Posts Tagged ‘bitten’
Tuesday, November 13th, 2012
You know, after you been bitten hundreds of times by bedbugs, which, you know, are all over the place in San Francisco. Still.
Like at your hotel, dear Visitor.
Like, I don’t know, did the Hotel Whitcomb,change its name owing to some issue with bedbugs?
The old Ramada is now the new Whitcomb. But it’s still the same place:
Click to expand
Oh, here we go:
“Downtown Bedbug Attack Costs Ramada $71,000“
(I don’t know if I’d call this area “downtown,” but anywho, wow.)
Now, let’s hear from Kris Betz, Hotel Whitcomb Director of Operations, to get a (somewhat) canned response to a relatively recent allegation of infestation:
“19 July 2011
Dear Guest,
We are sorry for any discomfort that you may have experienced and we are very concerned about what happened. We want you to know that it is our highest priority to provide our guests with the cleanest rooms possible. We have a dedicated inspection team of trained staff that inspects all our rooms to ensure that these cases do not arise.
As you mentioned that you did not find any evidence, so it is possible you could have encountered them elsewhere. Please note that this incident has nothing to do with the cleanliness of our rooms. Please rest assured that this is not a reflection of our facilities cleanliness, as we take pride in providing excellent service and the cleanest accommodations, for all our guests.
Please feel free to contact me at your convenience so we may discuss any circumstances which may have occurred and please accept our sincerest apologies.
Kris Betz, Director of Operations”
I don’t know, man, I feel sorry for the Euros what stay at this place. They’re pretty much all gorgeous,* in-shape,* natural blond(e)s,* who just want to have fun in the 415, you know, they just want to pose for photos with big American police cars and fire trucks and stuff like that and what’s so wrong with that?
I feel sorry for them when they get shot and killed on Mason in Union Square or run over and killed by drunk drivers on Masonic or bitten 400 times by bedbugs during one stay.
I kind of feel that we’re letting these people down. I feel we’re shirking our obligations to our tourists.
If I were Director of Operations at Hotel Whitcomb, I would engage in total war with the bedbugs.
And I wouldn’t write “Dear Guest” letters what discuss possibilities and evidence.
Just saying.
*Unlike me.
Tags: 1231 market, 2012, 8th, bay area, bay citizen, bed, bed bugs, bedbugs, bites, bitten, bugs, california, civic center, Dear Guest, Director of Operations, europeans, euros, hotel, hotel whitcomb, hotel whitcombe, Katharine Mieszkowski, Kris Betz, lawsuit, letter, market, mid market, ramada plaza, registry, room, San Francisco, street, twitterloin, visitors, whit.com
Posted in crime, health | 3 Comments »
Monday, August 13th, 2012
Famed restaurateur Gordon Ramsay is moving on from restaurants to hotels starting today – HOTEL HELL debuts tonight on the Fox.
Check it:
“If [hotels] suggest they will upgrade you to the honeymoon suite, don’t take it. I’m trying to be serious because it is somewhat shocking. I just didn’t think it could shoot that far. I’m talking about if you shake a can of Coke and open it.”
OK fine.
Actually, GR, I was thinking that bed bugs might belong at the top of the list.
Market Street, USA:
Click to expand
But, hey Gordo, are you going to come to the 415? We need you here.
Speaking of Market Street and bed bugs, here’s what the Hotel Whitcomb (renamed from Ramada Plaza not too long ago because of a massive lawsuit involving bed bugs and ballyhoo) will send out to you if you report dozens of bites on your porcelain skin:
“19 July 2011
Dear Guest,
We are sorry for any discomfort that you may have experienced and we are very concerned about what happened. We want you to know that it is our highest priority to provide our guests with the cleanest rooms possible. We have a dedicated inspection team of trained staff that inspects all our rooms to ensure that these cases do not arise.
As you mentioned that you did not find any evidence, so it is possible you could have encountered them elsewhere. Please note that this incident has nothing to do with the cleanliness of our rooms. Please rest assured that this is not a reflection of our facilities cleanliness, as we take pride in providing excellent service and the cleanest accommodations, for all our guests.
