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Completely and totally off-topic (anecdotes regarding my sordid life as a hotel clerk)
lordmarcovan
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Forgive me for the OT post. I've been Yeti awhile and have had numismatics on a far back burner for some time, so I have nothing numismatic to post. I've been lead to understand that the Darkside is a little more forgiving of OT threads than elsewhere. Sometimes I miss the old Open Forum when I have stuff like this to share.
Here are two amusing tales from the upscale beach resort where I work the Night Audit on the graveyard shift. (Well, I found them amusing, anyway.)
On one of my nights off (August 3rd, to be precise), Robin S., one of the accountants, had to work the Night Audit, and she got a call from a lady in Room 368 in the middle of the night. I'm sure the conversation must have sounded something like I have it paraphrased below:
(telephone rings)
Robin: "Good evening, Guest Services, this is Robin."
368: "Please turn off the MECHANICAL DUCK."
(A moment of silence, while Robin is no doubt pondering and thinking, WTF?)
Robin: "I'm sorry, ma'am... what was that you asked?"
368: "I'm trying to get some sleep up here and I can't rest with the sound of that MECHANICAL DUCK you have outside! Please turn it off!"
Robin: "I'll send Security around to check on it, ma'am." (or something to that effect)
(Security goes and checks, walking around the ground floor to look up at 368's balcony and listen.)
The solution to the mystery? Tree frogs. These are cute little Kermit-ey lookin' buggers who put up quite a racket in the spring and summer. I guess the guest wasn't used to hearing tree frogs. One time I was walking along a dark outdoor passageway at 3 AM and one of them invisibly and unexpectedly jumped right down the front of my collar and down inside my shirt. Too bad the event wasn't captured on security camera, or it would have been great "America's Funniest Home Videos" material. I'll bet I invented a few new dance steps.
I can only wonder what that lady thought we had a mechanical duck for. Maybe she thought we were decoying real ducks to fly in over the hotel so guests could take potshots at 'em or something?
I read about the mechanical duck thing in the Security report. Was actually jealous that it hadn't happened on my shift. All I seem to get called about are drunks, leaky toilets, or roach invasions. *sigh*
Which brings me to my favorite one that happened on my watch. (Might as well share it, while I'm borin' ya.)
I was working Audit one night and a lady from 106 called down just before my shift was to end at 7 AM.
(telephone rings)
Me: "Good morning, Front Desk, this is Rob."
106: "Yes, this is Mrs. So-and-so in 106, and I was wondering if my phone calls will be on the bill when I check out."
Me: "Yes, ma'am, all charges made before 4:00 AM should be on your bill when you check out. Subsequent charges will be billed to your credit card."
106: "What about my cell phone?"
(Huh? Brief pause while I scratch my head in wonderment. No... surely she didn't just ask what I thought she asked. Then again, it's early yet, and maybe she's still half asleep. I'll give 'er the benefit of the doubt.)
Me: "What was that again, ma'am?"
106: "Will my cell phone calls be on my bill when I check out?"
Me (not aloud, but secretly, in my head): "Why yes, ma'am, they will, and so will your mortgage payment and car payment! Our computer system knows all!"
OK, so there's nothing remotely coin-related in either of these. I just felt like sharin' 'em. Don't ask me why.
To redeem this thread, if that's even possible, and make it coin-related, you may try to post a picture of any coin or token that features 1) a hotel, 2) a duck, 3) a frog, or 4) a telephone.
Or even 5) a crab. Lately, there have been kerzillions of tiny land crabs that have marched up from the beach and invaded the ground floor of the hotel at night. I find them scuttling around in the back office. They'll give you a real start at first glance, 'cause they look like big freakin' spiders.
Or, heck, since this thread is beyond redemption anyway, just share an amusing workplace anecdote, coin-related or not.
Here are two amusing tales from the upscale beach resort where I work the Night Audit on the graveyard shift. (Well, I found them amusing, anyway.)
On one of my nights off (August 3rd, to be precise), Robin S., one of the accountants, had to work the Night Audit, and she got a call from a lady in Room 368 in the middle of the night. I'm sure the conversation must have sounded something like I have it paraphrased below:
(telephone rings)
Robin: "Good evening, Guest Services, this is Robin."
