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

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

With regard to splitting the check, it seems to me that the article's author could stand to find herself better friends/dining companions.

In my social circle, we have a couple people who don't eat much or don't drink alcohol or are just really watching their pennies. It's never an issue. The check comes, they put in for what they owe (including tax and tip), then the remainder of the check is split evenly between the rest of us, because we tend to order similarly priced entrees and drink about the same amount of wine.

How hard is it to just speak up?

[fleur.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why there is a stigma to only paying for what you ordered when the bill comes. I genuinely don't.

Splitting the check is I'm sure a hassle for servers, but it seems like they have a better chance of getting a tip that way. Because let's face it, if someone comes up short, it's the tip that it's going to come out of.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

How pissed do you think Assange is?

Dunno, but his supporters are livid.

I've not run into problems with check-splitting either. Odd, that.

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

I'm sad to say that the splitting the check thing happens to me much, much more often than I'd like (though much less as my social circles continue to change, I will say). My particular complaint is when people will give in exactly as much as their food costs, with no additional $ for tax and tip. It's ridiculous to me that I should have to tell grown people about tax and tip. 4 realz.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I'm used to splitting the check evenly, but I should note that I'm a Road Warrior, so almost all of my dining out in groups is done with people who, like me, can expense their meals. The server brings a bill and we each throw down a card and say, "Please split it n ways."

When I dine out with friends in social situations, we all generally have similar enough meals/prices that the difference between splitting the check evenly as above is usually our preferred option because it's easy and we're lazy

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't get it either.

In New York most restaurants refuse to split checks. You can hand them some cash and say "put the rest on this card" but you can't get separate checks. I always find it sort of shocking when people do it elsewhere, but it seems like it's okay elsewhere.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Wow. I mean, tax is usually on the bill and tip's easy enough to calc (here in NY, I usually double the tax and round up to the nearest whole dollar amount, with extra thrown in for good service. It usually comes out to about 20%

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

see, that's what comes from skimming - I first misread 'On splitting the check' as something along the lines of 'spitting on cheek' - will now read the article

The Snake Fight - so glad I avoided University :D - but loved the analogy

[fleur.livejournal.com]

If it's more than 2 or 3 people, they might do it here but you'll get an attitude about it. If it's more than 6, they may very well just refuse.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I really don't get the splitting the check thing. Our book group meets regularly, and everyone pays for what they got, plus extra for tax and tip. Sometimes someone will order a dessert for everyone to share, or if there is a birthday the person will be paid for, but it generally works out pretty well.

We also go to the same place regularly, and this has led to the owner buying rounds of drinks or desserts for the group!

[fleur.livejournal.com]

If I sense an oncoming pissing match, or if I know that the group I'm dining with is prone to it, I'll grab my card and immediately announce "I'm putting in $xx.xx". And then say nothing else.

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

I've been to way too many gatherings where folks order piles and piles of extras and then refuse to pay for any more than whatever the share is when the check is split evenly. I knew one guy in particular who was constantly a special menu snowflake (and not because of anything medical or even being a picky eater, just, like, he'd order a pasta dish when everybody else was splitting pizzas or two appetizers in addition to his entree) and would not only refuse to do anything but split the check, he'd also be the first person to snag extra money back if it turned out we'd all overpaid.

My solution: I got better friends. Friends who don't make me pay $45 for a $12 taco plate.

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

I can only recall this happening with a group when we figure that we've all spent about the same amount on dinner and shared a few appetizers and/or desserts. At other times, people pay for what they ordered (including tax and tip) and maybe pitched in a little for appetizers that were shared. Sometimes, we've gone out in honor of some event in someone's life and then split their portion among us a gift to them. But I can't recall there being an occasion when it seemed that some ate/drank much less than others but paid the same amount.

[yendi]

With regard to splitting the check, it seems to me that the article's author could stand to find herself better friends/dining companions.

Or a spine, as she seems to go along with the suggestion that she pony up, complaining only in a passive-aggressive blog post.

That said, the entire article reminds me of the discussion of check splitting and time travel in Life, The Universe, and Everything.

[marcmagus]

The check splitting thing is necessary because some people continue to be selfish enough to screw things up for everybody, either by insisting on an even split in favor of "making things easier" (with no sense of fairness or an assumption that everybody can afford to pay far more than their share to create that, and is willing to, and no realization that it's always the same people paying over), or through a complete failure to account for the cost of the non-entree items they've purchased and/or additional costs such as tax and tip.