Please feel free to contact me at your convenience so we may discuss any circumstances which may have occurred and please accept our sincerest apologies.
Kris Betz, Director of Operations”
That’s how we roll in San Francisco’s corrupt Mid Market Twitterloin.
So sure, you’re covered in bites, but:
1. You probably got bitten somewhere else, not at Hotel Whitcomb!
2. Or maybe you’re just making things up, maybe you’re insane!
3. Or maybe you’re not insane but you’re a criminal who wants to shake us down for, I don’t know, another big fat $71,000 judgment / settlement!
4. Or maybe you did encounter bed bugs in one of our rooms, but probably you didn’t experience any discomfort, right? Kind of a no harm no foul kind of thing!
5. And, in any event, our rooms are clean. Did I mention that before? Our rooms are clean. Can I mention this fact four times in five sentences? YES I CAN!
Save us, Gordon Ramsay.
Tags: 1231 market, 2, 2012, 8th, bay area, bed, bed bugs, bedbugs, bites, bitten, bugs, california, channel, civic center, Dear Guest, Director of Operations, europeans, euros, fox, Gordon Ramsay, honeymoon, hotel, HOTEL HELL, hotel whitcomb, hotel whitcombe, Kris Betz, lawsuit, letter, market, market street, mid market, network, ramada plaza, registry, room, San Francisco, sperm, street, suite, twitterloin, visitors, whit.com
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
So there I was out getting exercise by getting those Billy Elliot rush tickets at the Orpheum Theatre* and I noticed the new name for this old hotel.
See? I totally read that as Hotel Whit.Com, ’cause, you know, I’m not hooked up right:
Click to expand
But then I thought, oh, the Hotel Whitcomb, is that the place where they might have changed the name owing to some issue with bedbugs?
Oh, here we go:
“Downtown Bedbug Attack Costs Ramada $71,000“
(I don’t know if I’d call this area “downtown,” but anywho, wow.)
Now, let’s hear from Kris Betz, Hotel Whitcomb Director of Operations, to get a (somewhat) canned response to quite recent allegations of infestation:
“19 July 2011
Dear Guest,
We are sorry for any discomfort that you may have experienced and we are very concerned about what happened. We want you to know that it is our highest priority to provide our guests with the cleanest rooms possible. We have a dedicated inspection team of trained staff that inspects all our rooms to ensure that these cases do not arise.
As you mentioned that you did not find any evidence, so it is possible you could have encountered them elsewhere. Please note that this incident has nothing to do with the cleanliness of our rooms. Please rest assured that this is not a reflection of our facilities cleanliness, as we take pride in providing excellent service and the cleanest accommodations, for all our guests.
Please feel free to contact me at your convenience so we may discuss any circumstances which may have occurred and please accept our sincerest apologies.
Kris Betz, Director of Operations”
I don’t know, man, I feel sorry for the Euros what stay at this place. They’re pretty much all gorgeous,** in-shape,** natural blonds,** who just want to have fun in the 415, you know, they just want to pose for photos with big American police cars and fire trucks and what’s so wrong with that? I feel sorry for them when they get shot and killed on Mason in Union Square or run over and killed by drunk drivers on Masonic or bitten 400 times by bedbugs during one stay. I kind of feel that we’re letting these people down. I feel we’re shirking our obligations to our tourists.
If I were Director of Operations at Hotel Whitcomb, I would engage in total war with the bedbugs. And I wouldn’t write “Dear Guest” letters what discuss possibilities and evidence.
Just saying.
*Man, for $40 a pop, that’s the best live entertainment value in town, although I think it’s kind of random how good the rush ticket seats are – down in the Orchestra, up in the Mez, who knows. Now,you gotta show up two hours before the performance (at least two hours, and still there’s no guarantee that they won’t be sold out) so that’s your classical price discrimination in operation right there. Anyway, the fun ends August 21, 2011!
