Blogging The Watergate: Update

In an earlier post (Scroll down this page), I described the 1980's level in-room TV fare.

As for the hotel gift shop...

Deepthroat fans will find slim pickins (Note the use of the lower case... Not the deceased actor) in the tiny (less than 200 sq feet) shop, located to your right when you enter the lobby from Virginia Ave.

There are Watergate Hotel Tee Shirts, sweatshirts, coffee cups, and ashtrays. The rest of the items are your typical DC tourist crap items.

Yes, ashtrays.

When was the last time you saw ashtrays in a hotel lobby waiting area?

When was the last time you were greeted by L'air du Cigar when you entered a hotel lobby?

Welcome to The Watergate...

Advice: Try not to run into the slew of random Secret Service guys (They're the ones with the tiny beige 1950's coiled phone cords traveling from their ears to an undisclosed location... under their matching off-the-rack suits). They give you a look that can only translate as "You don't see me."

The funny thing about SS agents: They all look like ex-Marines (the haircut & posture) in uncomfortable civilian clothing, trying to blend in.

Blending in used to be much easier, though, when real men wore suits. Most of today's male Watergate guests arrive in DC Casual Attire: Polo shirts, Khakis, and Brogans.

Hey, SS guys! You blend about as well as Pesci in "My Cousin Vinny."

The funniest part about staying at The Watergate...

The clandestine activities of the guests.

So far, I've observed guests posing for Kodak Moments at the main entrance, discussing plans to tip the bellmen for directions to the duct-taped burglar entrance, and wondering how to locate the former Democratic National HQ office.



Hint: The Dem office isn't here...
But Bob Dole isn't home.
What a riot!

The hotel could easily cash in on these people's curiosity...

But they wouldn't want to alienate the rightwingers (They look like more comfortable-in-their clothing variations of the SS guys).

By the way, I have no idea who the SS guys were "protecting" yesterday. They were gone when I got back from dinner in Georgetown last night.



No Homeless in sight...
But I've watched them fish
and bathe in The Potomac
(Not The Pool)
every afternoon.


I'm sure, though, that the SS guys weren't concerned about the homeless living in the cardboard Hooverville under the overpass a block away from the hotel.

Heavy sigh.