IOW, you have friends who are competent at the check splitting thing, but not everybody got over the crap that in your experience was limited to companions of your youth.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Right, no, I get that. What I'm saying is, I don't encounter people who play this "let's all split it equally game" EVER, which is specifically what the article complains about. What I don't understand is the prevalence of that phenomenon, which seems to be wide-spread by strikes me as obviously unfair.

[kshandra]

Tip Math is the same here in CA.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I'm sure he's otherwise a great guy, but is it ok if this story kinda makes me want to kick him? I mean, I also dread the whole accounting thing, but not enough to want someone else to subsidize my food. I guess if you're a wealthy big spender going out with wealthy big spenders, then trying to work out who owes what is rather petty. But it seems like an awfully big assumption that no one at the table has a reason to be watching their expenditures.

[ckd]

Problems with check-splitting? There's an app for that. I saved enough to pay for it the first time I used it--a 10 person meal at WisCon at a place that wouldn't check-split, with bills running from under $15 (mine) up to $33.30. I ran the whole thing through Bistromath, collected cash (with some reasonable rounding up/down to simplify it), and then put the whole thing on my card.

I didn't have to hit an ATM all weekend after that, either....

[setissma.livejournal.com]

I have to say, and I admittedly dine with other impoverished college students, so my perspective may be skewed, that I've never run into this happening. Everyone pays for their meal and their portion of a shared dessert/appetizer.

And honestly, if I were writing a column about issues with splitting the check, I think I'd lean more toward commentary on all the women I know who think it's charming/flirtatious/funny to be unable to calculate a 20% tip because it's completely acceptable for women to be mathematically illiterate. Sigh.

[ckd]

Which, of course, led to the iOS check-splitting app I use being called "Bistromath".

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

The appliance story made me laugh. Never ONCE has my city's service gotten to my house before someone has nicked an appliance I've put out. It's the way of things here. Interestingly, we've seen the same problems with recyclables a couple of times, which is why I don't put my comingled bags out until the morning.

As for splitting the check, this practice is news to me. Apparently I run with a crowd who can either a) do math, b) puts in what they spent, or c) fronts each other for the bill.

Also, I think there's a snake fight component of my week. Oof.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

...I love what it's called.

I know someone else (male, as it happens) who was hopeless at working out percentage tips, so actually got a sort of cheat-sheet printed at credit card size, showing what 10 or 15 or 20 percent of thus-and-such should be.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Re. Splitting the check. I ran into this ONE time, but it was memorable.

A friend was in town for a conference and invited us to eat with his bigwig (of which he is not) friends. There was liquor and wine with the meal and everyone but the three of us ordered extravagantly and RIII and I only ordered slightly more than he did.

He ate very lightly and when the time came to split the check, one of the bigwigs said that we should all just split it nine ways or whatever it was, the person who had invited me only put in his fair share. And no more.

I noticed it, but I wasn't going to call out someone I thought was my friend in front of people I barely knew. I also knew that his money was tight and that he really couldn't afford to split the check in the way that the bigwigs wanted.

The bill was short. I'd put in what the bigwigs had asked for already, but I still wound up adding another $20 or so to try and make up for it and so did everyone else around the table.

Don't get me wrong - the person who had invited us put in what was fair for what he'd actually eaten, but was too much of a coward to say to those bigwigs, "Look, I didn't eat that much so I'm not going to split the check that way."

I'll only say this - due to other factors, we're no longer friends with this guy, but he never got caught for being the one who shorted everyone else.

I'll also add that when he made the invitation, he had intimated that our meal might be covered by the bigwigs. It was fortunate that I always carry enough money to cover whatever I order and then some.

If anyone ever asks me about him in the future for any reason, this is the story I'll tell.

I agree with you, that everyone should just pay for what they ordered rather than dividing it up, however in a large group it can be easy for the odd person out to feel bullied. In truth, I didn't think it was fair for us to split the check in that way, but I'd ordered enough not to argue about it and I wasn't quite as courageous as I am now when it came to standing up for myself in a large group. Not to mention that my husband was there and it would have embarrassed him if I'd been the one to make the fuss when he wasn't, sigh. Especially since at that time I was the one making all of the money, :(.

Don't get me wrong - I think our ex-friend an asshat (again, for more reasons than just this one), but in a group of eight or more people, it can be difficult to be the odd one (or more than one) out, :(.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

This is why I always carry cash when I go out to eat, except with a few close friends who know how I feel. It's far easier to calculate what you actually owe and throw in cash, rounding up, than to try to figure it exactly so you can put you share on a credit card, and argue with people about how much you owe. No one refuses cash, no restaurant, I mean.

Also, in the Midwest, restaurants seem to be much more willing to split checks.