368: "Please turn off the MECHANICAL DUCK."
(A moment of silence, while Robin is no doubt pondering and thinking, WTF?)
Robin: "I'm sorry, ma'am... what was that you asked?"
368: "I'm trying to get some sleep up here and I can't rest with the sound of that MECHANICAL DUCK you have outside! Please turn it off!"
Robin: "I'll send Security around to check on it, ma'am." (or something to that effect)
(Security goes and checks, walking around the ground floor to look up at 368's balcony and listen.)
The solution to the mystery? Tree frogs. These are cute little Kermit-ey lookin' buggers who put up quite a racket in the spring and summer. I guess the guest wasn't used to hearing tree frogs. One time I was walking along a dark outdoor passageway at 3 AM and one of them invisibly and unexpectedly jumped right down the front of my collar and down inside my shirt. Too bad the event wasn't captured on security camera, or it would have been great "America's Funniest Home Videos" material. I'll bet I invented a few new dance steps.
I can only wonder what that lady thought we had a mechanical duck for. Maybe she thought we were decoying real ducks to fly in over the hotel so guests could take potshots at 'em or something?
I read about the mechanical duck thing in the Security report. Was actually jealous that it hadn't happened on my shift. All I seem to get called about are drunks, leaky toilets, or roach invasions. *sigh*
Which brings me to my favorite one that happened on my watch. (Might as well share it, while I'm borin' ya.)
I was working Audit one night and a lady from 106 called down just before my shift was to end at 7 AM.
(telephone rings)
Me: "Good morning, Front Desk, this is Rob."
106: "Yes, this is Mrs. So-and-so in 106, and I was wondering if my phone calls will be on the bill when I check out."
Me: "Yes, ma'am, all charges made before 4:00 AM should be on your bill when you check out. Subsequent charges will be billed to your credit card."
106: "What about my cell phone?"
(Huh? Brief pause while I scratch my head in wonderment. No... surely she didn't just ask what I thought she asked. Then again, it's early yet, and maybe she's still half asleep. I'll give 'er the benefit of the doubt.)
Me: "What was that again, ma'am?"
106: "Will my cell phone calls be on my bill when I check out?"
Me (not aloud, but secretly, in my head): "Why yes, ma'am, they will, and so will your mortgage payment and car payment! Our computer system knows all!"
OK, so there's nothing remotely coin-related in either of these. I just felt like sharin' 'em. Don't ask me why.
To redeem this thread, if that's even possible, and make it coin-related, you may try to post a picture of any coin or token that features 1) a hotel, 2) a duck, 3) a frog, or 4) a telephone.
Or even 5) a crab. Lately, there have been kerzillions of tiny land crabs that have marched up from the beach and invaded the ground floor of the hotel at night. I find them scuttling around in the back office. They'll give you a real start at first glance, 'cause they look like big freakin' spiders.
Or, heck, since this thread is beyond redemption anyway, just share an amusing workplace anecdote, coin-related or not.
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stainless
had very oddly shaped coin slots that would accept only an oddly shaped
token sold by the hotel. This was used because many people would pound
lead into a penny arcade token and pass it off as a nickel in telephones.
These were the infamous "plugged nickel". Some people would even accept
them in change at a discount with the intent of using a phone with it. The
special telephone tokens only enjoyed widespread use in Illinois, especially
Chicago.
It's good to see you posting again. Congratulations on the job.
As to the "plug nickels", I found one with my detector. "OK VENDER(sic) / FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY" A nickel-sized token with a hole in the center.
We've also dug some curious tokens with four-digit numbers (and nothing else) on them. Usually in a 1930s context.
Nigh on to 55 years ago I had a couple check out at the super market with a toddler boy in the grocery cart. He was exposed. I think it should have been no big deal, but the father was most distressed to see it and tells the wife with a whisper.
"His **** is showing."
Now it is the wife's turn to get most upset over her husband's choice of language. So she ignores him. Perhaps she is truly shocked and speechless at this point.
So he repeats himself, but louder. She ignores again. He tells her again louder yet. She ignores him again. It is a standoff. I am now having to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. Finally, we finished and off they went. I would love to know how the ensuing conversation went.
I wasn't laughing when somebody called me at work and inquired about my collection and coin studies. Turns out that was an inmate at Leavenworth Federal Prison. We did correspond for a short time.
