Byline: John Kelly
John Kelly writes five times a week about the joys and annoyances of living in Washington. He aims to show readers the Washington (and Silver Spring, Alexandria, Manassas, Bowie ...) that they know and take them places they don't know. He wants to make them see familiar things in unfamiliar ways and unfamiliar things in familiar ways. ("We may occasionally end up seeing unfamiliar things in unfamiliar ways," John says, "but such are the risks of the job.") His columns take a cockeyed view of the place the rest of the planet knows as the Capital of the Free World but that we all call home. John rides the Metro for fun and once kidnapped an Irishman to see what made him tick.
Fridays at 1 p.m. ET John is online to chat about his columns and mull over anything that's on your mind.
Discussion Archives / Recent Columns
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John Kelly: In high school I bussed tables at a restaurant in Wheaton. One day my choir teacher and her husband came in. After they finished their meal I went out to clear the plates. Her husband gave me a couple bucks and said, "Always tip the busboy. That's what I was taught, always tip the busboy." I thought that was nice, if a little eccentric. (Just like the choir teacher, as a matter of fact.)
My confusion over just who to tip and how much is what inspired today's column. I apologize for not giving any easy answers. What I found is that most of us just make it up as we go along, and that many of us feel weird about the whole thing. When I asked the owner of the place where I get my hair cut what I should be tipping, she basically said, "Oh, you don't need to tip. We pay these people a very good salary." That really opened my eyes.
So, I'm curious about your experiences. We can talk about other things too, of course. On Monday I wrote about buried power lines in DC. On Tuesday I fell prey to a blind rage and ranted about lack of street signage in the suburbs, lazy dentists and bad drivers. Wednesday was about the mysterious dry cleaning "coat retainer." And Thursday was a grab bag that included how behind the times Metro is on its Blue Line signs. They seem not to know where the end of the line is.
Take it away....
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My Tipping Question: 15% was the proper tip in a restaurant for how long....50-60 years ? Then five years ago, all of a sudden it was 20%. Who decided that ? Is there some US Board of Tipping somewhere ?
John Kelly: No, and that's the problem. It's all done by "tradition." I guess someone decided that the same way all prices go up, so tips should go up. Of course, you'd assume that if the price of a restaurant meal went up then a tip based on a percentage of that cost would also go up. I had lunch in Arlington yesterday and noticed that at the bottom of the little credit card slip thing they'd calculated a tip for me. Two tips, actually: 15 percent of the meal's cost and 20 percent. I sort of appreciated this, since it saved me doing the math. But part of me also found it presumptuous.
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Arlington, Va.: I'm not sure who to ask, and you ar available, so here goes. Reuters has admitted to using Photoshop software to "enhance" the picture of the President's bathroom note that appeared in today's Post. Does the use of altered photos meet the Post's standards? Should there have been something in the caption about the photo being altered, even if the image was not changed, but just cleaned up?
John Kelly: Here is what our stylebook says:
"Photographs are trusted by our readers to be an accurate recording of an event. Alteration of photographs in any way so as to mislead, confuse or otherwise misrepresent the accuracy of those events is strictly prohibited. Traditional darkroom techniques such as adjustment of contrast and gray scale are permitted."
Apparently Reuters zoomed in on the note and adjusted the contrast, so I think it falls within our guidelines. Now, if we had added words to it using Photoshop or spliced a different note in or otherwise played with reality, then that wouldn't have been kosher. The reality is Bush wrote that note. The real question is, what do you think of The Post, and many other papers and Web sites, printing it? Did it violate the president's privacy in some way? And, hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.
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washingtonpost.com: See Dubya Run to the WC (Post, Sept. 16, 2005)
John Kelly: Here's the photo, in Al Kamen's column.
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washingtonpost.com: http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001137642
John Kelly: And here's a story about how it was taken and "enhanced."
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A modest proposal: John - here's my solution to the ongoing Pledge of Allegiance flag. We should change it to be a simpler version of the Oath of Office that the Pres, etc. swear and the Naturalization Oath that new citizens recite.
"I promise to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America"
No idolatry, no swear vs affirm, no "under God".
Simple, straightforward, and to the point: the flag isn't important, the Constitution is.
So whaddya think?
John Kelly: I'd go for that. I've often thought that if I was ever elected president I would take the Oath of Office with my hand on a copy of the Constitution rather than a Bible. The Constitution seems to me to be the more uniquely American document. But I could also live with a Pledge of Allegience like we had for years in this country, the one without "under god."
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Anonymous: You want Metro to go out and change the pylon signs with a "Dymo Labelmaker"? Where are they going to get that - from the back of your AMC Gremlin next to the box of 8-track tapes?
Come on, John, the 1970s are OVER!
John Kelly: They are? Then tell me why all of the women's fashions, and many of the men's, look like what my generation was wearing in high school, circa 1977? I thought when the 80s dawned we'd finally put a bullet in the brain of puka shell necklaces, but they've come sneaking back. And bands like Jet and the Darkness sound just like 1970s rock acts. Oh I'm sure there's something much better now than the Dymo Labelmaker, probably some GPS-iPod-nano-breadmaker-labeling device. But give me a Dymo any day. At least it would get the job done.
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Tippycanoe, Md.: I always tip the pilot and co-pilot after we land safely.
John Kelly: What do you give them if they don't land safely?
And actually, tipping.org specifically says that "flight personnel" are not to be tipped. Not that tipping.org is the official arbiter of tipping practice or anything.
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Southern Maryland: One comment about the Katrina debacle -- Once again, Americans are donating time, resources, and money to victims of a horrible disaster, very much like what happened after the 9/11 attacks. Communities, schools, churches, radio stations, special interest groups are holding fundraisers to send money to the hurricane victims. I also note Germany and VietNam have sent aid in the form of meals and money to the stricken areas. Even though our Government agencies and elected officials in the stricken states were slow to respond, we can be proud our citizens have risen to the occasion and have given willingly and generously to help the victims.
BTW -- a friend sent me a video of an NBC news report titled "New Orleans' Finest" showing UNIFORMED POLICE OFFICERS looting a Wal-Mart store in New Orleans. They were filling shopping carts, picking over goods in the store, all on camera with no hesitation. Probably on duty at the time. Gives you a good idea of the level of morality in Nawlins.
John Kelly: There does seem to have been a breakdown of law and order in the Big Easy, not just among citizens. I couldn't believe the stories about how a SWAT team went into the convention center, just to rescue the wife of a colleague. Or the armed cops who stood on the other side of a bridge and wouldn't let "refugees" cross into their town.
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Arlington, Va.: You made up the bagpiper story, didn't you?
John Kelly: I swear that's what he told me. Now, he could have made it up, but he seemed pretty reliable.
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Adams Morgan: Re: Tipping....my hairstylist tipping dilemma stems from this. The practice is that you don't tip the owner of the shop. Well my stylist, who I've been with for years used to simply work in a shop, now she owns her own salon, and therefore I feel weird all of a sudden not tipping her, so I still do it....
