How To Tip
What system are we using in taxis? Is it percentage or dollars? And do I have to tip the bartender for a PBR?
I’m using the .mov format instead of Flash. Is this better or worse?
Apropos of nothing, this is how Calvin and Hobbes should have ended.
21-Feb-2007 at 1:37 pm
I feel your pain…
21-Feb-2007 at 1:37 pm
Best show yet!
QT excellent.
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Stand up Style again, excellent.
Keep developing the style it is looking good.
21-Feb-2007 at 1:39 pm
re: cafes - throw change really hard so it makes lots of noise. if you’re tipping paper, tell me where you get coffee so I can apply there.
re: PBR - tip a dollar on each of the first two rounds. If your third isn’t free, remember the bartender and don’t ever tip again.
re: restaurants - get less anal friends. Unless someone just had drinks/dessert or someone had a steak while you had a burger… split the check evenly… same with the tip.
re: taxis - take dollar digit of your total and add two. That’s your total. (e.g. total = 6.65, pay $8.00) If work is paying for your transportation, add 3-5 depending on how much you hate your boss.
re: .mov - much better.
21-Feb-2007 at 2:06 pm
[…] of arrogant youth”. So far it’s off to a great start, like today’s episode on “How To Tip”. tags: video (T) , Nick Douglas (T) , Valleywag (T) , video blog (T) , Look Shiny […]
21-Feb-2007 at 4:09 pm
You look a lot like zefrank, and I never realized that at all face to face.. Not til i saw you on video.. how weird.
Good points on the 1st world problems.
You should go interview a fishermans wharf fisherman. I never realized they still existed, but i went down there to watch the Queen Mary come in to port, and while walking back saw this freakish double-decker bike w/ a sticker saying “more hippies, less hipsters.” I photographed it, then the owner of the bike came over and started chatting with me. He was the fisherman. We went over to the docks and he climbed down into his little rusty fishing boat. He lives on that little boat docked by fishermans wharf! Quite a character, and right in the middle of all that plasticy tourist crap. Would make a good video..
21-Feb-2007 at 4:30 pm
Dunno if it’s the frame rate/quality, but there’s a few times where the audio and video seem out of sync, or your mouth looks blurry.
21-Feb-2007 at 5:11 pm
.Mov is WAY better. And why the fuck am I telling you this in your comments? We need to have drinks, Nick.
21-Feb-2007 at 6:32 pm
Like me, you should start tipping with $2 bills and 50 cent pieces. First, it opens a wonderful world of denominational possibilities which, among other things, eliminates the awkwardness of leaving quarters. 50 cent pieces are so freaking huge, they look like something. I don’t even like JFK very much, but I find his likeness very useful in this case.
Secondly, even if you give a fairly mediocre tip, the server (or whoever) is usually too enthused with the odd currency to notice whether you tipped them well.
Well, that’s what I do anyway…
21-Feb-2007 at 7:23 pm
Nick, the .mov is not playing in safari, although its fine in firefox. In safari its just a big inert “Q”
um, great show, see you at dinner or alembic
21-Feb-2007 at 11:15 pm
Hmm. A PBR would probablly be a dollar for every three; so the bartender knows he’s getting tipped, and not ripped off.
21-Feb-2007 at 11:19 pm
dot.mov is great & working in safari for me
pay with a credit card that way you could leave 5cents, 25cents or 10dollars in tips wihout feeling stupid.
22-Feb-2007 at 8:56 am
My first episode of your show! This is great stuff, Nick. I really love your sense of humor and your style. It played super swell for me in Quicktime, by the way.
Keep up the great work.
22-Feb-2007 at 10:34 am
HATE the QT Nick - I don’t have it installed on this PC, and I know many corporate-types don’t either (not that they’re necessarily your audience, but you’d be surprised).
FLASH = open format, works on ALL platforms, very high installed base
QT = closed format, limited audience
The marginal quality gain you are getting just isn’t worth it, in my opinion…
22-Feb-2007 at 1:01 pm
where’s the podcast?
