Latest news with #WashingtonandLeeUniversity
USA Today
8 hours ago
- Business
- USA Today
I'm not tipping a slack-jawed teen for no work. Let's fix our tip culture.
I'm not tipping a slack-jawed teen for no work. Let's fix our tip culture. | Opinion The social contract has been shredded, and we're all left fumbling with our wallets while the person behind us in line judges our generosity for a transaction that once went untipped. Show Caption Hide Caption Five surprising ways you're annoying restaurant staff When we go out to eat, we're usually too excited about the food to think about the people working behind the scenes. unbranded - Lifestyle Food "tipping" has become an absolute circus, and I've had enough. The practice should be a straightforward way to reward exceptional service. Now, it's a guilt-ridden tap dance where a rogue iPad demands a 25% premium for a slack-jawed teen handing you a muffin. The social contract has been shredded, and we're all left fumbling with our wallets while the person behind us in line judges our generosity for a transaction that once went untipped. Tipping has become a source of national anxiety, a phenomenon known as "tipflation," and frankly, it's exhausting. If we don't draw some clear lines in the sand, we'll soon be tipping the self-checkout machine at the grocery. Today, we draw those lines and free well-intentioned consciences across America. The venerable Emily Post Institute, a longtime arbiter of American etiquette, offers guidelines applied in a world that no longer exists – or at least, one that didn't anticipate being asked to tip on a prepackaged sandwich you grab yourself. In the spirit of restoring some sanity, allow me to propose 10 reality-adjusted food tipping rules for 2025. Ten rules for when to tip, and how much 1. The full-service sit-down meal ‒ 18-22% This is where tipping tradition holds strong, and rightly so. If you're at a restaurant where a waiter or waitress takes your order, diligently attends to your table, and refills your drinks without you having to send up a flare, tip well. I will never forget Carlos' excellent service at Arzu in Roanoke, Virginia, when I attended Washington and Lee University. He treated a couple of college kids like royalty, and my wife and I remember those dates fondly. I didn't have much money, but I tipped him like I did. Professionals who navigate multiple tables, remember the nuanced details of your order and make you feel special earn every penny of that tip. 2. The counter offensive ‒ 0% Most dining experiences these days stand in stark contrast to the classic waited table. If you order at a counter, pick up your food from someone hollering a number, fill your own drink and bus your own table – congratulations, you've just provided your own service. Tip yourself accordingly. The establishment is selling you a product. Asking for a 20-30% tip via a swiveling screen for this "privilege" is an affront to human dignity. The practice is a wage subsidy properly built into the price. If businesses can't charge that price, the food isn't good enough. Opinion: Tourism is the next casualty in Trump's trade war. Our economy might not recover. 3. The hybrid hustle ‒ 5-10% We should also be honest when establishments fall somewhere between waited tables and self-serve: Order at counter, food delivered, tables bussed by staff ‒ 10%. You've placed your own order, but someone is bringing food to your table and cleaning up afterward. That's a service apart from what you'd get at home. They're doing part of the traditional waiter's job, so they should earn part of the tip. You've placed your own order, but someone is bringing food to your table and cleaning up afterward. That's a service apart from what you'd get at home. They're doing part of the traditional waiter's job, so they should earn part of the tip. Order at counter, pick up food yourself, tables bussed by staff ‒ 5%. You're still doing most of the legwork, but at least you don't have to clear your own dishes. If the staff keeps the dining area and your table clean, a modest 5% tip is a fair acknowledgement. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. 4. The buffet brigade ‒ 10% At a buffet, you're largely self-sufficient in the food acquisition department. However, if someone is diligently refilling your iced tea, bringing extra napkins and clearing the leaning tower of used plates, they deserve a tip. Ten percent is a good benchmark for this attentiveness. If you never see a soul after the initial drink order, don't feel bad adjusting the tip accordingly. 