Ghost of LL

I tip my barber 30% each time and 200% at Christmas because I see him every couple weeks, and he's flexible with me. He doesn't get pissed if I cancel two hours before an appointment, which I occasionally have to do because of work shit. And ultimately, I want the guy who cuts my hair to be happy with me. But here's the thing: if we all agree that tipping in these situations is bullshit and we don't do it, then there's no basis to guilt yourself. It'd be like tipping at the tire-repair shop or the doctor's office (seriously--wtf?). Would it be nice if you tipped? Maybe. But you don't feel any guilt for not tipping because nobody else does.

I can drive, but if we're going to a place like Bologna, I think I'd rather just take the train. And I think we're bagging on Amalfi. Mrs.LL and I will do that on a trip that's just the two of us.

It's fun to watch the GQP's soulless donor class try desperately to find some alternative to Trump. And I think even they know they're completely fucked. Because Trump is going to be the nominee. But if he isn't the nominee by some miracle (presumably Trump's death), then they're equally fucked because only Trump gets the Republican base to the polls. They pine for the days when the Republican base would turn out for Mitt Romney. But that Republican base is gone. I would know--I was part of it. And it's not coming back. This is Trump's party, assholes. Why can't you fuckers figure that out?

Ok, all--but particularly you, @texasdago--help me out with Spring Break next year. It's the kids' first trip to Italy. They're interested in Rome. I love Rome. So everything works out well there. We'll probably have about a week in Italy, so I'm thinking four days in Rome and two or three days in another city. So what city should that be? I'm thinking I can fly out of MXP, so it can be anything heading in that general direction. Bologna, Piacenza, Cremona, Parma. But I could probably also head south and do Naples and hit up Pompeii. No Florence. Fuck Florence. I've been there too many times, and it frankly kind of bores me. And while I love Tuscany, this is a trip with the kids, and running around the Tuscan countryside probably wouldn't really be their bag. But extra points if you can find some adventure thing for one day for the boy (e.g., canyoning, white-water rafting, basically anything with a measurable possibility of death or serious bodily injury).

And that paddleboarder's name? Vince Foster.

A tipped worker under the FLSA is a worker who "regularly and customarily" receives more than $30/month in tips. So perversely by tipping these counter-service people, you may be lowering their compensation by allowing their employer to cut their hourly pay.

I think these all make sense, and ought to be adopted as a societal norm. Because right now, I'm getting the hairy eyeball from counter-service workers when I don't tip. And that causes me in turn to be pissed at them because it strikes me as ludicrous that they would expect a tip (much less feel entitled to give me the hairy eyeball for not tipping). And ultimately, that's bad for the business. And yeah--I still suspect that the business is, more often than not, skimming off the tips. As to the tire-repair shop, there's obviously like one or two software makers for that POS software, and I think the tip screen may be the default. I think that's why you're now seeing it in some truly random places.

A couple months ago, @Brisketexan and I were at Velvet Taco. I order a couple of tacos. NBD. I really like Velvet Taco. So I tap with my Visa--you know the drill. And I get the now-ubiquitous screen: "Add a Tip?" And the default is 25%. Fuck that shit. You get zero because I was so offended that it would default to 25%. But then I sat down, and it occurred to me--why would I be tipping anything? This is a counter-service place. You order at the counter; you pick up your order at the counter; you pour your own drink; you clear your own table when you're done. There's literally nothing that a waiter/waitress does at a sit-down restaurant that is done at Velvet Taco. All of which is to say that none of the employees should be tipped workers. So why are they asking for tips? And now that I'm sensitized to it, I can't help but observe the bizarre and absurd proliferation of the "Add a Tip" screen to every transaction. I'm now asked to add a tip at food trucks and tire-repair shops and newsstands. It seems about the only place that has the decency not to solicit a tip is the fucking McDonald's. This seems to be a post-pandemic phenomenon. But whatever the cause, I'm fucking sick of it. And I've become pretty reactionary in my posture on it. Counter-service places get no tip. They're almost certainly not compensated as tipped employees. And I have very serious suspicions that they're not actually getting the tips anyway. But am I way off on this? Is there some new societal norm that I'm alone in rejecting? And if so, what's the basis for this new clause in the social contract?

