As I related in the these two threads, I was having some problems with the kitchen of my new partment, and with getting the management to repair the problems.
Well, no longer! 
All it took was one firmly worded note and suddenly Stan is a new man! “I have to get back in your good graces,” he says. “I’ll have your kitchen finished by the end of the week, and the whole thing’ll be painted and ready to go by June 25th.”
As far as I can figure, they must never get letters of complaint from their tenants (their clientele is mostly international students who may not be fully aware of their rights), because this one wasn’t even very strongly worded and only asked that they please try to start the repairs in July if at all possible, and they started replacing my kitchen the day they got the letter.
I feel powerful. Maybe now I’ll buy Stan that beer. Thanks for all the advice and encouragement in the earlier threads.
P.S. I stopped by the apartment today and the new kitchen is almost done. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life (well, compared to what was there before) and all I could do was stand there and repeat “Fuckin’ awesome! This is fuckin’ awesome!”