room for some strength training. I figured it would be good to get another person’s opinion of my workouts and to possibly show me some pointers. So lets call the hotel to see what it is about.

Me: Good afternoon. I am calling to  find out  what the in-room workout is. I saw it mentioned  on my confirmation and couldn’t find anything about it on your website.

Hired Help: Oh, that means that you have a treadmill in your room.

Me: Is it extra money?

HH: Yes sir, and we have only two of these rooms in the entire hotel.

Me: Doesn’t sound like it would be worth it, I guess I can walk down to the workout room.

HH: Yea, most people do. Only extremely obese people usually request the treadmill in the room.

Me: OK, thanks for the info.

Cross posted at LITGM.

Waste of Time – Time Spent Wisely

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I visited Portland, Oregon on business a few weeks ago.    I had a spare afternoon and after a workout I decided to give myself a walking tour of the area.   It was mostly nice, with a few seedy places in the downtown area.   As I was walking I came  upon this bar, the Satyricon (Photo credit here).

In and of itself it is not an impressive place, it is a rock club like so many others.   What made me stop in my tracks was the fact that by total chance I had happened upon a place that I partied at some  15 years ago.   I paused and stared at the outside of the club (it was the middle of the day) for five or ten minutes as many memories washed over me.

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The Gut: Tribalism’s Home and Not Always a Bad Thing

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Thanks, Shannon for your blogging, which has  provided a  smorgasbord.  

 

In the comments to his “Identity-Politics Insanity” post, Helen’s observation reminds us of a truth about American politics but more importantly about human nature.   For instance, a balanced ticket is attractive, because we assume more ideas are in play and more people feel an identity with their leaders.   On the other hand, Shannon is right:    identity politics encourages a tribalism whose restraint has been the great triumph of western civilization and a prerequisite for a diverse nation ruled by predictable, equitable laws.   We rightly fear identities that trump law & duty, but we also fear ideologies which encourage children to betray their parents and wives their husbands.   We ignore such passions natural to our species at our own peril: unacknowledged they threaten chaos; diminished, we lack a glue that holds communities and even identities together.

 

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My Turn For Thoughts On Service

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It seems Carl las opened up quite the can of worms talking about the shoddy service he receives on a regular basis in Chicago.   First off, Carl needs to move to Racine or Valparaiso and start commuting every day so he can begin to enjoy the fruits of living rural.   Jokes aside, I do have some relevant thoughts.

I agree with Ginny in her post on the subject on the red/blue states.

I tend to agree with the comments about red state/blue state divisions, though clearly it is  often a matter of rural/urban and mompop/corporate.

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Further Thoughts on Service

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On Service:   I tend to agree with the comments about red state/blue state divisions, though clearly it is  often a matter of rural/urban and mompop/corporate.   Engagement takes energy and minimal intelligence, but most of all it takes an attitude.   Tailoring service to customers is generally best done by widely distributed responsibility and encouragement of innovation.   Shannon’s observations are good.  Establishing a relationship requires some time a large turnover of either customers or workers means that the relationship can’t grow.   Knowing customers, we soon expect that customer to add the extra change that keeps his pockets cleared though such an exchange was surprising the first time it happened.    After a while, a customer knows what the business can do and a business knows what the customer is likely to like.   In the old days, clerks at stores would put aside certain dresses they knew their customers would like; clerks would step into the dressing room and discuss exactly how a bra should fit.    But the temporary nature of workers, the shifting clientele  – all these make such interactions impossible.  

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