RTP-area local music and culture

[rws6 <rws6 AT duke.edu>]

please.  this has to stop.

listen.  i used to wait tables.  i am too uptight to ever have brazenly asked
somebody if they need change.  waiters typically do this for two reasons:

1) they want to save a trip (as grady suggests).
2) some people get very annoyed when you bring change to them (seriously).

so, on the one hand, you've got your gradys: simmering in their annoyance at 
the
repeated violation of a hitherto unannounced social taboo.  on the other hand,
you've got your no-changers, ready to plunge into the sautee of animosity at 
the
suggestion that they did not include your tip in their overage.  what does a
poor waiter do?

here's my solution:  grab money from table, thank patron, while still looking
him/her/them in the eye(s), announce "i'll be right back with change," and 
wait
a beat.  the gradies look relieved, and the no-changers have the opportunity 
to
announce, magnimously, "there's no need!"

please, let's get back to talking about how fucking over rock music is 
anymore.

r.

uoting grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>:

> Would you think it odd if they asked you if you needed a fork, or a 
> napkin? How about if you dropped your fork on the floor, would you find 
> it strange if they said "do you need another fork?" and seemed reluctant 
> to make the extra trip to get you one?
> 
> I can understand "do you need a box?" if you have leftover food, because 
>   some people want to take home leftovers and some people don't, and 
> once the box is on the table you've either got to use it or it needs to 
> be thrown away, and that would be a waste of a perfectly good box.
> 
> As for change, I quite often need it, because I live in enlightened 
> times when two people dining together split the check, and the change is 
> often necessary to get the details of that worked out. Doesn't mean the 
> tip is going to necessarily be less than the total of the change; it 
> might just as easily be *more*.
> 
> The point is that the waiter/customer interaction is so limited and 
> codified that every utterance takes on layers of additional meaning, and 
>   it's hard to read "do you need change" as anything other than "don't 
> waste my time getting you change; that money is rightfully mine," and 
> that's a drag.
> 
> xo
> 
> Ross
> 
> p.s. yes, I'm a crank. I would assume that would go without saying (I 
> know it does for Bo, but there may yet be others reading this), but if 
> not, there you go.
> 
> Bo Williams wrote:
> > This is, honestly, the first time I've ever heard anyone complain
> > about wait staff asking if you need change. As far as I can remember,
> > it's something they've always done in more-fancy places where odds are
> > either a) you're paying with a card or b) you actually don't need
> > change.
> > 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
>