not funny postscript . . .
we had a long planned CA vacation.
tried for a reservation at The French Laundry - website inoperative, will be fixed soon. 3 months later, same.
emailed - no reply
telephoned - no answer. when it did finally answer it was a recording with no options: "Go away, click."
from what I see, apparently people snatch up reservations and re-sell them as a business.
we wound up at ... which I understand has since closed . . . which is unfortunate - it was a good place