BILLY ELLIOT RUSH SEATS NOW AVAILABLE
30 tickets per performance will be offered at $40 per ticket.
- Available 2 hours prior to curtain
- CASH only
- Orpheum Theatre Box Office ONLY
- First come, First served
- 2 per person
**Unlike me.
Tags: 1231 market, 8th, bed, bed bugs, bedbugs, bites, bitten, bugs, civic center, Dear Guest, Director of Operations, europeans, euros, hotel, hotel whitcomb, hotel whitcombe, Kris Betz, lawsuit, letter, market, mid market, ramada plaza, registry, room, street, twitterloin, visitors, whit.com
Posted in health | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
All the deets.
Our handsome Orpheum Theatre:
Click to expand
RAIN Website
Washington Post Review
Rain on Good Morning America
“DIRECT FROM BROADWAY
RAIN, the internationally-acclaimed Beatles concert, returns by popular demand! “As “the next best thing to seeing The Beatles!” (Associated Press), RAIN performs the full range of The Beatles’ discography live onstage, including the most complex and challenging songs that The Beatles themselves recorded in the studio but never performed for an audience. Together longer than The Beatles, RAIN has mastered every song, gesture and nuance of the legendary foursome, delivering a totally live, note-for-note performance that’s as infectious as it is transporting. From the early hits to later classics (I Want To Hold Your Hand, Hard Day’s Night, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Let It Be, Come Together, Hey Jude and more), this adoring tribute will take you back to a time when all you needed was love, and a little help from your friends!”
London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared, and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls
London calling, now don’t look to us
Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust
London calling, see we ain’t got no swing
‘Cept for the ring of that truncheon thing
Tags: 2011, April 8-10, bay area, beatlemania, beatles, bitten, broadway, california, dust, music, musical, orheum, rain, San Francisco, shn, songs, theatre, tickets, tribute
Posted in music, theatre | No Comments »
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition organizes a lot of protests here in the Bay Area, as is their right. And they seem to consistently exaggerate the number of souls who participate in their marches, as is their right. O.K. fine. But Saturday’s march down Market Street on the sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War had such small numbers compared to the big antiwar marches of 2003 that a person could have easiy tallied up an accurate estimate, if only to see how much the ANSWER Coalition exaggerates.
The “answer” is this: they overestimate by 200%. It’s the Rule of Three, just like in the movie American Pie 2. So, take the “official” estimate of 4000 marchers, divide by three to get 1333 and there you have it. Bingo bango.
Here’s Saturday’s march from above. The 440 or so people marked with white circles represent a third of the total number. (It took about 4 minutes to tally this shot and another ten minutes to tally folks in other photos.) Click to expand:
(Of course lots of people want to give President Barack Obama some time to have a chance to deal with matters, and it was raining, and yada yada yada. The point is that it shouldn’t be so hard to say that the crowd was slightly bigger or smaller than last year – there’s no reason to lie about it, is there? Moving on…)
Kudos to the Socialist Worker, which came a bit closer with an estimate of 2500 people. Perhaps they use the Rule of Two.
Double kudos to local journalist and photographer Josh Wolfe, who came in with “maybe 1000 people” as his honest estimate. Bay City News kept it conservative with “hundreds,” which is literally true, but that word could also suggest 200 or so. Oh well. The San Jose Mercury News played it safe with no estimate at all.
And SFGate / San Francisco Chronicle? Well, they originally went with “massive” as a description of the masses (which was particularly inappropriate given that similar marches six years ago had numbers about 50 times greater), but then pulled back a bit later to just talking about the “crowds.” All of this is ably documented by Robert B. Livingston here on the IndyBay.
Check it, before:
And after:
Originally posted by Mr. Livingston, I presume.
Robert Livingston is also correct in stating that writers Heather Knight and Steve Rubenstein produced a bit that was “well composed, accurate, and captured much of the essence” of the event, so that’s a good thing. It’s not clear who came up with the boner “massive.”