5. Coffee, cocktails and courtesy ‒ $1 minimum per drink, double it for effort Coffee, beer, wine, liquor on the rocks: A dollar per drink is a solid minimum, especially if it's a straightforward pour or a quick brew. A dollar per drink is a solid minimum, especially if it's a straightforward pour or a quick brew. Mixology, barista art: If your bartender is whipping up a concoction with tequila, tarantula leg, smoke and a story, she might be a witch. On the other hand, she might be a truly gifted professional. The coffee barista doesn't have to craft a swan in your latte foam. Skill deserves a double reward, unless she puts a hex on you. If your bartender is whipping up a concoction with tequila, tarantula leg, smoke and a story, she might be a witch. On the other hand, she might be a truly gifted professional. The coffee barista doesn't have to craft a swan in your latte foam. Skill deserves a double reward, unless she puts a hex on you. Respect the minimum: Throwing coins, digital or otherwise, at staff just feels cheap and unappreciative. Don't do it. Yes, I know the percentages may be higher. Thankfully, I'm writing the rules. Opinion: Stop asking me for tips. 'Tipflation' is out of control. 6. Take care of your people This one's crucial. If you're on a first-name basis with the barista who knows your complicated coffee order by heart, the waiter who remembers your favorite table, or the bartender who starts your usual when you walk in – tip them well. Consistently. These are your people. They make your daily routines or weekly outings better. Fostering that relationship is worth every extra dollar. 7. Cash remains king While cards are convenient, cash tips avoid credit card processing fees or complex tip-pooling arrangements where the distribution can be murky. Cash itself is a tangible sign of appreciation. 8. Delivery days ‒ $5 minimum with uplifts This one is a little more complicated because the interaction with a delivery driver is usually brief. Drivers from third parties like DoorDash and Grubhub usually aren't responsible for accuracy of the order or the quality of the food. Use some common sense here. If you don't want to get out in the weather, tip more. If your order isn't smashed or spilled, tip more. My suggestion is to tip the minimum and then supplement with cash when the order arrives. The notable caveat these days is that your generous front-end tip may ensure that your order is picked up quickly and at your front door. If you're eating in your sweatpants, splurge for the extra convenience and call it a win. 9. No SALT Don't tip on state and local taxes (SALT). The government is literally charging you to eat. You should not pay someone else a percentage of that amount. For that matter, it's weird for the government to do that in the first place. Maybe we should become the great Americans we were meant to be and refuse to tax food and beverages so we can tip helpful people instead of the government. 10. Lemonade stand ‒ 100%+ On the rare occasion that you see children out with a lemonade stand, bake sale or other offering, the minimum tip is 100%. Not only should you seek out these opportunities, but our generosity shapes the future workforce. Always incentivize work. I ran around my neighborhood as a kid with a wagon to sell tomatoes I grew. My gracious neighbors tipped me unbelievably. I'd come home with a wad of cash and an empty wagon time and again. Those tips primed the pump for my entire professional life. Be generous and incentivize great service. Reward hustle, especially in younger people who are just starting out. Fight the culinary pressure culture that says people are entitled to tips and don't need to earn them. Let's reclaim some common sense in 2025. Our blood pressure (and our wallets) will thank us. USA TODAY Network Tennessee columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney raising four boys in Nolensville with his particularly patient wife, Justine. Direct outrage or agreement to or @DCameronSmith on Twitter. This column first appeared in the Tennessean.
E&E News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
How the fight over birthright citizenship could shape US energy policy
An impending Supreme Court decision related to birthright citizenship could have broad implications for the Trump administration's policies, including its 'energy dominance' agenda. On Thursday, the justices will hear oral arguments on whether three lower courts improperly blocked President Donald Trump's executive order to limit birthright citizenship. Conservatives are urging the court to take the opportunity to more broadly curb federal judges' power to block nationwide policies. The justices' ruling in this case has 'huge implications, and I think the court needs to be careful,' said Suzette Malveaux, a law professor at Washington and Lee University. Advertisement 'If you think about citizenship, or people being illegally detained and deported out of the country, or massive layoffs of federal workers or environmental protection,' Malveaux said, 'all of those things are being touched by this question of whether a single judge can, in fact, stop an executive order or policy from being implemented nationwide.'
