Automating tasks by scripting with drush site aliases

Drush site aliases are way cool, aren't they?  Simple, defined arrays of information about each site and vertical (dev-stage-prod) that you maintain.  But it can be a little intimidating setting up your first set, so we'll start by taking a basic look at setting up a basic array of site aliases for the newbie and mirror how they would reflect on one another in a multi-environment setup.  

Next, are you leveraging your site aliases to their full power?  Once you have aliases, script with them so that you can begin to automate tasks and soon, you're well on your way to higher levels of automation like continuous integration.