Artful Living

Who reads this stuff?

Here's some random quotes from Artful Living magazine:

Where your stay is part of defining who you are.
You can join the crowd, or you can leave it behind.
Eat. Shop. Sleep.
Own Chicago. Know the right people.
Make a statement with every second.
"I never thought I would receive so many compliments every day."
As unique as you are.

Who needs this stuff?

All 1 pound 2 ounces of the magazine crashes into our mailbox, unsolicited, every 3 months or so. It seems to be selling to people I try to avoid. I imagine the middle-aged woman I once saw yelling at an airport gate agent in Minneapolis because the flight to Honolulu was delayed with mechanical problems. Like many of us, she would miss her inter-island flight that day. "I've paid $700 a night for the hotel," she yells. "Paid too much" muttered the guy beside me, causing several of us to dissolve in fits of giggles.

We, indeed, missed our inter-island flight. The airline generously paid for ground transportation and a hotel in Honolulu, although they were not contractually required to do that. Next day we took a puddle-jumper to Molokai to stay at the (then) $70-a-night, delightful, simple Hotel Molokai. Local families would come in and use the pool, their kids screaming with joy; it was a happy place to kick back. At the end of our stay I questioned the bill: they declined to charge us for the first night, although we were no-shows. Good people, Artful Living.