Not So Up-to-Date in Kansas City

I am old enough to remember when you had to ask the reservation clerk at the hotel if the room had a private bath. Sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes it had no telephone, either. I don’t ask those questions anymore. So I failed to ask the clerk at the Radisson Suite Hotel in Kansas City if their rooms had thermostats to regulate the heat. After all, the Annual Meeting^a takes place at the end of November. It could be—and it was—freezing in Kansas City. I asked about a thermostat only after the first night—spent pushing a button to get heat only to end up roasting, then pushing the “off” button and waiting until the room turned freezing cold again. The next morning I asked the question and was told that the hotel’s room heaters lacked thermostats.

Alas, that incident became for me a symbol of the accommodations in Kansas City. But I was lucky. Many of the thousands of Annual Meeting attendees were housed in hotels miles from the convention center where most of the sessions were held. Long lines for too-few mediocre restaurants made eating a chore. Even the cafeteria lines at the convention center could not handle the crowds—a few more cashiers would have eased the congestion. The Annual Meeting simply proved too big for Kansas City. Everyone I talked to agreed.