USA Today
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Tom Robbins dies: Author whose novels were infused with '70s psychedelic vibe was 92
Tom Robbins dies: Author whose novels were infused with '70s psychedelic vibe was 92 Author Tom Robbins, whose novels read like a hit of literary LSD, filled with fantastical characters, manic metaphors and counterculture whimsy, died on Sunday. He was 92. Robbins' death was announced by his wife, Alexa Robbins, on Facebook. The post did not cite a cause. "He was surrounded by his family and loyal pets. Throughout these difficult last chapters, he was brave, funny and sweet," Alexa Robbins wrote. "He asked that people remember him by reading his books." Robbins indulged the hippie sensibilities of young people starting in the early 1970s with books that had an overarching philosophy of what he called "serious playfulness" and a mandate that it should be pursued in the most outlandish ways possible. As he wrote in "Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas," "Minds were made for blowing." Robbins' works included "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", "Another Roadside Attraction" and "Still Life With Woodpecker." Robbins' characters were over the top, off the wall and around the bend. Among them were Sissy Hankshaw, the hitchhiker with the 9-inch thumbs in "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," and Switters, the pacifist CIA operative in love with a nun in "Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates." "Skinny Legs and All" featured a talking can of pork and beans, a dirty sock and Turn Around Norman, a performance artist whose act consisted of moving imperceptibly. "What I try to do, among other things, is to mix fantasy and spirituality, sexuality, humor and poetry in combinations that have never quite been seen before in literature," Robbins said in an interview with January magazine in 2000. "And I guess when a reader finishes one of my books ... I would like for him or her to be in the state that they would be in after a Fellini film or a Grateful Dead concert." From newsman to author He was born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, and grew up there and in Richmond, Virginia, in a family that he once described as "kind of a Southern Baptist version of 'The Simpsons.'" Robbins said he was dictating stories to his mother at age 5 and developed his writing skills further at Washington and Lee University in Virginia working on the school newspaper with Tom Wolfe, who would go on to write "The Right Stuff" and "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." Robbins worked as an editor, reporter and critic for newspapers in Richmond and Seattle, where he moved in the 1960s in search of a more progressive atmosphere than the South offered. He had a writing epiphany while reviewing a 1967 concert by the Doors. "It had jimmied the lock on my language box and smashed the last of my literary inhibitions," he wrote in the 2014 memoir "Tibetan Peach Pie." "When I read over the paragraphs I'd written that midnight, I detected an ease, a freedom of expression, a syntax simultaneously wild and precise." What came next was 1971's "Another Roadside Attraction," the roundabout tale of how the mummified, unresurrected body of Jesus was stolen from the Vatican and ended up at a hot dog stand in the U.S. Northwest. Five years later, his second book, "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," in which Sissy hitchhiked her way through a world of sex, drugs and mysticism, made him a cult favorite. His novels often had strong female protagonists, which made him especially popular with women readers. And while he appealed to the youth culture, the literary establishment never warmed to Robbins. Critics said his plots were formulaic and his style overwrought. Robbins wrote his books in longhand on legal pads, producing only a couple of pages a day and with nothing plotted in advance. An attempt at using an electric typewriter ended with the author bashing it with a piece of lumber. He labored over word selection and said he liked to "remind reader and writer alike that language is not the frosting, it's the cake." As a result, his works were overflowing with wild-eyed metaphors. "Word spread like a skin disease in a nudist colony," he wrote in "Skinny Legs and All." In "Jitterbug Perfume" he described a falling man as going down "like a sack of meteorites addressed special delivery to gravity." Robbins, who had three children, lived with his wife, Alexa, in La Conner, Washington, 70 miles north of Seattle.
Express Tribune
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Tom Robbins, counterculture novelist known for surreal storytelling, dies at 92
Tom Robbins, the American novelist known for his eccentric storytelling and countercultural themes, has died at the age of 92. His wife, Alexa Robbins, confirmed his passing in a Facebook post, stating that he was surrounded by family and pets in his final moments. She did not disclose a cause of death but shared that he remained humorous and kind throughout his final days. Robbins requested that people remember him by reading his books. Robbins was renowned for his unconventional novels, including Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), Another Roadside Attraction (1971), and Still Life With Woodpecker (1980). His works often blended surreal humor, mysticism, and irreverent narratives, appealing to counterculture audiences. His characters were famously quirky, such as Sissy Hankshaw, a hitchhiker with unusually large thumbs, and Switters, a pacifist CIA agent infatuated with a nun. His style, filled with elaborate metaphors and unconventional plots, gained him a cult following, particularly among young readers. Robbins, born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, and raised in Richmond, Virginia, discovered his passion for storytelling early on, later honing his skills at Washington and Lee University. He initially pursued a journalism career before transitioning to fiction, moving to Seattle in the 1960s in search of a more progressive environment. A 1967 Doors concert, which he once described as 'unlocking' his creativity, led him to embrace a freer, more unconventional writing style. Despite his popularity, Robbins was not widely embraced by literary critics, who often found his writing style excessive. However, his influence remained strong, and his works continued to resonate with readers. Despite mixed reviews from the literary establishment, his impact on counterculture literature endured. Robbins is survived by his wife and three children.
