Comments

1. I’m sure the Park Hyatt needs the refresh. I wish Hyatt would update its design stylebook. They seem to favor a lot of blonde wood and low-height furniture. It’s like a mix of Japanese and Nordic Ikea-ish. On the whole, Hyatt’s properties just feel more tired compared to Marriott and Hilton. There are still a lot of Hyatt Regency and Hyatt Place properties without accessible bedside electrical or USB outlets in the year 2024.

2. Famous person: DONT YOU LNOW WHO O AM!!!!!?

3. FAA baseline is only 2 days IN OFFICE a week? FFS, these are bureaucrats, not the most self motivated people on the planet, so guaranteed they are watching TV (or porn) 3 days a week on taxpayer dime. Disgusting. But ohhh, if we cut the size of federal government the economy will crash! Yeah, right.

4. She should apologize and acknowledge the cultural differences. European restaurants often turn tables once or twice at most for dinner as dinner is a significant social and luxurating time, taking 3 hours or more. The fact she saw empty tables didn’t mean they were available as they would be filled in less time it would take for a normal European dinner. It also helps the kitchen maintain quality by staging tables with the time they will be filled. I understand she jumped to conclusions and assumptions, but the classy thing to do would be to acknowledge this publicly and reflect on the wonder of cultural differences.

5. Surprised Serena didn’t threaten to shove the ball down the host’s throat

6. Just another mad angry entitled black woman…nothing to see here

7. Gary might go over the top with anecdotes but is an equal opportunity offender.

   Of course, UA is refusing to rebook passengers on other airlines despite making such a big deal about DL not allowing passengers to book whatever they want on other airlines and send the bill to Delta.

8. She gives off Meghan Markle vibes…

9. Does the restaurant refuse to seat young kids?

   Some open restaurants that seem open — because they have staff wandering or standing around — don’t take walk-ins because they aren’t yet open for their first reserved seat times and don’t want to displace reserved guests.

   What I come across more and more is restaurants wanting a commitment to minimum spend per customer to be booked on a reservation. They really have gotten into the business of maximizing revenue per hour of operation.

10. Gary hit the nail on the head with trolly dolly Sara.

11. Thanks for the nuggets, as always!

    Of course a labor union would support the Democratic candidate for President. Why would any labor union endorse a candidate who supports union busting? Why is Musk pouring hundreds of millions into Trump? Trump’s last Secretary of Labor was Eugene Scalia — “During his career in private practice, Scalia has defended major corporations against financial and labor regulations”

    Let’s insert the names of airline CEO’s in your sentence and see if they fit:
    (Airline CEO) has always seemed more interested in engaging in politics through (their) position than advancing the cause of (employees).

12. Sara Nelson lives in the DC area I think. Or at least her husband did for work.

    And a union head wanting to serve the union members would be foolish to ignore political dynamics or to assume that signing up with the union-bashers is going to do more good than bad for the union and it’s unionized employees.

13. @Gary – You strongly imply that Nelson endorsing Harris is good for her and bad for her constituents. Please explain how a union-hating octogenarian who only sees women as chattels or sexual objects would be more favorable for her cause.

14. I’m surprised that Serena Williams doesn’t have a personal assistant or concierge to make difficult reservations for her. If she did she might avoid awkward misunderstandings.

15. Her husband has more resources than she does.

    Given her history of having her family and long-term friends as her key support circle, she probably gives them a break or doesn’t demand a crazy amount from them all of the time. Tennis players also tend to go around by themselves without big entourages, as the coach, agent and practice partners have their own lives too. Even the hired agents in tennis from the biggest entertainment agencies have other things to juggle for the player and other clients than play global babysitter for an adult.

    I don’t know when this incident with Serena Williams at the Peninsula hotel happened, but it sounded like she had her kids along. That could also explain somethings and her disappointment.

16. A relative informed me that I underestimated Serena Williams’ wealth and that she’s probably still wealthier than her wealthy husband.

17. Dear Serena, in Europe, we make reservations. Sorry you were inconvenienced. I pity the unfortunate employee who tried to explain this to you. I suspect that you didn’t listen. And, yes, we KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

18. black women love to play the victim.

19. ……. there is AndyS again with the ridiculous Putin-loving white supremacist messaging? Seems so.

    There are also restaurant reservations in the US. :rolleyes: ….. and yet plenty of such restaurants often make room for high-profile “walk-ins” and very short-order reservations. Just not this one, at least that time. But it could play like this too:

    “Can you accommodate M. Le President et sa mere — I mean wife — tout de suite?”

    “Quand?”

    “Maintenant.”

    “Bien sur.”

20. When Pink was in Sydney on her current tour, she was turned away from a Sydney restaurant at which she had reservations. Some feature of a law required them to verify ID. Despite having a booking at the bar, the 44-year-old was turned away from the venue because she didn’t have an ID on her, Manly Market Manager Mark Eymes told local outlet Manly Observer.

    The local continued: “They said she couldn’t come in without it, even though she explained that she’d already secured her booking with a deposit.”

    Eymes says instead of ‘throw[ing] her weight around,’ the ‘So What’ singer remained ‘really pleasant despite being a little upset that she couldn’t come in’ and so the next thing he saw was the singer and her group simply ‘walking away’.

21. The behavior was pretty much the same from Serena Williams in Paris as from Pink in Sydney. The difference is that Australians are typically more chill than the French in similar positions catering to well-heeled clientele. Racism is of course a dynamic that sometimes hits in both Australia and in France, and in that regard it’s a pretty safe bet to say European-American Pink is much less likely to be snubbed for racism reasons than an African-American.

    Even when Señor Leff was a bambino, MTV for a while was still trying to avoid putting on African-American entertainers — including Michael Jackson at that — on the cable TV channel. And that was during the early Reagan Admin years.

22. And the French and Australians have rather extensive histories with having racism problems of their own. And in some ways the French are even more backwards with racism problems than the US.