The check was paid by credit card, the campaign flack said that the tip was included but that is easily debunked by the Veri-Sign credit readers that are ubiquitous these days, the flack then asserts that a C-note was left. Repeat the assertion.

Who left it? Where was it left? Is it more likely that people who work together (sometimes for years) will rip each other off than that good food-service folks got stiffed?

My take: Unforced error. Restaurants get busy, especially when you are trying to do things like look and act human. The staffer who merely apologized and handed off the double sawbuck gets a lot of respect in my eyes.

Once upon a time I was waiting on a two-top when I got sat with a greasy dirty pair of hippies. Hostess even apologized to me for tha seating. I was professional, they were very cool (actually very nice) but that two top expanded to pretty much shut down my section. I’d go over to the wait station and get ribbed about it. Being me, I noted that my section was pretty full whereas their’s were echoing, but it kind of sucked to hop from behind the bar into a floor shift that looked pretty grim. Nae’theless I did my job, and before long we had a kind of party going on in what I had thought was my section.

Turned out that they wern’t hippies: they were Skynryd.

When asked to seperate the checks (after my manger had gotten tickets, damn him) I replied that it would take an extremely advanced abacus and a week. I was, at that point, totally willing to write the night off. Popped down the check, with the standard curlicues and arrows that go with the late separation of checks, and was not surprised to see the guys go for their pockets. Everybody hucked in (except for name redacted) and I ended up the night pretty fat.

It works the other way as well.

Best way I can figure it, everbody at the counter thought they were covered by the campaign payment and, reasonably, figured that they owed nothing. The campaign guy figured differently. To him a gratuity should not come out of public funds, and I respect that, while reminding him to look up the definition of “earmark.”

Just don’t lie about it. If you forgot…then you forgot. Sucks. Hate to be you. After you get done beating yourself up, I’ll still be voting the other way. It’s not that I like the Republicans, it’s just that I find you and every thing you’ve ever stood for abhorrent.

Thanks…try the fish…your wife is very attractive..and…

Tip your waitress.

It’s insane that we are even spending a minute talking about this.