More and more in New York, it seems, reservations can be had only at the early-bird-special hours or the wee small hours, unless you happened to have had the foresight to book an eight o'clock table for 2005 back in the Eisenhower years.
For budget-minded passengers, the compromise seems minimal; reservations must be made through the Web site (no customer relations phone number exists) and there are extra fees for services that are usually part of the fare -- like bag check ($5 each for two bags, $50 for additional ones), soft drinks and seating requests.
But CIA's sycophantic director, George Tenet, knowing President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were determine to invade Iraq, sent "Curveball's" phony tale to the White House without, it seems, any reservations.
The name betrays a no-nonsense philosophy evident in every aspect of the place: the nowadays retro-seeming reservation policy, which is honored faithfully; the service, which is warm but unobtrusive, a triumph in such close quarters; and the atmosphere, marked by farmhouse décor and Benny Goodman on the stereo.
We also have home-grown outfits like Meat Liquor, and Burger and Lobster, which seem to regard reservation policies as bourgeois affectations.
"It seems like the reservation is their comfort zone more than it would be for an inner-city kid," said Mick Durham, who has recruited on the reservations as the head basketball coach at Montana State.
"It seems like the reservation is their comfort zone more than it would be for an inner-city kid," the former Montana State basketball coach Mick Durham told me a few years ago.
But these reservations seem to be outweighed by anger at the way the PLP has behaved.
But the rest of America doesn't seem to have reservations.
The airline is still in its infancy, and reservations seem to get lost frequently.
Russia has appeared in recent weeks to be edging closer to supporting stricter sanctions, but still seems to have reservations.
