QUARANTINE BLOG # 638

December 28, 2021

As promised yesterday, a brief look at the history of tipping, or as one curmudgeon (and this one is not your favorite blogger) called it, “paying more for a meal you’ve just paid for.”

Wealthy Americans, on vacations in Europe in the 1850s and 1860s discovered the tradition, which had originated in medieval times as a master-serf custom wherein a servant would receive extra money for having performed superbly well.  Wanting to seem aristocratic, these individuals began tipping in the United States upon their return.  

Even as the practice grew in prominence, many were unhappy about the custom.  Six states temporarily abolished the practice in 1915.  In 1918, Georgia’s legislature deemed tips as “commercial bribes,” or tips for the purpose of influencing service, illegal.  Iowa’s initial 1915 decision said that those who accepted a gratuity of any kind – not those who gave the money themselves – could be fined or imprisoned.  By 1926, all of these laws had been repealed or deemed unconstitutional by the respective state’s Supreme Court.  

Restaurateurs soon realized that they stood to benefit from the opportunity to subsidize a worker’s pay with guests’ extra money.  Beginning with 1938 legislation, employers were only required to pay tipped workers a wage that would add up to the federal minimum wage when combined with tips.  Today, the federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13.  The main federal minimum wage is $7.25, which means tips are supposed to make up the missing $5.12.  

Alaska ($10.34), California ($13.00), Minnesota ($10.08), Montana ($8.75), Nevada ($9.75), Oregon ($12.75), and Washington ($13.69) mandate that all workers, regardless of tips, must be paid the “full state minimum wage before tips,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

👉  A side note to the above piece, three years ago P&O Cruises sent an email to their customers informing them that the company would no longer charge gratuities or as they refer to them, “discretionary daily service charges.”  The $9 daily service charges were removed “to ensure guests peace of mind once the cruise is booked knowing it has all been taken care of, the company states.”  P&O Cruises senior vice president Paul Ludlow said: “By removing the daily discretionary service charge, P&O Cruises will make enjoying a cruise holiday an effortless experience, knowing that great service comes as standard.”  None of the 6 cruise lines Bonnie and I sail with has caught up to that.

👉  A couple of Smilies:

👉  It’s a ways off, but I am giving you a chance to mark your calendar: National Dinosaur Day is June 1.  You can celebrate by baking Fossil Cookies, which are conventional sugar cookies that you stamp toy dinosaur feet into the cookie to resemble dinosaur fossils, making sure to sanitize the toys with soap and water first.

You don’t have to wait until June to celebrate.  If you are currently living in St. George, Utah, it is only a 6.5 hour drive to Dinosaur National Monument where you can get another stamp for your passport.  Originally preserved in 1915 to protect its famous Dinosaur Quarry,  the monument was greatly expanded in 1938 to include its wealth of natural history.  The park contains over 800 paleontological sites and has fossils of dinosaurs.  The monument and the surrounding quarry covers 329 square miles.

What got this dino-spot started?  Two cartoons from Non Sequitur:

👉  Since you’ve been wrecking your diet since Thanksgiving, go ahead and celebrate.  Today is National Chocolate Day.  Chocolate candy is one of the world’s most popular sweets, and today it gets its own day.  Milk chocolate was first made by the Swiss in 1875 when Daniel Peter added his chocolate to the newly-discovered sweetened condensed milk of Henry Nestlé, and it became popular in America and Europe.  Milton S. Hershey was enamored by the chocolate-making he saw at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  The first milk chocolate Hershey bar was produced in 1900, and by 1905 Hershey’s enormous factory was in operation.  With Hershey’s support, a company town sprang up around the factory, and milk from nearby farms was used in making the milk chocolate.  Milton Hershey invented the Hershey’s kiss in 1907, and its trademark foil wrapper was added in 1924.

👉  Today’s close, “Running to Win” is from Good Morning, Lord ... Can We Talk? by Chuck Swindoll.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was awarded many years ago to the iconic Ritz-Carlton Hotels. When I congratulated the owner of that outstanding organization, he told me that they would need to work even harder to earn the respect that comes with the prestigious honor. He also mentioned that the award declares that quality is “a race with no finish line.”

He is correct. When working with the public, there is no time of day or month on the calendar when it is okay to let up. Competitive excellence requires 100 percent. If you doubt that, try maintaining excellence by setting your standards at 95 percent. People start to figure they’re doing fine so long as they get somewhere near it. The erosion that follows is now familiar to all who encounter incompetence on a regular basis.

Excellence gets reduced to acceptable. Before long, acceptable doesn’t seem worth the sweat if you can get by with adequate. And once you buy into adequate, mediocrity is only a breath away. It is human nature to “just get by.” Either the standard is maintained at top-quality level, or you can forget it.

To be honest, we can easily slip into a “just get by” mentality in our walk with the Lord. But God desires so much more. Here’s why I make that statement:

Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Can you shave a few more seconds off your running time this next year by removing those things that hinder you? What about that tendency to think negative thoughts? Lay it aside. What about that stubborn sin you keep giving in to repeatedly? Confess it. Accept God’s mercy. And keep running. All the while, keep your eyes on Jesus – He’s not only right by your side cheering you on – He’s already at the finish line waiting with your medal!

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