Slate's managing editor is angry. “Fuming,” in her words. What has Jill Hunter Pellettieri so upset?

When she was a child, she used to enjoy staying in hotels, which she found “a world that suspended the realities of life at home.”

But now hotels are harshing her buzz by letting her decide whether her bath towels need to be washed or can be re-used.

No, really: that is why she's “fuming.” She explains:

[O]n entering a hotel room, I still immediately review the room-service menu, bask in the prospect of fresh, silky sheets, and inspect the bathroom to ensure I have fluffy, clean towels for every possible need. Then I spy one of those little placards, nestled among the tiny soaps or hanging from the towel rack, asking me to reuse my linens: “Save Our Planet ... Every day millions of gallons of water are used to wash towels that have only been used once ... Please decide for yourself.” And, like that, my hotel buzz fizzles.

I'll admit that I sometimes choose not to participate in this program and request fresh towels and sheets every day. Before you write in scolding me for being a wasteful person, let me qualify that by saying it's not the program, in theory, I'm against. I'm all for saving the environment. But I don't want to be guilt-tripped into going green. It's the two-facedness of it that gets me-save our planet! Conserve our resources! It's up to you, hotel guest. Forsake that washcloth (or two!), or those crisp sheets that are your right when you pay for the room, and to what end-so the hotel can save money on laundry? How many natural resources are wasted printing all of these little signs? Here's an idea: Instead of printing out a placard for every room in the hotel, wash my towel.

Now, let's reiterate: the hotels in question aren't requiring Jill Hunter Pellettieri to re-use bath towels. They're offering her the option to do so. And she's upset because while exercising this option conserves water and energy, it also saves the hotel a few pennies. Pennies that, as far as she knows, keep the price of her hotel room lower than it might otherwise be.

I can't imagine that most Best Western guests are so delicate as to have their weekend stays ruined by a two-inch sign offering guests the option of reusing bath towels. And I can't imagine most readers of Slate's “Green Room” department share Pellettieri's annoyance at being offered the option to voluntarily and at no cost help reduce energy and water consumption.

UPDATE: * By “of the day,” of course, I mean “of six days ago,” when the Slate piece was posted. Gristmill's Kate Sheppard dealt with this nonsense on Friday:

Yet another climate finger goes to Slate and its managing editor, Jill Hunter Pellettieri, for publishing this asinine piece equating green efforts at hotels and other businesses with being “cheap.” At first, we thought the article was a parody, lampooning Slate's love of vapid, self-important contrarianism. If only that were true. We're so sorry you feel like it's a tremendous act of “self-sacrifice” to sleep in the same sheets two nights in a row, Jill. We'll cry you a river while the ice caps melt.