Tipping

When I was in China, I didn't tip anybody for anything. It's just not how it's done. Apparently, there isn't really much in the way of tipping, per se, for restaurant service in Europe these days, in that there's just a fixed percentage tacked on to the meal, called the service charge or something like that.

I was reading this piece in the Times and apparently this really fancy place in NY has also adopted this practice, and then goes on to suggest that we Americans should do away with tipping all together, like much of the rest of the world apparently has.

So I was curious after reading this, about how to tip correctly, elsewhere, and I found this eHow thing and there's all sorts of weird tipping practices out there. I guess some of them make sense, but, at the same time, tipping has become this inherently included thing, and it's not like there is any special work that is done to earn it. You remember that rant that Mr. Pink gives in Reservoir Dogs? There's some merit to that line of thinking.

I have no real original thoughts on this subject. The Times and Reservoir Dogs pretty much sums up the entirety of things I have thought about it.