sundries

[rm]

Patty is home, and it's been super New York-y already: the other people in Terminal 8 were so excited to see their loved-ones they were blocking folks from getting out; the cab said his credit card thing was broken; the sound of the heating pipes woke us up; and there was some seriously creepy bird action this morning. Thumbs up.

Zuckerberg is Time's person of the year. How pissed do you think Assange is?

Meanwhile, the US Air Force has blocked access to news sites that have published the leaks. can someone explain this to me? Is it anything other than "these secret things aren't secret anymore, but we're going to pretend they are, even if it means you're working from a deficit of what is now common information?"

Someone is stealing New York's junked appliances.

On splitting the check. I understand the complaint. I don't understand why it's necessary. I've almost NEVER run into this, though. We all figure out what we owe, chuck it in, and since I've been over the age of about 25, we've usually had too much money, not too little.

A bill has been introduced in California to add historical contributions of LGBT people to school textbooks. A similar legislation passed four years ago, but was vetoed by the governor.

The academics I know keep posting this, but I still love it every time I see it: The Snake Fight Portion of Your Thesis Defense.

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I'm reading the comments and thinking "Tax? Bzuh? What tax?"...and then remember that I live in a state with no sales or restaurant tax. So if I ever ate out of state, yes, I would probably be that clueless person.

[natf.livejournal.com]

I was doing the same but then in the UK VAT (Value Added Tax or the UK equivalent of sales tax as I understand it) is always included in product and/or menu prices. Some restaurants even include "service" (tips) in the prices. As an ex-waitress myself, I prefer to eat at restaurants that don't and prefer to put a cash tip on the table than add one to the credit/debit card bill because then the wait staff can take it home that evening.

As for splitting the bill (and more of a comment to rm, so apologies for tacking it on to this comment), I seem to have a very similar experience to some other commenters. I have never asked for seperate bills within one table/party and was never asked by anyone I served (but then I was waiting tables in the 80s so things may have changed). I have often been in a party that split the bill equally when I did not drink alcohol and/or had a cheaper meal and I do remember feeling hurt by that but not saying anything so as not to seem churlish (yanno, British and all that). I have also picked up the tab for a whole table when earning well and have had someone else pick up the tab for me when they knew I was not doing so well. I think, in the end, it all evens out. Not that I can afford to eat out these days…