Riding from Minneapolis to Chicago on the Empire Builder recently, Fritz Plous, a former reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times who specializes in railroad issues, had what we can only hope was a first-and-last-time experience. This photo, snapped by Fritz, illustrates the manner in which the Builder’s lounge car attendant on that trip chose to inform…
. . . I was telling my wife about a few of the interesting things that occurred during my recent cross country train ride. In particular, I tried to remember some of the people I met over a dining car meal or in the parlor car on the Coast Starlight . . . ….
I think I’ve finally got the business of tipping in restaurants pretty well sorted out. I tend to tip around 20 percent in the more ordinary establishments where the modest prices mean smaller gratuities, but closer to 15 percent in the “fine dining” establishments where the higher menu prices mean bigger tips. (I never stiff…
The tipping issue when I travel drives me crazy. I am never sure what’s expected, and I don’t ever seem to have the right denomination of bills or any change. It’s a constant hassle. Almost everywhere else in the world, of course, they have it figured out. Certainly that’s pretty much universally true in restaurants….