NBC News
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Tom Robbins, 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues' author, dies at 92
Author Tom Robbins, whose novels read like a hit of literary LSD, filled with fantastical characters, manic metaphors and counterculture whimsy, died Sunday. He was 92. Robbins' death was announced by his wife, Alexa Robbins, on Facebook. The post did not cite a cause. 'He was surrounded by his family and loyal pets. Throughout these difficult last chapters, he was brave, funny and sweet,' Alexa Robbins wrote. 'He asked that people remember him by reading his books.' Robbins indulged the hippie sensibilities of young people starting in the early 1970s with books that had an overarching philosophy of what he called 'serious playfulness' and a mandate that it should be pursued in the most outlandish ways possible. As he wrote in 'Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas:' 'Minds were made for blowing.' Robbins' works included 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," "Another Roadside Attraction' and 'Still Life With Woodpecker.' Robbins' characters were over the top, off the wall and around the bend. Among them were Sissy Hankshaw, the hitchhiker with the 9-inch thumbs in 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,' and Switters, the pacifist CIA operative in love with a nun in 'Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates.' 'Skinny Legs and All' featured a talking can of pork and beans, a dirty sock and Turn Around Norman, a performance artist whose act consisted of moving imperceptibly. 'What I try to do, among other things, is to mix fantasy and spirituality, sexuality, humor and poetry in combinations that have never quite been seen before in literature,' Robbins said in an interview with January magazine in 2000. 'And I guess when a reader finishes one of my books ... I would like for him or her to be in the state that they would be in after a Fellini film or a Grateful Dead concert.' He was born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, and grew up there and in Richmond, Virginia, in a family that he once described as 'kind of a Southern Baptist version of 'The Simpsons.'' Robbins said he was dictating stories to his mother at age 5 and developed his writing skills further at Washington and Lee University in Virginia working on the school newspaper with Tom Wolfe, who would go on to write 'The Right Stuff' and 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.' From newspapers to novels Robbins worked as an editor, reporter and critic for newspapers in Richmond and Seattle, where he moved in the 1960s in search of a more progressive atmosphere than the South offered. He had a writing epiphany while reviewing a 1967 concert by the Doors. 'It had jimmied the lock on my language box and smashed the last of my literary inhibitions,' he wrote in the 2014 memoir 'Tibetan Peach Pie.' 'When I read over the paragraphs I'd written that midnight, I detected an ease, a freedom of expression, a syntax simultaneously wild and precise.' What came next was 1971's 'Another Roadside Attraction,' the roundabout tale of how the mummified, unresurrected body of Jesus was stolen from the Vatican and ended up at a hot dog stand in the U.S. Northwest. Five years later, his second book, 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,' in which Sissy hitchhiked her way through a world of sex, drugs and mysticism, made him a cult favorite. His novels often had strong female protagonists, which made him especially popular with women readers. And while he appealed to the youth culture, the literary establishment never warmed to Robbins. Critics said his plots were formulaic and his style overwrought. Robbins wrote his books in longhand on legal pads, producing only a couple of pages a day and with nothing plotted in advance. An attempt at using an electric typewriter ended with the author bashing it with a piece of lumber. He labored over word selection and said he liked to 'remind reader and writer alike that language is not the frosting, it's the cake.' As a result, his works were overflowing with wild-eyed metaphors. 'Word spread like a skin disease in a nudist colony,' he wrote in 'Skinny Legs and All.' In 'Jitterbug Perfume' he described a falling man as going down 'like a sack of meteorites addressed special delivery to gravity.'
