Staying in Fancy Hotels

That's a photo of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu taken after it opened in 1927.  Not shown is its famous pink color.

I've visited it many times, walking its public areas, poking around its shops and having a drink and bar food on its grounds.  But I never stayed there.

Truth is, I've stayed in very few famous hotels.  That's mostly because I can't afford to or cannot justify the added expense compared to more affordable nearby lodging.   And when I was on sales trips for my little consulting business I stayed at Motel 6s plenty of times.  (Tip: the better ones were more distant from those in central city sites.)

Nevertheless, I have overnighted in a few iconic hotels, usually when traveling with my late wife.  In most cases it was because we were able to get good rates.

Our best deal was at the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco where we got upgraded to a suite a floor or two down the the famous Top of the Mark bar.  I also stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, once while on a consulting project and in the fall of 2016 because we were in town and wanted to do it because it would soon close for a major renovation.  Later that trip we stayed a couple nights at the Chateau Frontenac in Québec in part due to my wife's failing health.

And that was it so far as iconic hotels are concerned.  Well, until I learned of a sweet deal for staying at the original part of the Royal Hawaiian.  Will be there early in 2018.

Christmas in Philadelphia, 1966

Philadelphia had a big Christmas Eve snowfall in 1966 and I was unfortunate enough to be there.

I entered grad school at Penn in the fall of 1966.  That was before airline deregulation, so air fares were somewhat expensive.  I was on what they called a teaching fellowship, with tuition paid and a salary sufficient for basic needs, but not for extras such as flying home to Seattle for Christmas break.  Moreover, I hadn't put down roots in Philly and no one knew me well enough yet to think about inviting me for the holidays.

So on Christmas Eve day I took the streetcar to nearby downtown Philadelphia and poked around to help fill the day.  Went window shopping on Walnut Street, gazed across Rittenhouse Square, visited Wanamaker's department store near City Hall.  City Hall had a huge statue of "Billy" Penn atop it, and Wanamaker's had a large eagle statue inside.  During these wanderings, it started to snow -- lightly at first, then building up.  Sensing that matters were getting worse, I retreated to my little apartment on the top floor of a converted row house on Pine Street, between 39th and 40th.

Next morning was Christmas.  The snow had stopped, and there was about a foot of snow all over everything including the streets.  Besides being Christmas Day, it also was a Sunday so almost nothing was being done to clear streets and sidewalks.  I opened the few presents my parents had sent me and decided that I really wanted a copy of the Sunday New York Times.

The only place that might have newspapers was the 30th Street railroad station, about a mile away.  I trudged through the deep snow and silent streets because the streetcars weren't running and eventually got there.  Sure enough, there was a news stand with copies of the Times sent down by train.  Getting home was easier because I discovered that the Market Street subway line was working, so I rode a train to 40th Street, about half a mile from my place.  Spent the afternoon reading the paper and looking ahead to Monday when the city would begin to come alive again.

A Trend Near Its End

Here is a snippet from a post that will appear on my Art Contrarian blog sooner or later.

I've been noticing for quite a while a number of young women wearing tattered jeans.  But now the weather was getting quite cool, and I was still seeing a lot of bare leg peeking out behind all those tatters.  This post was triggered in early December when I walked past the display window of my local American Eagle Outfitters store and saw some seriously "distressed" women's jeans on display. How much more distressing is possible?, I wondered.  Not much, I concluded.

Some background.  Half a century ago, young men bought blue jeans from Levi's, Wrangler's and other brands.  They were stiff and uniformly dyed.  After a year or so of steady wear, the fabric would soften and the color faded, often in areas such as the knees and thighs.   Eventually cuffs might become frayed and fabric might begin to wear through at the knees.  This kind of wear-and-tear became something of a status thing.  Some wearers of well-used jeans began to look down on folks wearing those stiff, new jeans.   Clothing companies eventually caught on to this and marketed factory-faded garments.  In recent years outfits such as Ralph Lauren were selling men's jeans that were not only pre-faded, but had factory-made fraying here and there.  This trend led to mass-produced worn-through knee areas on pant legs.  And beyond, though mostly for women's jeans

Two examples from American Eagle's website are shown below.

Gallery

Here is more or less the initial case of manufactured frayed-through jeans knees.

And this is how extreme it has become.