Hooray! It seems the EarthLink servers are up and running, again. I was getting worried after two days of “This Page Cannot Be Displayed” error messages. I will say, I have been with EarthLink since I launched my first Web site back in the 90s, and the reliability has been outstanding—with only the occasional hiccup. Today, I have another Sunday A&J from 1994. This is a mild example of the insecurity that characterized Janis in the early years. Janis since has mellowed and enjoys life and marriage much more these days. In reality, the waiter or waitress who hovers constantly around me and pesters me with ceaseless questions and attention is not ingratiating himself. But reality is what insecurity is all about, is?
Gratuitous Gratuity
By Jimmy Johnson
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257 responses to “Gratuitous Gratuity”
Good to see that EarthLink has eradicated their bugs! At least for now… Hopefully all is “normal” in the Village. By the way – we have 14″ of snow and it is still coming down!
Good for Janis—and that’s good for Arlo. Jealousy is indeed a green monster, a waste of so much. Rather than dwell on that, it is so good that Janis and Arlo dwell on faithfulness. They don’t say it; they live it. It always reminds me of what writing teachers say: Don’t tell the reader, but show the reader.
They love each other completely faithfully–and their son learned that well, too. Thanks for a good on-going tale, Jimmy!
Caught up on yesterdays posts before I realized that I had gone right to the page without having to find my way through the cyber-maze of the past few days. YAY!
Denise, the only two weather sayings I can remember at the moment are, from my grandmother-step on a spider and it will rain, and my Dad-if you don’t like the weather in Georgia, wait 15 minutes…it will change.
Jackie, y’all do be careful. The ice and snow in Georgia have gone, but now it’s rainy, and the drivers in Atlanta aren’t much better in rain than snow. I don’t know which route you’re taking, but if I had I would have invited you over for coffee if you got near Dahlonega.
Ghost Sweetie, my favorite current groundhog/weather saying- http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018566622
Debbe 😉 I wondered if anyone would catch the “Rainman” allusion. “Dumb blond”, indeed. 🙂
No, I don’t mind you teasing me. The way I figure, if you didn’t love me, you wouldn’t bother to tease me. Besides, no one teases me more than I do myself. I’m the poster boy for not taking one’s self seriously.
The other day I was seeing my physician for a checkup, and after his nurse practitioner ran through the long list of “have you had” questions, I told her I was The Poster Boy For Asymptomatic. She agreed.
Mother Nature seems to be continuing her Shock and Awe campaign in parts of the country. The first thing I saw on TV this morning was traffic cam pics of I-65 in KY south of Louisville, completely shut down by snow, with reports of some people being stranded on the road for over 12 hours. Jackie never did say exactly where they were, but at least it seems they may be snowbound in a motel room rather than their vehicle.
Things servers say that tip (pun intended) the gratuity scale toward the negative:
“Are you still working on that?”
I’m not building a house here.
“No problem.”
I would hope not.
And the biggie, “Do you want your change?”
Well, I didn’t but I do now.
It is always great to see older strips that pre-date the online archive at GoComics… especially a Sunday strip, which generally do not appear at all until much later years.
This appreciation is especially important to express since Our Humble Author has to 1) locate the comic’s location, generally next to the Ark of the Covenant in the warehouse 2) move boxes the size of shipping crates for Bradley Fighting Vehicles filled with original art 3) scan the honoree, which will be especially large if a Sunday strip and 4) recuperate if he injured himself in Step Number 2.
The hat is doffed for you, my good sir.
Two days out. Long enough to restock, now snowed in again. I’m glad I like being snowed in, or at least for the most part. This is a real record setter in this area, and they keep edging the expect low down for tonight. Which if we get it will be another record setter for recorded wx history. Five Sundays in a row missing church, that I am missing.
I place those who want to change the name of the Cleveland Indians (well maybe the Washington Redskins) in the same category as those who want to change the name of all sport’s teams named the rebels. Pensacola, known as the city of five flags, temporarily became the city of four flags as the PC crowd wanted all CSA flags removed. I understand not wanting to offend but who would the union troops fight in the movie “Glory” if there were no confederate troops allowed in the movie. “Selma” wouldn’t be much of a movie if the march to Selma, Al was portrayed as a leisurely stroll.
Other things which can affect size of tip: Ignoring your table after taking the order, until you are ready for your check. Letting your glass of water, tea, whatever stay empty for extended periods. When told of a problem, trying to gloss over it rather than solve it.
I went out for a solitary birthday dinner at a well-known chain of “roadhouse” restaurants in February. Midweek, past dinner rush, not busy and got seated right away near the main guest/server walkway. After 15 minutes of being observed and ignored by the servers I got up and went to the person doing seating. I told her she could give the table to someone else and the reason why, and left. She made no attempt to correct situation or ask anything before I left, so I guess either it happens often, or they just don’t care. Anyway, I have not been to that place for over a month now and don’t know when I will feel like going again.
We are 20 miles north of Atlanta and in rain. Daughter is trying to book flight out of Fort Lauderdale back to Illinois weekend after next . Driver position includes travel expenses including return airfare if I drive you nuts. Actually she has an award banquet for preservation board she is on . I have lots of fun things I want to do and wanted more time
Mark I hate being ignored and normally server will give me their personal card and ask I request them on next visit I don’t require that they suckup but I sure do not stand for being ignored or rude Good for you walking out
From last of yesterdays post – yeah I did it
on 05 Mar 2015 at 11:33 am #
Debbe
Thanks for Conus
When I broke bone in foot the ER Doc thought it was a growth line. I was 31 at the time.
