Good morning. It’s Tuesday.
I spent many years of my early professional career waiting on other people – specifically, bringing them food in a wide variety of settings.
It started with serving tea in the Lake Lounge at Mohonk Mountain House. (If you’re not familiar with the place, it is singular and amazing and a throwback located a few miles outside of my hometown of New Paltz; it’s worth a trip – if only for the day).
Tea and cookies at 4 p.m. is a long-standing tradition at Mohonk. When I worked there, we served the tea, pouring it into individual cups, and arranging cookies onto doilies placed on silver platters. We wore uniforms that consisted of white button-down shirts and long black skirts.
There may or may not have been a few incidents when I poured hot tea onto the lap of some unsuspecting guest. How I wasn’t fired remains a mystery to this day.
That was my first job. I think I was about 16 or so? Maybe 15?
I went on to hold a whole host of others in the hospitality industry – from prepping in the kitchen (also Mohonk), to serving at the outdoor barbecue (ditto), to working the graveyard shift at several diners – both in New Paltz and Rochester (where I went to undergraduate school), to fine dining and banquets. (I never could get the knack for opening wine bottles table-side).
I came away from these experiences with a newfound appreciation for a certain breed of individuals – both women and men – who wait tables for a living. They’re not kids dabbling to make extra money to pay for gas or beer or rent in the short term. They’re professional servers who elevate serving to an art form.
Waiting tables is hard. It’s hard on the body – you try lifting heavy trays with one hand while running up and down the stairs at full tilt, or balancing multiple plates of hot food on one arm. It’s hard on the mind. Customers can be demanding and mean and demeaning. And their kids can be noisy and messy and needy.
And the pay, generally speaking, isn’t great. Again, I’m saying that based on my personal experience. I know there are professional servers who make six-figure salaries and have health benefits. But they’re few and far between.
If you work at an expensive restaurant, you can perhaps pull down six figures – depending on the tip level (and tipping is the subject of a whole other post, as it is controversial and falls in and out of favor) – but the level of service also has to be commensurate with the cost of the establishment where you’re working.
The national average for servers is closer to about $31,000 a year, or $15 an hour.
The history of waiting tables is an interesting one. It morphed from being something only women would do – cooking the food and dishing it up in, say, a boarding house or hotel, or running drinks in a tavern or bar – to something reserved for men in white gloves.
Fast forward to modern times, the hospitality industry took a beating during the Covid crisis, and many servers lost their jobs as a result. The industry hasn’t yet fully recovered, and maybe it never will.
Thanks to an ongoing labor shortage, we’re seeing a lot of so-called “innovations” like computers on the table where you enter your order, and then have the food run out to you from the kitchen. In a handful of establishments, even the cooking is almost fully automated – with pre-prepped ingredients assembled by a team of robots.
Call me old-fashioned, but I like to be waited on by an actual person. I will go out of my way to place my order with the cashier (at a fast-casual establishment) in part because I always have all these side requests and requirements. But I always tip – and generously. My stint on the other side of the hospitality fence did leave me with that habit deeply ingrained.
Today, by the way, is National Waiters Day. Tip often and well, people. And try to get a table outside, because the weather is going to be AMAZING – in the 80s, with a mix of clouds and sun.
In the headlines…
President Biden is leaving the door open to stricter work requirements for federal aid – including food stamps – to get congressional Republicans to raise the debt ceiling as he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy prepare to reconvene today at the White House.
“I remain optimistic because I’m a congenital optimist,” Biden told reporters on Sunday in Rehoboth Beach, Del. He added, “I really think there’s a desire on their part, as well as ours, to reach an agreement, and I think we’ll be able to do it.”
Biden also characterized the talks underway between White House liaisons and congressional aides as “a negotiation,” a notable choice of words after months of insisting he would not “negotiate” over the debt limit.
