Realizations that make you feel really stupid

[Goodkill]

edit: nevermind

[Peelee]

If you really want to be remembered, can I suggest instead tipping $2 in the smallest coin denomination you can?

It practically ensures that your next meal at the place will be delivered with extra sauce, IYKWIM.
I'm guessing you mean giving a big tip all in $2 bills?
GW

Yeah, a good tip (20% or better), some that's the only reason to tip in memorable 2's. I hate the whole concept of tipping, but as long as it exists, I'll very rarely tip below 15%. They lowest I ever did was something like 8 cents. I believe that sent a very clear message: "I do tip, just not you." Totally deserved it, too. Worst restaurant experience ever. I may have gone on this rant before.

[Some Android]

Do these realizations count if they were made before the age of 10? Because if so...

...the sun is a star.

...whales and dolphins aren't fish but mammals.

...panda "bears" aren't actually bears but more closely related to raccoons.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

...panda "bears" aren't actually bears but more closely related to raccoons.

Science has moved on and the Panda bear is now back to being considered part of the bear family.

Scientists have used DNA to find out that the giant panda is more closely related to the other bears than to the raccoons.

GW

[Anonymouswizard]

Yeah, a good tip (20% or better), some that's the only reason to tip in memorable 2's. I hate the whole concept of tipping, but as long as it exists, I'll very rarely tip below 15%. They lowest I ever did was something like 8 cents. I believe that sent a very clear message: "I do tip, just not you." Totally deserved it, too. Worst restaurant experience ever. I may have gone on this rant before.

I really don't get the American topping custom. Here servers are paid a real wage and meals are priced to cover it. There's places where it's acceptable not to tip, they'll either be pubs where you but food at the bar, restaurants that all you not to, or chain restaurants frequented by students.

Heck, 15% seems excessive to me, the standard in used to is 5% for expected service, 10% for good service, but I know it varies from person to person.

[Peelee]

I really don't get the American topping custom.

Same, but as long as I live here, what am I gonna do, not tip?

[Knaight]

I really don't get the American topping custom. Here servers are paid a real wage and meals are priced to cover it. There's places where it's acceptable not to tip, they'll either be pubs where you but food at the bar, restaurants that all you not to, or chain restaurants frequented by students.

I don't like it, but as long as there's a minimum wage exemption for tipped professions it's basically necessary. For those that do like it the standard argument* is that it lets you punish servers for insufficient service, and that the removal of tips (or just paying enough that they're not necessary) also removes that economic power from the customer.

*I'm specifically talking about the tipping custom and not the laws around it.

[BannedInSchool]

On service tipping:
Really, I wouldn't want to own a restaurant. Some expenses are monthly (power, rent, full-time employees), but all your income is per-meal served. In a way just lopping 15% off the income (not even profits) to give to the servers isn't bad compared to some other industries, but it sucks for anyone depending on the tips to live with their own monthly expenses.

[ve4grm]

...whales and dolphins aren't fish but mammals.

Somewhat related, it's rather entertaining to search "narwhals are real" on Twitter and see people discovering this fact in real time.
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&...al%22&src=typd

Also, this buzzfeed article from a few years ago. https://www.buzzfeed.com/katieheaney...nd-thats-crazy

[Lord Joeltion]

I really don't get the American topping custom. Here servers are paid a real wage and meals are priced to cover it. There's places where it's acceptable not to tip, they'll either be pubs where you but food at the bar, restaurants that all you not to, or chain restaurants frequented by students.

Heck, 15% seems excessive to me, the standard in used to is 5% for expected service, 10% for good service, but I know it varies from person to person.

When I was on the Disney Cruise Line, tip was mandatory (despite everything was included) for each of the personnel that assisted us during the trip (service and restaurant crew was the same every day). I really didn't like that. I was ok with the amount; but what bothered me was that it was mandatory. Dunno, call it kind of a principle.

In my country, some restaurants add a "table service" that isn't exactly "tip" (and nothing assures you that the money will go to the service team instead of the owner). It's always a fixed amount (not a percentage), and I don't like that either. There are some rules for the restaurant to be allowed to charge you that sum (but there's no rule about the actual amount) and it always seemed to me as a cheap business trick to charge you for the bread.

