In Athens to see clients, ended up at the Hampton Inn, which has been pretty much my go to ever since I got trapped in Hiltons loyalty scheme two decades ago when I got their credit card. This particular property marks something of a shift for the brand: the rooms (at least my room) has no carpeting, instead preferring a faux hardwood floor. Also the furniture is more IKEA, the bed less comfortable. There were lots of trucks in the parking lot, clearly they are serving the contractor demographic.
I get it, it's business. They are cutting costs on cleaning, presumably a function of labor shortages in the post-Trump, post-pandemic era. But I don't like it. An Asian guy with a Hampton Inn shirt got on the elevator with me after breakfast and I made a comment that they seem to be doing a lot of renovations and then I asked about the no carpet format, whether it was cost-cutting driven. He winced. I think he must be a proprietor (it's easy to forget that hotels are franchised, they aren't owned by the corporation whose name they bear). In any case, if I'm right and he was the owner he needs to hear it so he can make informed business decisions about target markets.
As I was finishing the Economist's article on "Peak China" (more on that later) sitting in a dumpy couch that should be replaced I looked across from me and saw this picture on the wall. 34. Herschel Walker. It's easy to forget just how significant he was as a college football player after his recent political run. He meant a lot to Georgia, which is why he was hard to beat at the polls. And it's easy to forget how huge and how ultimately foolish it was for him to go to the fledgling and ultimately failed USFL when he graduated. He played in the NFL for over a decade after that ended but in the end did not live up to his promise. But he still means a lot in this town, though he is not REM or the B-52s.
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