If you want to feel just a little bit better about your last sub-par hotel stay, check out MSNBC’s Bad Hotels slideshow. Around here, we like to give hotels the benefit of the doubt, but mushrooms growing from carpet? And torn lampshades? Now that’s just plain wrong!

Presenting a little comic relief. We laughed when we read the hotel names listed in the TravelPost.com travel article linked below. We hope you do, too. And we think you will. After all, how can a hotel named Elephant Butte NOT be funny?

Suggestive, Strange and Silly: Hotel Names

I learned another tip for anyone trying to locate a bag lost by American Airlines. There is a list of unidentified bags that the agents at the 800-535-5225 (dial 3 to reach an agent immediately) number have access to, and they can check it when your bag does not appear in the system. That said, I called three times today, and the third agent was the first one to mention this list to me and offer to check it. The first two agents I spoke with said there was absolutely nothing they could do to help me. Even though the third woman I spoke with could not find my bag on a list of 200+ unidentified bags, I appreciated her willingness to help. It was more than the other folks I’ve spoken with have been willing to do.

Starting tomorrow, my bag will have been lost for five consecutive days. According to American Airlines’ fine print regarding lost and delayed luggage, bags lost for five days or more will be handled by Central Baggage Service (which you’d think would be the entity trying to find it in the first place). I’ll have to submit a Property Questionaire that will apparently be mailed to me within 10 days of my return to San Francisco. I’ll have to list my bag’s contents, including brand names, medication, electronic items and any other identifying details I can think of. Only after I do this will the airline “begin the intensified search.”

I have asked American Airlines to comment on the situation, to correct anything I may have misunderstood about the process and to offer advice to other travelers in this situation. Thus far, they have not responded to my request for comment.

File this under offbeat travel: nuclear tourism. Yup. This is from a few weeks back, but I ran across it again today in my del.icio.us bookmarks and remembered that I wanted to post it. Just proves that, no matter what you’re into, there’s probably some sort of travel destination that caters to it.

Nuclear Tourism: It’s Hot

Boat drinks. Tropical cocktails. You know, the sort of stuff that makes a vacation all that. Read our treatise on some places you - yes you - simply must try… before you die:

8 Places to Drink Before You Die

As of this weekend, Americans will have a new reason to appreciate George Washington: whiskey. Three miles from Virginia’s Mount Vernon Estate, the George Washington Distillery & Gristmill is described as the only authentic 18th-century distillery in the country and will feature fire water made using the first president’s recipe for Rye Whiskey. Built to look like the 0riginal distillery and mill Washington built in 1771, the building operates the old-fashioned way: with a 16-foot waterwheel to power the millstones, as well as copper stills and mash tubs for, uh, other whiskey-related activities. Distillery visitors will be able to explore exhibits like Spirits of Independence: George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey Industry. Now that’s what I call drunken patriotism.

Ever had one of those, oh crap, here comes my boss and I am blatantly reading travel web sites that have nothing to do with work crises? Yes, we’ve all been there.

Soon to be merged with Site59, lastminute.com offers a cool way to look busy, even if you’re on a stealth mission to find a cheap way to get out of town. From the U.S. homepage, look in the upper right corner for the The Boss is Watching, Look Busy link. Suddenly, a very professional looking spreadsheet appears on your screen to mask your lack of productivity. Enjoy.

I really love this new travel word: Glamping. What does it mean? Upscale camping. Glamorous camping. You get it.

Ditch the Smelly Sleeping Bag and Go Glamping

Looking for a vacation experience that’s, well, about more than sitting on your duff sipping cocktails and humming the Pina Colada song to yourself? Of course you are. Responsible Travel has eco-friendly and volunteer vacations from over 200 tour companies. Whether you’re looking to spend your next vacation volunteering in a South African township, doing wildlife conservation in the Amazon or just relaxing in environmentally-friendly accommodations, this site is a great place to start looking. One to bookmark!

It seems like every hotel room on the face of the earth has a long round bed pillow these days. I am never quite sure what to do with them. So I’ve come up with a list for my own personal amusement. And so, without further ado, the top five best things to do with a round hotel pillow:

1. Wait until your travel partner is sitting and quietly watching TV. Casually secure one end of the pillow. Yank and then proceed to pummel your friend, spouse, significant other with aforementioned pillow.

2. In the event that you receive a king bed when you were gunning for two doubles, the round pillow can serve as a makeshift bed barrier between you and your snoring coworker, annoying sibling, friend or frenemie.

3. Longing for some summertime fun in dead winter? You’ll have to wait a few months until you can hop in the pool with one of those silly foam noodle toys, but you can simulate the experience year-round using one of these puppies and an ordinary hotel bathtub.

4. Construct a fort using your bedding and this versatile round pillow as the central support. Then do whatever you would normally do with a fort.

5. Try bending it in half. Then bending it in half again. And one more time. You can’t do it, can you? It’s a great upper body workout we frequent hotel guests have come to know as the Pillow Method.

To find out which Arlington, VA hotel will allow you to accomplish all of these exciting activities, click the pic.