I’d like to propose a new Holiday.

     Let’s let February 20th be the new, annual “Quit Trying to Make Fill-In-Your-Name-Here Have a Bad Day Day.”  (e.g. “Quit Trying to Make Mark Steel Have a Bad Day Day”)

     That would be cool.  One day, where nobody’s trying to screw up legal processes, steal from, yell at, scream at, libel, slander, backstab, screw over or generally just act asshats to everyone else in the world.

     Sounds like a cool thing, doesn’t it?

     But man … on a day like that…

     Government, Comcast, and most motels would cease to function.

     One nasty little drive-up motel that I stayed at years ago (in Paducah, Kentucky) was the most uninhabitable place I’ve ever seen — so bad, in fact, that the homeless would’ve shunned it.  Combined with one I’d stayed in there before (which seemed to be a haven for women eager to take advantage of Military men), and a few others around the state, I was pretty well put off lodging in Kentucky at all.

      Fortunately, over the past while, I’ve realized that it isn’t the norm.  Like most, last night’s cheap hotel was perfectly normal.

     I’ve stayed in a helluva lot of hotels and motels throughout my life, and pretty much found that once you get away from the old-school, drive-up motels ala Norman Bates, they’re all pretty much the same.  The rooms are laid out similarly, they all have Cable TV, a coffee maker, an ironing board, a blow dryer, a free pen, etc.  The biggest difference is usuall the quality of the linens. 

     However … The more “budget” the hotel, the more you increase the likelihood of getting a splinter in your ass from the John Wayne toilet paper.

     You know, the kind that’s rough, and tough, and won’t take shit off nobody…