Negotiators have reportedly been able to pinpoint some areas on which congressional staff and the White House can find common ground, including revising the permitting process, rescinding unspent Covid-19 relief funds and potentially cutting spending.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated that the US could run out of money to pay its bills by June 1 if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit, adding to the pressure on Biden and congressional leaders as they race to reach an agreement.
Biden isn’t picking sides in Turkey’s too-close-to-call presidential election.
Biden is trying to appeal to working-class voters by emphasizing his plans to create well-paid jobs that do not require a college degree.
Biden’s personal finances changed little between 2022 and the previous year, though his book royalties fell sharply, according to White House financial disclosure reports released yesterday.
Biden earned between $2,500 and $5,000 in book royalties in 2022, down sharply from $30,000 a year earlier. He also earned less than $3,000 in “speaking and writing engagements,” from close to $30,000 last year, the disclosures show
The Secret Service is refusing to hand over emails that identify visitors to Biden’s homes in Delaware, telling The NY Post in response to a Freedom of Information Act request that it can’t legally do so.
Biden took a brief break from being president yesterday to focus on being “pop,” attending his granddaughter Maisy Biden’s graduation from the University of Pennsylvania.
Biden said that he had selected Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli, who has led the National Cancer Institute since October, to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to soon declare a long-shot campaign for the White House against the president under whom he served, pitching himself as a “classical conservative” who would return the Republican Party to its pre-Trump roots.
The U.S. Supreme Court is once again dipping its toes into a legal conflict between congressional investigators and the executive branch. Only this time, the former Trump administration and the current Biden administration are on the same side.
Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., asked a judge to dismiss former President Donald Trump’s efforts to have her disqualified from leading an investigation into whether he and his allies interfered in the 2020 election in the state.
The four-year probe fell far short of the former president’s prediction that the “crime of the century” would be uncovered.
John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the FBI of having “discounted or willfully ignored material information” countering the narrative of collusion between Trump and Russia.
Ted Lasso is a nicer character because of Trump. That’s according to star and creator Jason Sudeikis, who plays the loveable, folksy coach on the Apple TV+ series.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that largely banned Florida’s public universities and colleges from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and imposed other measures that could reshape higher education at state schools.
A former employee of Rudy Giuliani accused him of sexual assault in a mammoth Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit, including allegations he demanded she perform oral sex while he was on the phone with Trump and lie to the FBI.
Noelle Dunphy, who said she worked Giuliani during the last two years of the Trump administration also alleged that the former president’s personal attorney discussed selling presidential pardons and detailed plans to overturn the 2020 election results.
Declarations and loosened restrictions aside, for millions of Americans COVID is still a major concern. They are immunocompromised, chronically ill, or struggling with long COVID.
The Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is no longer available in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All remaining doses expired last week, and the CDC directed providers to dispose of any that are left over.
More than 31.5 million doses of the vaccine have been delivered to states and other jurisdictions, leaving about 12.5 million doses unused, according to CDC data.
Gov. Kathy Hochul downplayed a lack of action by Biden to growing calls for federal aid to help New York City deal with the increasing deluge of migrants from the US Southern Border.
Hochul said she has not received a response from the White House since sending a letter to Biden’s administration late last week, capping a tumultuous few days of political clashes over an influx of migrants arriving in New York City.
Hochul blasted the migrant crisis plaguing her state, insisting that New York state and New York City is “bursting at the seams” caring for illegal immigrants.
Migrants entering New York should have expedited approval to gain employment while living in the state, Hochul said, as the issue continues to roil all levels of government.
Mayor Adams is opening the door to housing migrants in more than a half dozen public schools, prompting pushback from parents and community leaders who fear the accommodations could disrupt classes and traumatize the asylum seekers.
Adams’ plan to house hundreds of migrants in a Rockland County hotel is on ice at least until next month due to a string of recent court setbacks.
An untold number of migrants are arriving at LaGuardia and JFK airports, after receiving tickets from aid groups, and are arriving in the five boroughs with little guidance on next steps.
With the clock ticking down on the New York legislative session, criminal justice advocates are calling for passing “Clean Slate” legislation before the scheduled end of the legislative session on June 8.