On service tipping:
Really, I wouldn't want to own a restaurant. Some expenses are monthly (power, rent, full-time employees), but all your income is per-meal served. In a way just lopping 15% off the income (not even profits) to give to the servers isn't bad compared to some other industries, but it sucks for anyone depending on the tips to live with their own monthly expenses.

Arguably, all that trouble could be circumvented with better policies on minimum wage for the specific job; making the whole purpose of "tipping" redundant. But I think it's more of an old custom that was never questioned because it (relatively) works in practice.

I don't like it, but as long as there's a minimum wage exemption for tipped professions it's basically necessary. For those that do like it the standard argument* is that it lets you punish servers for insufficient service, and that the removal of tips (or just paying enough that they're not necessary) also removes that economic power from the customer.

*I'm specifically talking about the tipping custom and not the laws around it.

I always considered the custom to offer tipping was the other way around: as an "incentive for the worker to pursue excellency of service". The proverbial carrot for the donkey, if you want. There are a lot of other jobs of the same sector dealing with Public Relations that receive wage bonuses for accomplishing certain goals (selling a specific product, attracting a greater number of clients, etc). The tipping custom isn't all that different in its philosophy.

As a sidenote; what I don't like/understand so much about the tipping issue; is people travelling abroad that actively challenge or refuse to follow the local custom, whatever the kind of service they receive. I mean, if people have the same custom for ages and their society/economy hasn't imploded yet; you aren't defending any kind of ideal. You are just cheap. I know it's not so common, but I met people like that...

[Peelee]

Arguably, all that trouble could be circumvented with better policies on minimum wage for the specific job; making the whole purpose of "tipping" redundant.

In the US, if a server's tips don't add up to minimum wage, the restaurant must pay the difference; they always get at least minimum wage. Of course, I don't think my opinions on minimum wage are forum appropriate, and it's a good way to be out of a job if it happens with any regularity in any case, but there is that.

[jayem]

Do these realizations count if they were made before the age of 10? Because if so...
...whales and dolphins aren't fish but mammals.

I literally had this the other day. Something had made me think about the dolphin attacks on porpoises, and I had a moment of confusion about how that would work with piscine equipment, do some fish have ... oh.

Todays was wondering if hysterical and hysteresis were related words, and if so if it was connected to (things) wandering, before being sure that the hyster bit comes from the part that wanders [it does] which scotches that.

[Vinyadan]

Todays was wondering if hysterical and hysteresis were related words, and if so if it was connected to (things) wandering, before being sure that the hyster bit comes from the part that wanders [it does] which scotches that.

You should not be so sure, because I am sure that that's not the case, and that the etymologies are unrelated.

Hysteresis comes from "hysteros" = later, through the verb hystereo = to come later, to lack something.

Hysterical comes from "hysterikós", which means "suffering at the uterus" (hystera = uterus). Hysterical as a word originally referred to a condition in which women would suffer violent fits and mood swings, whose cause was attributed to an altered state of the uterus.

There are some who tentatively hypothize that hystera and hysteros are related words, but I don't think it works.

Fun fact: the Greek word for "wanderer" was planetes, from which "planet" (because planets follow their own trajectories in the sky, instead of rotating with the stars).

[2D8HP]

I really don't get the American tipping custom...

I'm sure there's a lot of things about the U.S.A. that would bewilder or even appall you.

...Here servers are paid a real wage and meals are priced to cover it...

I probably can't go much further into the reasons ("P" word) that that's true over there and not here, but here's some history:

"Until the early 20th century, Americans viewed tipping as inconsistent with the values of an egalitarian, democratic society.
Also, proprietors regarded tips as equivalent to bribing an employee to do something that was otherwise forbidden, such as tipping a waiter to get an extra large portion of food.
The introduction of Prohibition in 1919 had an enormous impact on hotels and restaurants, who lost the revenue of selling alcoholic beverages. The resulting financial pressure caused proprietors to welcome tips, as a way of supplementing employee wages."

Also, you guys started it

"The practice of tipping began in Tudor England. By the 17th century, it was expected that overnight guests to private homes would provide sums of money, known as vails, to the host’s servants. Soon afterwards, customers began tipping in London coffeehouses and other commercial establishments".

[Peelee]

Also, you guys started it

They're also the ones who started calling it "soccer," and then act all snooty when we call it that.

[2D8HP]

They're also the ones who started calling it "soccer," and then act all snooty when we call it that.

.
If there's one thing that the films of Mel Gibson have taught me, it's that they're almost all snooty.

