I've always thought the usage of the same sheets for both top and bottom was to make things easier, since all sheets of a size would be the same and you wouldn't have to worry about sorting the top sheets from the bottom. Maybe that isn't the maids' job, then, but the laundry workers', who apparently this bill doesn't care about. Someone's job will be harder having to separate sheets. It's the hotel law of labor conservation: making one person's job easier will result in increased difficulty for someone else. As goes much legislation.

Amy, your blog makes me outraged and depressed at the same time. Where's Howard Beale when we really need him?

I am with Amy here - what is with all the micromanagement? Whether or not fitted sheets make sense, what the devil is the government doing here?

If the politicians are so underemployed that they have time for this stuf, then we need to reduce the number of days the legislature is in session - and reduce their pay accordingly.

If it makes it easier, it probably makes it faster. If it makes it faster, hotels will need fewer maids.

Why does the California legislature hate working people?

And David hits it squarely on the head.

The purpose is to make the job harder and slower, thus requiring more maids.

Jobs created!

When I worked in a hotel, I was told we didn't use fitted sheets because the elastic wears out too quickly, and they need to be replaced more often.

I think military academies do it for the same reason, although it could also be a discipline thing.

Heh. I just reread the part about long-handled tools. Some of us did bring our own sponge mops from home, because the hotel didn't provide them.

So many morons, so little cyanide...

I'm all for using a mop with a long handle, but sometimes, in order to get something clean, especially in a tub, you got to stoop

Meanwhile, the state of California goes bankrupt.

I am telling you... it just keeps getting lamer and lamer the crap the gov. any gov. (fed and local) want to become involved with. How the hell did we let it go so far down the stupid lane????

"How the hell did we let it go so far down the stupid lane?"

Melody, it's really simple.

First, we buy the idea that a politician is working for us - when she is not. She is working for a political power machine, which interests coincide with yours only as far as necessary to get your vote.

Next, we think that since we are doing our primary job, we do not ever have to watch what our elected officials are doing - carefully and critically.

Third, we have not noticed that politics is a capitalist game: we think that if "our guy" isn't passing laws, then he's not doing anything. It never occurs to us that doing nothing is exactly the right thing to do in a really huge number of cases. This plays into item 4, below.

Fourth, we see that our individual voices are not heard, and so we demand attention. Just as we yell for the MANAGER, DAMN YOU, MY FRIES ARE COLD when we could do as well talking to the counter help, we do two things: back laws to force other people to do what WE want, and only pay attention to major elections.

So. Congress, the House that is, has 100% of the $$ in the Federal government. Who do we vote for? The President, who has ZERO percent of that job. We never notice that the laws we pass set precedent to be used against us.

Got a business selling unicycles? Better have wheelchair access. You thought it was a good idea. Tax the rich? "OK," you said, never noticing that "the rich" includes the Mom&Pop Corner Store and BOTU's Anal Appliance Accessories Arena -- or that you qualify, the instant you get a start-up loan for the business you've always wanted.

In short, we're idiots, and often.

Here's a series I think will show you how the public gets led around by the nose...

What You Must Think Today To Be An American

Corporate taxes are a good idea - you don't notice that the company has to pass the taxes directly to you, the customer.

Drugs should be illegal - except the ones I want, because I'm not a drug addict.

Drugs should be legal - because the criminals killing each other right now, and the users laughing at the law, are really responsible people who will get good jobs when they are.

Searching plane passengers makes us all safer - the stack of confiscated items is really the inventory of what has flown on planes since Orville took off, and the baggage handlers don't get searched.

The President costs the country money, and he's lying when he says all of a sudden that the deficit will go away of we just re-elect him - but Congress really has the money. All of it.

"A ban on ____ is a Good Idea." - but, please notice, bans only apply to some people, not all of them. Ever.

There are more. Gee, this is depressing.

It's not just the cost of sheets, there are so many additional costs in enforcement and bureaucracy that slowly destroy jobs and businesses and economic production. Economic death by a thousand tiny regulatory cuts.

It's starting to get to the point where guns are going to be the ONLY legal things left in the USA.

"It's starting to get to the point where guns are going to be the ONLY legal things left in the USA."

Ask the residents of NYC, or SF.

You can buy toy handcuffs in places where you can't buy a toy gun, because being a prisoner is approved. We even call them "detainees" now.