"Draggieland" is actually really funny.

That Scott Rolen is a HOFer and Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds aren’t pretty much undermines the entire concept of the HOF. But whatever—just one more thing the Boomers destroyed.

You’re telling me the Russians can’t advance a hundred meters for months on end, and now suddenly are sprinting ahead and gaining seven km in a day? I don’t know, man. Just smells like Cannae to me.

No--it's more ridiculous than all that. It's that Republicans now live in such an extremely tight echo chamber that it it didn't occur to Marge for even a second that what she was saying could be viewed as complimentary to Biden. It used to be that the parties used their mouthpieces to disseminate talking points to the base, and the base would lap it up. So the party's base would get so focused on the party's narrative that the other party's story didn't even make sense. If anything, it was something to be mocked and ridiculed. That's what Rush Limbaugh and the people who followed him were great for. But thirty years ago, the officeholders and other elites didn't actually listen to Rush. They were all in on a kind of joke. They knew Rush was full of shit, but he was damned useful. So they would use some of his lines to trigger a response from their base. But they didn't actually believe it. But now it's flipped. The Republican officeholders and elites are as much in that echo chamber as anyone. Maybe more so. How many congressional office televisions do you think are turned to Newsmax or OANN 24/7? I guarantee you it's a lot of them. And so now the Republican Party has completely lost the ability to communicate to normal Americans. This isn't the first time we've seen it. The SOTU response earlier this year showed the exact same dynamic. It was so full of online buzzwords and nods to various conspiracy theories that the average person was left wondering "what the fuck are they talking about?". We're going to continue to see this. Because the Republicans have lost the narrative. They haven't just lost it; the narrative has a three-day head start on them. The narrative has friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. It speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom. It'll blend in, disappear. The Republicans will never see it again.

Yeah--I have no idea what poi is about. It doesn't seem to add anything to anything. It's just a flavorless goop.

I'll be in my cold cold grave before I recognize Missourah the National League.

How about a motherfucking sweep of the team with the best record in baseball?

It kind of ricocheted off the elbow pad to hit him in the side underneath the ribs. So it could be that. But the way he was holding his arm kind of indicated it was the elbow.

That was mucho needed.

I couldn't tell what's injured. Is it his elbow where he got hit? I thought the body armor would've absorbed that.

Well, this little experiment is going well.

Just back from a trip. We stayed over on the west side, but we did make it up to Haleakala the first morning for the sunrise (the first morning is the time to do it, when your body is still on Central Time). On the way down, we hit up the Kula Lodge for breakfast. We liked it so much, we ended up going back for dinner later in the week. I highly recommend, particularly for anybody who is a fan of beef wellington. I gotta tell you--Mama's Fish House was good, but overrated for what it is.

We don't have time to nurse kids along. We have two weeks to decide how much bullpen help we need to go out and acquire at the deadline. If we have that help available within the organization, then we need to know that now. So I'm a huge fan of throwing him into a high-pressure situation straight away. Now let's just get some runs.

That was completely predictable.

Boy, that would be nice. I have dreams of seeing Ohtani in a Rangers uniform, but I don't think it's going to happen. So the best thing in the alternative may be for the Angels just to hold him and get nothing.

Is there any more demoralizing way to lose for a pitcher than a walkoff WP?

I'm sure that's right. But my point is that ad revenue should be much higher because of streaming. I just don't understand why any advertiser would buy an over-the-air ad and not a streaming ad (particularly on a station with a signal that is as weak as the Ticket). To @sasquatch69's point above, that seems like a failure of the sales department. But it seems to be a phenomenon across the industry.