Glad to see you posting again Rob.
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<< <i>To redeem this thread, if that's even possible, and make it coin-related, you may try to post a picture of any coin or token that features 1) a hotel, 2) a duck, 3) a frog, or 4) a telephone.
>>
Almost certainly a green treefrog (Hyla cinerea).
Here's a frog on a coin:
Here's a frog on a coin I want:
Duck:
Hotel:
Telephone:
Great anecdotes, Rob!
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Tom, formerly in Albuquerque, NM.
If you haven't already, see the movie Four Rooms. Will make your job seem much better I would bet.
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CIVITAS Galleries, Ltd.
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Don
<< <i>Some of your guests make our sixth graders look smart. >>
New on NBC! Are You Smarter Than a Hotel Guest?
Obscurum per obscurius
I did a PT job for a large retailer a few years ago, it was a real eye opener and an interesting study in human development or rather lack of development.
I really dig that square telephone (- coin? medal?).
Josh- I was hoping somebody would post one of those Akragas crabs. I love 'em, but have never had one.
I'll have to find that movie.
Good croissant story, too, sumnom. You should have said, "no, our croissants are baked in a cold fusion oven".
<< <i>Anytime you work anywhere where you are dealing with customers you are going to occasion examples of people that somehow have sauntered on in life despite Darwinian theories that would suggest they should have expired out long ago. >>
Brilliant!
It's 12:45 AM, 4/24/10.
TELEPHONE:
Rrring rrring rrrrriiiing
ME:
“Good morning, Front Desk, this is Rob.”
GUEST:
“Hi, we just had a Domino’s Pizza delivered, and there’s HARDLY ANY CHEESE ON IT AT ALL!
(…Long silence… crickets chirping…)
ME: (while still trying to figure out a potential room move in our nearly-booked hotel for the unhappy guest standing in front of me)
“And what is it you’d like ME to do, ma’am?
GUEST:
“Oh, I just thought you might want to know.”
ME: (silently, to myself, not out loud)
“Gee, great. Thanks for that little informational tidbit. It was a really big help.”
<< <i>Here's your crab:
If you haven't already, see the movie Four Rooms. Will make your job seem much better I would bet. >>
4 rooms: you gotta see this one Rob,with Tim Roth as the bellboy in 4 sketches, especially the last sketch with and by Tarantino. A classc like Josh's coin.
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Duck
Frog
Telephone
Crab
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"Everything I have is for sale except for my wife and my dog....and I'm not sure about one of them."
Tale (real): A friend of mine owns a little farm up in Mars Hill along the Big Laurel and takes in boarders who'll swap accommodations and food for labor. Years ago she took in a Ukrainian woman who was to oversee the ornamental & edible flowers she raises and let her a nice cabin on the slopes of the mountain. Late at night on the woman's first night my friend, Victoria, gets a call. "There are men outzide wi' torches! They are comink for me!" Pleaze help me!!!" Victoria asked her for a bit more information - where are these men? How are they moving? What are the torches like? She consulted with her husband, who shook his head and took up the phone - "Those are just Fireflies you're seeing!" "Yes! they have torches with fire and they are coming closer and closer! They are coming for me!" It apparently took a full 15 minutes and the lie that what she was seeing was merely the light of FAIRIES to get the woman to calm down. She really thought the KKK had come for her because she was Ukranian and Jewish!
We've covered the following and (surprisingly) made this thread numismatically related:
1) a hotel,
2) a duck,
3) a frog,
4) a telephone,
5) a crab,
but where's #6 ... A PIZZA? Does Black Mountain Coins have any coins or currency with pizza on 'em?
Or, as a nod to TokenTinker's story (which brings me fond memories of the NC mountains)... #7... a firefly.
By its very nature, this is a very rare example. Most coins with pizza on it have been licked clean.
Proud (but humbled) "You Suck" Designee, February 2010.
<< <i>We've also dug some curious tokens with four-digit numbers (and nothing else) on them. Usually in a 1930s context. >>
Baggage claim checks.
<< <i>A couple of hotels on tokens:
>>
This lovely token reminds me of another good movie with Josh Brolin and Liam Neeson, 3:10 to Yuma, a recent excellent western.
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