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Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| Another food rant today. Well, sort of. From New York magazine: A couple weeks back, I wrote about tipping via screens: It’s down across the board, percentage-wise... Good. For anyone not following along, I have Opinions about tipping for counter service. Specifically, it shouldn't be done. Also, this is an unashamedly US-centric article; denizens of other countries can feel free to skip it or laugh at us. I've mentioned my McDonald's Rule: If you're getting the same level of service as you get at a McDonald's, where you don't tip, then you don't tip, period. Sure, the food's better (almost has to be), but you don't tip for food; you tip for service. One common strategy people employ to deal with the prompts is to ignore them, walking away from the counter when a screen asks whether they’d like to tip $1 or 25 percent or whatever, opting out of the transaction completely. I hit "No Tip." Let me be more specific: There is one place I frequent that has these screens. Recently, they "upgraded" to shiny new registers where they not only post a tip-begging screen, but said screen is in easy view of everyone behind you, so that you may know the shame of their judgement when you hit "No Tip." Which I do. Every time. Most places, they pull that shit, I never go back. You have likely walked up to a counter to buy a matcha latte only to see that the person on line ahead of you has abdicated this opportunity to tip. No. No, I have not. Maybe you even thought, I could leave a tip for them. If so, you are an asshole. This is what the Robin Hoods do. I’ve since heard from people who do exactly this: These are Good Samaritans... Leaving aside for the moment that Good Samaritan doesn't mean what people think it means, even if you go by what people think it means, they are not doing a good deed. At all. ...who, when confronted with a tip prompt abandoned by a person in front of them, simply leave a tip on that person’s behalf. Surely they meant to leave an appropriate gratuity, right? Tap. Twenty percent. Done. They did leave an appropriate gratuity: Zero. Zilch. Nada. Squat. Diddly. Is it good? No. But one friend who participates in this act of selflessness says he had a change of heart after he heard from an employee at a shop where Robin Hooding is known to happen. The affected customers, upon seeing they were charged for a tip they don’t remember leaving, blame (and take action against) the cafĂ©, not the consumers who activated the tip. And this is but one of the main reasons why this practice is despicable: it hurts the very people you think you're helping. If I saw that on my online transaction list, I would absolutely dispute the charge. And that's not good for the business. Now, I'm not saying one shouldn't tip for extra service. I'm pretty generous when it comes to sit-down restaurants and bartenders. I'm also not unaware of the plight of the working class, but it's not like counter-order workers are paid the subminimum wage, like restaurant servers are. Pay your staff a decent wage and stop making them beg for tips. The easiest way to avoid the situation from the article—aside from boycotting every place that has tip screens—is to ensure that you've fully completed your transaction before leaving the counter. This is a good idea anyway, and it makes things less tempting for the bandit troll behind you. |
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