After getting her housing proposal thrown out of the state budget a few weeks before it was finalized, Hochul was still committed to discussing housing before the end of the legislative session, but it’s unclear if that’s possible or even realistic.
With just a few weeks to go before the Albany legislative session concludes for the year, Hochul says she is not confident her housing plan can be resurrected and passed before then. She’s now considering what she can do without the Legislature.
Legislation seeking to overhaul the state’s system for compensating family members in the event of a wrongful death is inching closer to a second chance at passage after a high-profile setback earlier this year when Hochul axed the measure.
In the 2024 election cycle, candidates will be receiving a funding boost thanks to the state’s new system of public campaign financing.
Proposed state legislation would block government agencies from sending disabled people out-of-state for “adverse conditioning” banned in New York nearly 20 years ago.
Across the state, tens of thousands of New Yorkers who have applied for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, have had their benefits delayed for more than 30 days, in violation of federal law.
The city’s Campaign Finance Board hit Mayor Eric Adams’ transition account team with nearly $20,000 in penalties for violations related to the weeks in between 2021’s election and his January 2022 swearing in.
The team was cited for improperly accepting five donations from individuals doing business with the city, failing to properly wind down the committee by its April 30 deadline, and failing to respond in a timely fashion to a request for information and documents.
The Adams administration is actively touting the education provided by the city’s yeshivas — at the same time as it is waging a legal battle to keep its own evaluations of 26 of the Hasidic schools under wraps.
A new lawsuit accuses the Taxi & Limousine Commission of doing an “end run” around state and city laws as part of its efforts to re-issue up to 2,500 unused livery permits in Upper Manhattan and the boroughs.
New Jersey’s United States senators have joined the fight against New York City’s plan to charge drivers on Manhattan’s busiest streets, arguing that the tolls would unfairly burden suburbanites who must travel into the city for work.
The city Correction Department has proposed slashing $17 million from five major social service providers in the jails, including the Fortune Society and the Osborne Association, claiming the agency can provide the same services in-house.
Three New York City police detectives were charged in the theft of nearly $3,000 worth of Champagne from a V.I.P. area at a popular electronic dance music festival where they had been assigned to stop drug-related activity.
Century 21, New York bargain hunters’ favorite spot for retail therapy, returns today and already shoppers have their noses pressed against the glass.
The New York headquarters of the legendary entertainment fraternity the Friars Club is facing the threat of foreclosure as its leaders look for a buyer willing to help keep the party going.
A New York Times examination of the city’s garages has found that serious structural problems are widespread — and in many cases have been allowed to persist uncorrected for years.
Sarah Hughes, a Democrat who won an Olympic gold medal for figure skating in 2002, filed to run for Congress on Long Island in the 4th Congressional District, currently held by Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito. She’s now a lawyer.
The races in the 17th, 18th and 19th Districts, which encompass much of Hudson Valley, are expected to be among the most competitive in the country, and multiple candidates are already starting to emerge.
The contest to determine the Democratic nominee in the indicted Long Island Republican Rep. George Santos’ seat is getting more crowded by the day.
Tony Awards administrators held an emergency meeting yesterday to try to salvage this year’s ceremony in the face of a strike by screenwriters that is imperiling the broadcasting of the event.
Nauman Hussain’s trial in the deadly Schoharie limo crash will go on after state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch quickly rejected a defense request yesterday to dismiss all charges.
June Farms is looking for a couple ready to say “I do” to head to the altar at the sprawling farm in Rensselaer County for an upcoming reality show being filmed there.
General Electric and two major unions have reached a “labor peace agreement” for facilities the company wants to build for offshore wind equipment manufacturing at the Port of Coeymans.
The World Health Organization warned against using artificial sweeteners to control body weight or reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases, saying that long-term use is not effective and could pose health risks.
Martha Stewart is making history as a cover model for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. At 81, she’s the oldest person to grace the cover ever.
