Gratuitous Insults

Great food, insulting people

          Before we get into the actual rant let me share something with you.   Websters Dictionary Online defines Gratuity as follows: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service.  This is important so please keep it in mind for later in the rant.

          For those of you in the Warner Robins, GA area who have not yet tried the food at the Metropolis Grill on Highway 96, let me tell you that it has some of the best, most authentic Indian/Mediterranean Food I have ever had.  The portions are generous and the prices are not too unreasonable for the food that you get.  My wife and I have been there several times and loved the food and the desserts.  Until yesterday I would have recommended to anyone that asked that they try the place.  That was until yesterday.

          We had finished some Easter shopping for my wife's work place and decided to eat out instead of go home to leftovers.  She decided that she wanted one of the dishes served at Metropolis so we drove out to 96.  Once there, we enjoyed a fantastic meal with decent service while talking about nothing in particular.  Everything was both hunky and dorry until it came time to pay the bill.  When our server brought out our bill, we were informed that the manager had told him that "since we had never tipped in our previous trips to the grill and that the servers worked for their tips if we came back we would be assessed an AUTOMATIC 18% gratuity!"

          First of all, see beginning paragraph for the definition of a gratuity.  Second recognize that as much as all of these businesses like to slap "automatic gratuities" on bills, they can't legally enforce that.  Any customer can request that the automatic tip be taken off and the businesses cannot refuse.  Why?  Again, see first paragraph.  Third ponder the idea of an "18%" tip!  We weren't a party of 50 or a busload of kids from band camp.  We were two people at one small table in one corner of the room.  Also the idea of paying that kind of tip at a casual dining eatery is insulting.

          I have worked in the food service industry a lot in my nearly 5 decades of life and I understand that servers/delivery people don't make a lot of money.  For this reason I am inclined to tip when I receive good service.  For the record, of the three times we have been to the Grill, we have tipped once.  We tipped the first time because the food was excellent and the service was acceptable.  We did not tip the second time because all of the servers seemed much more interested in talking on their cell phones than serving us.  We would have tipped the third time, but I was too insulted by the manager's actions to give our server a tip.  (As a side note here, the Manager didn't even have the Spheres to come out and tell us him/herself, our server was forced to give us the news.)

          If Servers want tips, they need to earn them.  Give good, prompt service to all your customers.  At least act like you give a darn about the people that come in your doors.  No one is "entitled" to tips or gifts, they have to earn them.  If Managers and Owners want to keep their businesses open, they need to treat their customers better.  We love the food at Metropolis, but we will never be going back there again.  I really hope all of my local readers at least temporarily boycott them as well.  Maybe if the people in charge see how much insulting their customers can hurt business, they will learn their lesson.  I doubt they will learn, but it never hurts to hope.

To end this unpleasant rant, here is a picture of a bunny holding a teddy bear.

Selective anger/Targeted Furor

          Now I have pretty much stayed out of the Martin Shooting discussion because I prefer to have all the facts before I make an opinion known and all the facts aren't in yet over exactly what happened.  I do know the case is not as cut and dried as people would like to make it out to be and that the media has had a field day with doctored news and altered 911 Tapes.  This, of course, does not surprise me since most reporters and news producers are lower than catfish when it comes to bottom feeding.  I will say that, regardless of the final outcome of that night and regardless of Martin's lifestyle or attitude, Zimmerman should be arrested and tried because if he had just obeyed the dispatcher and not chased the boy, the shooting would not have occurred.
          But this particular rant isn't about Martin, Zimmerman or the press.  It is about humanity and its amazing ability to get totally honked off about one thing but completely ignore other events that eclipse it.  Since Martin's death, the very powerful and influential have set up a hue and cry for his arrest.  Hells, there is even at least one bounty on his head.  Promotional tee-shirts, hoodies and a for all I know decorative china are for sale.  People gather in their thousands to cry and weep and demand justice.  This is all well and good, but what about the others?

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/02/2728339/funeral-home-shooting-leaves-questions.html

          In this case, 2 people were killed and 12 were injured including a 5 year old little girl who has a bullet in her leg.  They were gunned down by people with automatic weapons while attending the funeral of a friend.  All of the victims were Black and at least one was around Martin's age.  So where is the American outrage over this horrific crime?  Where are the mighty and powerful demanding justice be done?  No where to be found.  I am betting that most of you who aren't news junkies like me weren't even aware that the shooting had occurred.  It sure as Hell hasn't been run on CNN, Faux News etc 24/7.  Why is that?  If the shooting of one child is big news, shouldn't the shooting of several (Including a 5 year old) be even bigger news.  Perhaps it is because both the shooters and victims are Black.  Perhaps it is because the whole thing has been listed as "gang related."  Maybe it is because most of the people involved were from Haiti and not the US originally.  All I know for sure is that a five year old little girl will spend the rest of her life with a bullet in her leg and no one is expressing any outrage over it.

          I have oftentimes been accused of being  a Racist and I always tell people that they are right.  I am a racist in the truest sense of the word.  As a whole, I despise humanity.  With some fantastic exceptions, humans always seem to sink to the lowest point possible.  We haven't changed that much from the old Gladiator fights where people cheered as men hacked each other to death.  The only difference today from long ago is that people get their fixes from places like CNN, Fox News etc.  People soak up the rage and violence shown and direct their anger where ever the News wants it to be.  The story of a Black kid shot by a white man is big news and everyone is feeding off of it.  The story of a bunch of Black funeral goers shot by gang members isn't big news so it is ignored.  It is time that Humanity stops getting its facts from sensationalized sound bites and learns to see past Faux News' "Breaking News" to see what else is happening in the world.  Or is that too much to ask?