Menus to reveal what happens to your tip

News from across the pond . . .

Restaurants could be made to reveal on menus how much, if any, of their service charge is paid to waiting staff. The measure will be among proposals announced next week to ensure that diners know what happens to their tips, The Times has learnt.

Some establishments keep all gratuities, while others – particularly restaurant chains – funnel tips into waiters’ basic wages. Ministers have already pledged to close a loophole that allows restaurants and hotels to use service charges to top up pay rates beneath the minimum wage, currently £5.73 an hour.

Full Article

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Bag of Randomness

  • I remember the first time I ever voted for president, it was 1996, the first year I was eligible.  It was at the elementary school I attended as a little tike, and I voted with my parents who both are gone now.  It’s a nice little memory I have.  I recall my father asking me what was taking me so long as all I had to do was vote straight ticket.  That made me chuckle, but since this was my first ever experience doing such a patriotic thing, I just wanted to “checkout” the ballot and let it all sink in.
  • I am now 2 for 2 in terms of voting for the winning candidate.
  • As soon as the news started to call the election for Obama I got a text from one of my black childhood friends that said “O it’s o now!!!! :-)”  Actually, he is my first ever friend and lived just down the road from me.  For a moment I thought that he shouldn’t gloat, and that it was a bit of a shallow comment.  But then I thought about the history of slavery in this country, that the White House itself was built by slaves.  I thought about the Civil Rights era and the segregated Army my father served in, and I reflected upon my relationship with my friend.  I started to recall that when he was in high school (circa 1993) and was dating a white girl, her mother made them break up because a small Texas town would not understand an inter-racial relationship and it would harm their family’s reputation in the community, not to mention her husband’s lawfirm.  I also thought about the time we were playing in my front yard (7 years old, maybe?) and I called him the n-word, and how he reacted.  He didn’t yell or cry or throw a punch, he just rang the doorbell and told my father what I did when he answered, and I can remember how I got my ass chewed out that late afternoon.  Each friendship has it’s own special kid of humor where you just have to know the parties invovled, so you just gotta know my friend to really understand what I’m talking about.  I was happy that at this significant moment in history and in his life he included me on this text, and I couldn’t be happier for him, his family, and his people.
  • My cubemate at work is from India and it’s been very interesting and a blessing to asnwer his questions about U.S. politics, and it’s given me a chance to learn about India’s political system as well.  Just one tidbit, he told me about the getting his finger ink stained after voting, this show that you have already voted and prevents a double vote, and he said that no matter what he could nto get that stain off his skin for two days.  The day after the election he told me he was just glued to his TV set watching all the networks and was just soaking it all in and how fascinating it was to him.
  • I wish I would have picked up a copy of the newspaper yesterday.  But a copy of the Dallas Morning News with the headline of Obama winning probably wouldn’t that much of a keepsake, but a copy of the one of the Chicago papers would have been very cool.
  • For me, there’s something touching about how a man from humble roots is able to become president.  That concept is one of the things that make this country great, any U.S. born citizen can be president.  I guess that’s one reason I was never fond of our current president, the nepitism and cronysim.  And even though his father was born priveledge, I felt like he earned the presidency.  Regarding “mordern” politics, I guess the only other person who was born into wealth to win the presidency was Kennedy.
  • There were a lot of evangelicals that prayed earnestly for Geoge W. Bush on a daily basis since they considered him to be a Christian.  I wonder if they will continue to do the same for our next president.
  • You may not have noticed it, but when Obama gave his victory speech it was behind a lot of bullet proof glass.  I absolutely fear there will be several attempts at his life and pray that the Secret Service will be at their very best.
  • I think California had some interesting voting results – no gay marriage and no prostitution in San Fran.
  • I was really surprised that Ted Stevens held on to victory.  I guess when you tell people the Internet is a series of tubes (I’m not joking  Wikipedia YouTube) they will believe anything.
  • It’s important for Christians to memorize scripture, but I would ague it’s more important to understand and comprehend scripture.  So often I see scripture thrown around in conversation and taken without context with little attention paid to the historical, cultural, and even political reference of the background of that scripture.
  • Technically, CNN didn’t use holograms.  Link
  • Science confirms girls have cooties.  Link
  • Time to find another route.  Link
  • George Garratt just wasn’t a long enough name.  Link
  • This squirrel looks pretty darn tired.
  • Cute sequence of pictures of you Obama fans.  Pic1 Pic2 Pic3 Pic4
  • Here’s an interesting clip from The O’Reilly where a Fox News talks about the fallout of the McCain campaign and how he learned that Palin didn’t know Africa was continent.
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A fun little thing to do after a major historical moment

Is to check out the front pages across the U.S.

Link

I prefer to check it out using the map feature.

I think a lot of people have the same idea as the site seems to be working a little slow today, hence the reason why I’m not posting a picture on this post.

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