Sunday, January 11, 2009

No such thing as a free lunch

Even for Barack Obama, and at Ben's Chili Bowl!

Obama declined the standing offer that only he and Bill Cosby eat for free, and paid for his meal, as well as DC Mayor Adrian Fenty's, eating a half-smoke... something that I am much too scared to try myself ("a pork and beef sausage on a steamed hot dog bun, topped with mustard, onions and chili sauce"). Arugula much?



GIVE THE MAN SOME CHEESE!

(Though depressingly neutral when it comes to Maryland-Georgetown basketball rivalry... wait, what rivalry? 75-48, in the Old Spice classic...)

Anyway, the best part comes in the comments from the above nytimes blog post:

“The bill came to $19.15 with taxes, according to prices from Ben’s menu.”

“he paid for his and the mayor’s food with a $20 bill and told the cashier to keep the change.”

$0.75 tip???? If I were “the server, Jermaine Jefferson”, i would refuse to serve this patron should he return. This is what’s known in the trade as a cheap tipper.

A bog-standard 20% tip should have been $3.83.

So much for your personal commitment to helping working Americans Mr. President-Elect.

So much for elementary school math. The tip was 85 cents, "robin #13"

A number of commenters pointed to this issue... failing to note that this was the tip for the cashier at Ben's. There are no servers. Ben's is not a sit-down dinner. It's a take-away diner with seating.

Relax, DC-Haters. We've got bigger things to worry about.

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