8/29/24                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               After years of talking tipping at our weekly breakfast customers are finally tired of seeing the tip percentages go up. You regularly see recommended tip amounts on menus and on your receipts. Up to 28% , and even the new sneaky way of actually adding the tip they recommend to your bill (be careful to look before you pay and leave another tip unknowingly). I was saved by my daughter when she pointed out to me at a family dinner that there was a tip in our bill already.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Why does this bother me, well it comes down to politics. In NYS these owners are allowed a "Tip Credit of up to $5.12 per hr" which they deduct from the minimum wage they pay the employee. The more you tip the less minimum wage the employer pays. If they want me to subsidize their business, just make me a partner. Any business that can charge you $12.50 for two pancakes and then wants you to add another 28% to help pay the employee minimum wage, and it's all lawful, sounds pretty good. By the way there's no tipping allowed in England, and they get better employees who give better service.

                                               I guess that's why Donnie and Kamala are both talking about it.

 8/26/24                                                                                                                                                                                         If I may correct a story I've been reading this morning in the papers (new papers for the youngsters) actually the sports-pages. Aaron Judge just became the fifth hitter to have 3/ 50 hr seasons. The list they provide contains Mcguire, Sosa, A Rod and Ruth. If the truth be known, and you remove anyone who used drugs, the list should only include Judge and Ruth.     

 8/23/24                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 RFK Jr should have read my post from 7/29/24, he's not the only one.

 8/21/24                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                So they say that no one was behind the scenes these last few years aiding, advising, showing the way for Pres Biden. It sounded like pure political gamesmanship. But as I've been watching this Democratic Convention, I think I began to see things. Aren't all the speakers the same names that have come in the recent months to having some control of the west wing. aren't these speakers the same people that defended Pres. Biden; raising money with him in California only to turn on him two weeks later? Apparently, they are no longer behind the "Curtain". If I were the nominee (who wasn't even in the same state last night) I would get back to [my] convention, if they let you.

 8/18/24                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Baseball stat of the day:   Ohtani 291 38 hr  87 rbi      $ 70 million per

                                            Judge   332 44 hr  111 rbi   $ 40 million per

 I know Ohtani can pitch so we'll see when that day comes. As of now Yankees have the better deal.     

About time.

 8/14/24                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Well here we go again, our politicians taking us for buffoons. Our newest entry in this new world election, Gov. Waltz, seen on video stating " he carried weapons in a war " during a speech in 2018.   His campaign came to his aid (as told to the AP) by saying he misspoke. I guess they're using the Sen. Blumenthal of Ct. school of not believing what our eyes and ears have seen. In our new political world misspeaking is the new lying.

 8/8/2024                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             I've been watching some of the 2024 Olympics wondering about some of the new events, some left over from the Tokyo games.

                             3x3 basketball:                   I can see that at my local playground  

                             Sailing:                               How many nations have ability to field a                                                                                                      sailing team (I thought we the Americas                                                                                                        cup for that)

                             Break dancing:                  Enough said    

                             Skateboarding:                  We have the X games        

                             Surfing:                             How many nations have waves                                                                                                                        necessary to train, etc.

                             Sport Climbing:                 On a fake wall            

                             Flag-football:                    Coming soon (2028 Games) NFL just                                                                                                           started a league, good advertising?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 What I'm trying to say is that I've always wanted to see all the world's countries meeting, large or small, rich or poor, working incredibly hard to get to the world stage to compete and sometimes introduce their country to the world. I think some of these events limit the smaller teams from bringing more athletes into the venue.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

 8/4/24                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Ok it's been a pretty confusing political year. But these last few weeks have left me dazed and confused. We've had an attempted assassination of one Candidate and the other candidate tossed aside.  While the Democratic candidate had every right to drop out, in my mind, it raised questions about the whole primary system. We had a long season of primary voting (at great cost to the states who had to set up these dates etc.) where people chose who they wanted as their candidate. So now the powers that be (the Democratic party, who are trying to save Democracy) take over and choose who will be their new candidate, virtually, no convention involved. Now my question is (not being politically astute) did these primary states have the ability to have new primaries to give the voters the opportunity to participate in the changing of their primary results to a candidate who wasn't even on their ballot when they voted?   

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Is this how the new Democracy works?

 8/2/2024                                                                                                                                                                                   HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY PARTIME DRIVER AND WORLD TRAVELER MIA!!!!!                                    (PS my granddaughter)