Chronicle Editor-at-Large Phil Bronstein has recently opined on these kinds of issues – here’s a re-hash of a count controversy back in 2003.
Anyway, the correct estimate is 1330 marchers, mas o menos, depending whether you include the cops, the undercover cops, the people who didn’t have the chance to march because they were setting up in Civic Center, the people who left early, the people who arrived late, the marchers without signs who happen to be on the sidewalks, the photographers, the videographers, etc.
The Rule of Three has been tested and proven. Would certain people have more credibility if they didn’t spin so much? Yes, yes they would.
Jessica: “If a guy tells you how many girls he’s hooked up with, it’s not even close to that. You take that number and divide it by three, then you get the real total. OK, so if Kevin is saying it’s been three girls it’s more like one or none.”
Vicky: “None?”
Jessica: “The rule of three. It’s an exact science. Consistent as gravity.”
Tags: 2, 2009, 6th, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, Afghanistan, american pie, anniversary, answer, antiwar, arrests, bitten, black block, civic center, coalition, code pink, codepink, cops, crowd, Embarcadero, estimate, indybay, invasion, iraq, israel, jusitn herman, Labor Against the War, march, marchers, market, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars , national lawyers guild, nlg, observer, officer, palestine, parade, peace, plaza, police, Progressive Democrats of America, protest, rock, rule of three, San Francisco, Sarah Carlson, SFPD, size, street, three, times, U.S., Veterans for Peace, war
Posted in protests | 2 Comments »
Saturday, March 21st, 2009
Well, of course, it wasn’t actually like nobody came, but the crowd at today’s International Day of Action on the 6th Anniversary of Iraq War had an unexpectedly low turnout, even considering the spates of rain. Was the crowd “massive,” as indicated by the San Francisco Chronicle? No, not at all. Do some people at the Chron have a “massive” problem estimating crowd size? Yes, apparently.
Did 4000 people march? No. Did at least a couple thousand march? No. Not to belabor the point, but you don’t need to hire a helicopter to accurately estimate the size of a march. Moving on…
Where’s Waldo? Sadly he wasn’t there. But, where’s Code Pink and the Black Block? Click to expand and you’ll find them. This was the bulk of the crowd just after the speakers stopped speaking, with the insular International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) camera left, out of frame.
So yes, there were other groups around the Ferry Building area but they were much smaller. Oh, here’s Code Pink:
One of the speakers was a San Francisco Chronicle employee(!) From her, the crowd learned that “health care is free and will always be free in Cuba.” She urged listeners to defy the current ban on travel to Cuber by visiting this year, specifically July. O.K fine.
Heading up Market Street in light, on-again-off-again rain:
And here’s el bloque negro:
The 911 Truth crowd was there as well – it handed out varying denominations of Truth Bucks, sadly disintegrating in the wet.
A terrorist is “what the big army calls the little army.”
“Jail Greedy Bankers”
“Queer Israeli” vs. “Queer Palestinian”
Speaking of which, you had a good 50 or so counterprotesters with Israeli flags penned in right in front of City Hall.
The Green Line of Polk Street. There was a scuffle between these groups later on, resulting in a handful of arrests. See the “Footage of Chaos,” if you want.
This green-hatted NLG “observer,” avec “Specs” brand goggles, was briefly enthralled by an exchange between the blonde and the cop, who wanted her to stay on the sidewalk. She could probably get the Lieutenant for battery and maybe even false imprisonment, if he weren’t an on-duty, uniformed peace officer. See? There’s always a catch…
So there you have it.
Tags: 2009, 6th, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, Afghanistan, anniversary, answer, arrests, bitten, black block, civic center, coalition, code pink, codepink, cops, Embarcadero, invasion, iraq, israel, jusitn herman, Labor Against the War, march, market, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars , national lawyers guild, nlg, observer, officer, palestine, parade, peace, plaza, police, Progressive Democrats of America, rock, San Francisco, SFPD, street, U.S., Veterans for Peace, war
Posted in protests | 1 Comment »
