"That must have been where he learned his pricing," one guest remarked.

He says male guests often remark that their wives would like the place.

"I sent some luggage here," remarked the new guest.

"I haven't heard anything like that since my first college boyfriend," another guest remarked the next morning.

The guest remarked, with suave irony: "Assassins appear to be scarce this evening."

"It is quite a job being toastmaster tonight," remarks one guest, illustrating the power of understatement as a tactic here, too.

"It's so great to see everyone in the middle of the winter," remarked one guest.

"I paid for the sun," one guest remarked.

If he gets fog, though," remarked the guest, "maybe he can bring rain.

"This is like a dead zoo visit," a guest remarked as these once stately creatures, or their carefully prepared remains, appeared on the table.