My GP called (They did that in those days) to say it was broken.
No lightweight casts then.
GR6
I still use my Windows 97 as word possessor and do clip art work & some games.
All off line.
Today
Jackie glad you are safe.
Prayers for David
When in college a group of us (8-10) went to a nice place.
Service was so bad we left 2 cents.
A much bigger statement than no TIP
OF due 1213-1233 CST. emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Also was at a allnight place (with friend) (busy) that the waitress was good enough with banter
she got $1.00 from each of us for 50 cent tab (2 Coffee & 2 Doughnuts) At the time I was making less than dollar an hour.
Glad to hear you made good your escape from The Great White Midwest, Jackie.
Mark, I’d probably have asked to see the manager on duty. In my experience, the “Please Wait For Hostess To Seat You” lady is more likely than not just a failed server. Also, many chains have rating cards one can fill out and mail in. Failing that, I’d have gone online and fired an email rocket to Corporate. I once filed a complaint via smart phone while I was still seated in the offending fast-food store and had an acknowledgement before I left, with a very satisfactory follow-up the next day.
And I’m not even the complaining type! But it is my money I’m trying to give to the chain (and to the server, if warranted), so I do have a say in the matter. And yes, Jackie, the good servers tend to remember me when I return.
Glad to hear you’re ok Jackie. Tell your daughter to try Amtrak. I don’t know where in IL she needs to go, but they are cheaper than the airlines for quick trips. Although Southwest might be a good choice too. I think they fly from Ft. Lauderdale.
This was at the tail end of “yesterday’s” run, but I wanted to add a P.S. They would happily chase an equally bright green dot, just as a bull would furiously charge an equally bright green cape [which I will never see, red or green]. In the latter example, we use red because humans view bright red as alarming, and because when the “sport” was invented, they didn’t know bulls were dichromats. Peace, emb
“““““““““““““““““““““
Debbe: “Emb….then why do the cats chase the red dot? What color do they see?” This doesn’t really answer your question, but: Cat’s cannot talk. Ask a man [more rarely a woman] who is red/green colorblind. He, like cats, dogs, and most mammals other than Old World primates [baboons, gorillas, langurs, [stoopid speelczech], chimps, bonobos, us], is a dichromat. That is, he has only two kinds of cones in his retina: one sensitive mostly to short wavelength light at the blue end of the spectrum and the other sensitive to long wavelengths at the red/yellow end. OW primates have three kinds: the blue end kind, the red kind, and the green kind. The various colors we see and name: azure, teal, magenta, crimson, are combinations of these or specific wavelengths along the spectrum. Dichromats, including cats, two of my fellow emeriti from school and the daughter of one of those, cannot tell some colors toward the red/green end from some others. That’s why all traffic lights have the red on top. Their glass may also have some pigments added to make them distinguishable to dichromats.
If birds and turtles could talk, they might ask the same sort of question re us: If hoomins have only tree kinds of cones, wut colorz do dey see? Birds and reptiles are tetrachromats. They can see differences at the blue end, and into the ultraviolet, that we cannot. I expect you can find more on the web than you want to know. Try tetrachromat, bird color vision, maybe others.
Breakfast is probably done: big bowl of hot 7-grain [nuked with skim milk instead of water, + red seedless grapes], decaf.
Peace, emb
Denise, Eggplant Finger is still being inflexible, in two meanings of the word, and not wanting to regain its former and usual range of motion. The good news is that many hours of squeezing my ball (Hey! I heard that snicker!) has finally led to some improvement, so I will continue to exercise obstinate Eggplant Finger as I’m doing. I may investigate occupational therapy, but after this period of time, I’m not sure if the results I’d get would be worth it. Thanks for asking.
Thought for the Day: Sometimes you eat the bear; sometimes the bear eats you. (No offense, Old Bear.)
Jerry, I hope I’m not being too cynical when I say that I suspect that many causes undertaken by “advocates” are less about hurt feelings than the attempt to exercise political muscle. If you give into a demand now, it’s that much harder not to capitulate the next time demands are made.
And yes, history is history, no matter how much the parties on either side of an issue would like to revise it.
Guys I suspect we are all good tipper for good service. I am a total fan of restaurants and servers, chefs and food of all types and levels, not just upscale. And I love people same way.
Thank you Ghost. I worried that some may have been offended but you understood my point and I’m glad. In other news, hundreds of vehicles are stranded on I65 and I24 in Kentucky in subfreezing weather and have been for at least 12 hours. Apparently authorities have been able to reach the people and transport them to shelter. It appeared to be all caused by snow and not by a major accident.
Your Dad said the same thing as many Michiganders, Trapper Jean! And I like that your Grandma’s saying encourages compassion for little things (unless, of course, you need rain. Then there must be a whole lotta spider stompin’ goin’ on.)
A “Bravo!” For Evan’s 10:07 a.m. post.
A favorite short poem from my childhood for Ghost:
“Algy met a bear.
The bear was bulgy.
The bulge was Algy.”
Wow Tom, your post did not exactly make sense to me until I saw a later one talk about waitresses. You see Jimmy was talking about his server (Internet) and then talked about his server (food). When I read your post initially, I was thinking internet and thought “What kind of point is Tom trying to make?” It was much better the second time around.
I believe that I have mentioned this before, but I was eating breakfast and had a very small piece of toast left on my plate that I was going to use to sop up the rest of my egg yoke. Except the busboy grabbed it before I could. When I went to the register to pay, I was asked “How was everything?” Nicely, I pointed out that while it really did look like I was done, the busboy took my plate before I finished. He knocked a little bit off the bill because we went there all the time.