Except of course for the chimney sweeps, as seen in Mary Poppins.

And some pirates, some of which are actually Welsh, but most pirates are from Dorset.



Robert Newton taught me that.

[Anonymouswizard]

Hey! We're not that snooty! We're acting like we're French!

I hate those guys, always looking down on us because their food is better, cheese is smellier, woman are prettier, sex more common, films more entertaining, language sexier...

[2D8HP]

Hey! We're not that snooty! We're acting like we're French!...

.
Oh the French!

Well that's self evident.

No cowboys or chimney sweeps.

But they did have pirates.



Snooty pirates.

[BWR]

Also, you guys started it

The Irish started Paddy's Day but it took the Americans to make a comical, exaggerated mess of it.

[2D8HP]

The Irish started Paddy's Day but it took the Americans to make a comical, exaggerated mess of it.

ALWAYS GO BIG![/
(Unofficial U.S.A. motto)

[Vinyadan]

ALWAYS GO BIG![/
(Unofficial U.S.A. motto)

There's a nice joke about everything being bigger in America, from windmills to cars to toothbrushes and, alas, suppositories

[2D8HP]

There's a nice joke about everything being bigger in America, from windmills to cars to toothbrushes and, alas, suppositories

Well of course.

How else do you know that they'll be effective?

[HalfTangible]

There's a nice joke about everything being bigger in America

Oh, so it's like Texas to you. So I am Texan to America, which is already Texas to England. Meaning I am, in fact, in the greatest place ever created by the hands of mankind.

[Jay R]

I really don't get the American topping custom.

When I walk into the restaurant I go to regularly, the maitre d' calls me by name and seats me instantly, the server brings me my chips and my coffee when she first appears, and my meal is already being cooked. That's what I'm tipping for.

[HalfTangible]

When I walk into the restaurant I go to regularly, the maitre d' calls me by name and seats me instantly, the server brings me my chips and my coffee when she first appears, and my meal is already being cooked. That's what I'm tipping for.

One of the waiters at Willie's let me eat and run because I forgot my wallet.

Then I came back, paid for my lunch, and added a massive tip worth about as much as the original meal.

[BannedInSchool]

Oh, so it's like Texas to you. So I am Texan to America, which is already Texas to England. Meaning I am, in fact, in the greatest place ever created by the hands of mankind.

Unless it's west Texas, which has been scientifically determined to have the climate of Mordor.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

When I walk into the restaurant I go to regularly, the maitre d' calls me by name and seats me instantly, the server brings me my chips and my coffee when she first appears, and my meal is already being cooked. That's what I'm tipping for.

For a year working in England, I managed to receive that exact same service on a daily basis, without any tipping. The service was excellent not because I bribed the servers but because they were consummate, well-remunerated professionals.

Perhaps the strangest conceit of American tipping culture is that it is somehow improves the service received. I have been in restaurants in over a dozen countries across three continents, and I can safely assert that the US is nowhere near the top in most metrics, and right at the bottom in at least a couple.

Grey Wolf

[Sermil]

Oh, so it's like Texas to you. So I am Texan to America, which is already Texas to England. Meaning I am, in fact, in the greatest place ever created by the hands of mankind.

I've heard Alaskans say that they should split their state in half, thus making Texas the third largest state in the Union.

[HalfTangible]

Unless it's west Texas, which has been scientifically determined to have the climate of Mordor.

Eh, I've been to west texas. Too chilly for my tastes.

I've heard Alaskans say that they should split their state in half, thus making Texas the third largest state in the Union.

Why would America want two frozen states?

For a year working in England, I managed to receive that exact same service on a daily basis, without any tipping. The service was excellent not because I bribed the servers but because they were consummate, well-remunerated professionals.

Perhaps the strangest conceit of American tipping culture is that it is somehow improves the service received. I have been in restaurants in over a dozen countries across three continents, and I can safely assert that the US is nowhere near the top in most metrics, and right at the bottom in at least a couple.

Grey Wolf

I've been to restaurants across the world as well.

So. Gorram. SLOOOOOW!!!

[2D8HP]

Texas

Alaska

Yes the big spaces of Alaska and Texas are impressive, as are the caribou and cows, but where do the most people in the U.S.A. live?

Oh that's right, my home State of California

And where is the

best weather in the U.S.A.


if not the world?

My hometown of Oakland, California.