Money Saving Tip for the Day

I've always wanted to stay at the Algonquin in New York City and pretend I was Dorothy Parker (who once said about a book, "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." ) Dorothy and her fellow Round Tablers (is that a word?) dined daily at the hotel for ten years, between 1919 and 1929.

Here are a few interesting facts about the Algonquin:

• It was purchased as a gift by an oil baron for his wife.
• William Faulkner wrote his 1950 Nobel Prize speech in his Algonquin Suite.
• The Algonquin martini comes with but one piece of ice - a diamond from the in-house jeweler, Bader & Garrin. Price: $10,000.

Also, since 1930, the hotel has been home to a series of cats (the first being a disheveled but savvy stray). The current feline-in-residence is Matilda.

I just found out that the Algonquin offers a special room rate for writers: 25 per cent off if you bring a published work or work in progress.

The name of this great deal?

The Writer's Block.

It's too great to pass up. So I didn't. I'll finally going to have my chance to release my inner Dorothy Parker -- sans martinis -- next week while I'm in the Big Apple for a quick research trip.

It's a rough job but somebody's got to do it.