I read an article on NPR this morning about men in hotel rooms and their interactions with the house keeping staff.  At the end of this article, the author notes that people behave in hotels as if they are at home and that maybe they should be more aware of boundaries when interacting with complete strangers in regards to wearing only towels in front of the staff.   This reminded me of a minor incident that occurred when I worked in that industry. 

My senior year in college, I worked as a bartender in the restaurant of an upscale hotel.  This hotel, dating back to the Pre-Civil War era, was known in the region as being haunted by soldiers who died there while the hotel served as a hospital during the Civil War, Elizabeth Taylor's visiting while married to Senator John Warner, and hosting politicians, celebrities, and althletes, such as Dan Marino, who frequented the area for golf tournaments.  I did meet Mr. Marino.  I also met Kenneth Starr, who stayed there while campaigning for a Republican who was running for the House of Representatives in that district - and as I silently predicted to myself, Mr. Starr's support did not help put this guy over the top at the fundraising event held at the hotel one evening.  Also, I was surprised at how incredibly short the man is (5'6" or so) ... one would never guess based upon those pictures of him leaving the Capital Building in which he looks to be close to 6' tall.  

Anyway, I ended up pulling a morning shift in the restaurant that week, and part of the responsibilities of the morning cashier was to close out room service orders from the night before if they were requested after the front of the house stopped serving diners.  I saw that Mr. Starr had ordered room service, and that he had also departed that morning.  It also happened that the busboy on duty the night before was pulling an AM shift like I was.  

When the busser walked in, I was looking over the roster of guests for the day and made the comment that Mr. Starr had checked out.  The busser grunted and said, "Yeah," and looked away.

I said, "What?"

"He ordered room service last night."

"Oh, did you take the order up to him?"

"Yeah, but..."

"What?  Did he not tip you well?"

"He paid in cash, but..." he shook his head and looked away again.

"But, what?"

"He answered the door in a towel," he said disgustedly and walked away.

"Are you serious?"

"I don't want to talk about it.  I don't even want to think about it," he said over his shoulder and went into the kitchen.

 It seems that Mr. Starr, that beacon of descency and the light of God, needs to check himself at times from showing others his bodily flesh.  Such a conservative man who fought for fidelity and who was the national face of Christian morals should think twice about answering the door to a complete stranger wearing only a towel.  The implications and possibilities of what people would say are just too great.  Plus, his physical features seem to traumatize some people.