22-Feb-2007 at 1:42 pm
you’re getting there… you’ve reach almost watchable, which is a major jump from the previous episodes which were somewhere between painful and embarrassing. zing! pow!
just kidding… a little VW payback.
keep it up and someday you’ll be 1/3rd of ZeFrank
22-Feb-2007 at 3:02 pm
You mean to tell me we need to tip a whole dollar for the guy behind the bar, to open a fridge door, grab a beer, and open the bottle?
Ridiculous. Tipping should be banned!
22-Feb-2007 at 4:18 pm
brilliant podcast. the whole cafe thing has always bugged me.
thats why i will tip after i enjoy my drink, or if i’m leaving i won’t tip. then if i like the drink, i’ll for sure go back and tip them for the previous drink when i buy the next one.
confusing, but i think it works.
22-Feb-2007 at 4:22 pm
Stephen, YOU would be banned at my bar if you didnt learn how to tip after I threw your change back at you. Try babysitting grown adults and cleaning up puke till 4AM everyday and then tell me how much you should tip.
Great show as usual Nick, and please: next time just hand over the visa and start a tab.
22-Feb-2007 at 5:28 pm
Last time I did that it got denied.
Speaking of which, anyone have an idea how I can sell you all out and make money from this show?
22-Feb-2007 at 6:14 pm
dude. ze frank owns you.
22-Feb-2007 at 7:19 pm
If I find that ATM card you lost, I’ll sponsor you.
25-Feb-2007 at 11:07 pm
Hi Nick,
Why would you tip in advance? From old English times, rumor has it that “tips” came from TIPS:
To
Insure
Prompt
Service
It was customarily given before service was rendered. It seems questionable to me, just because I think the spelling should be “ensure” (TEPS doesn’t quite have the same ring).
Go figure.
Nice episode!
Tim
26-Feb-2007 at 7:15 pm
i just give like 2 quarters when i buy a drink at a bar… im a student and im going into debt more and more every second paying for classes
go figure.. im a cheap ass
27-Feb-2007 at 12:28 am
I usually just round stuff out; less math, and less baggage to carry around.
re: dining and cafes, I usually just double the tax and/or leave that with whatever coinage I get back if I’m paying cash. If someone was just really great, or something really put me in a cheery mood or something, I’ll usually leave a few extra dollars
re: corner stores; I’ll dump whatever coins I get back in the first cup I see
re: cabs, I just round up to the nearest dollar, add one or two depending on how I feel that day and ask for whatever the remaining value is back
27-Feb-2007 at 1:54 pm
I don’t drink, but when I lived in Kansas I used to hang out with friends at a local bar at least two or three times a week and was friends with the bartender (Dave from The Amazing Race a season or so ago).
Personally it was slightly weirder in my case since I just had a soda and since I was both always a designated driver and a friend I never paid.
Tipping generally worked out that for a beer there is no tip. You either just pour a draw or open a bottle which doesn’t really qualify as much of a service. If this is all that’s being drunk that night then the bartender gets a tip of a dollar or so for every few drinks. Say three bottles. This also is dependent on the size of the group. If you’re at a booth and you get a round of six beers you give the waiter a couple bucks.
For cocktails it tends to depend on the effort involved. If you’re just getting a highball then it’s, again, not a hell of a lot of work. Same goes for any place that uses mixes. You get a buck for actually mixing up a tarantula. You get one for every few drinks if you just pour it out of a bottle of mix and add some… hmm… what the hell is mixed into a tarantula?
For cafes… you tip your change provided the change provided is roughly under 50 cents. Baristas, unlike many waitstaff, are actually paid a real wage, not a sub-minimum wage rate with the assumption that tips will cover the rest.
You don’t even have to worry about not tipping them every time or at all.
8-Apr-2007 at 1:09 pm
QT is better but some people, like here at work, do not have QT installed. I always use flash for the site and offer QT for download. I’ll have to catch this one at home.
2-Jun-2007 at 1:53 am
I hate to have to tip. If I can afford to go out to eat in the first place. Why doesn’t the resturant pay the staff enough so they don’t have to beg at the tables? If I am going to be giving away my hard earned money as a tip then it is going to be in a strippers g-string, at least that way I feel the tip is well earned. If waiting is not paying enough then maybe they should find another job.