I don't know about discounted amounts due to membership, but I have received discounts due to knowing the server, cooks or restaurant management (yay perks!) and I always tip on what the real total would have been without the discount. My restaurant friends and family have told me this is customary since you are still…

Quick question because I have had debates about this with people: When you tip on a restaurant bill, do you tip off of the bill total OR do you tip off of the total before booze? I have always tipped off the total (including the booze costs).

Oh I have explained how easy it is to do this but people who think they are bad at math tend to just put up a mental block to learning quick and easy ways to tip.

I think there are two things that happen when people tip less than what they should:

When did the baseline tip for the Bay Area become 20%? I grew up there, have family in the restaurant business, and have never heard that. The 20% baseline is true for New York, but most people in the Bay Area that I know tip around 17%.

I think it depends on the establishment. I try to always tip food delivery people in cash even if I paid the bill with a credit card. There have been cases in New York where the restaurants kept all the tips paid by credit card and didn't give them to the delivery guys. The same thing can happen to servers because…

According to the original article the data is based on credit card data. So this isn't really accurate at all. I know a lot of people who pay the bill with a credit card and then tip with cash, which would show up as not tipping in this data.

I'm not saying that if a character is relatable that they can't have flaws or that everything they do is justified. The point is that if they are relatable, their flaws are relatable. The thing about the Smiths comments is that people can understand where he's coming from even if they think it's a simplistic way to…

As I have said to others, the director has said that we are supposed to sympathize with JGL's character even though he is misguided. If their intent was to make him the "villain" they failed miserably. Many people who love this movie see it as a romantic comedy. Intentions are great, but their execution was poor. I…

I think maybe we (everyone in this thread) are conflating two different ideas: punishment vs. responsibility. I think talking about teens taking responsibility for their actions and the consequences is legitimate. Punishing someone for having sex and being pregnant is where I have a problem. Is homelessness and a baby…

I think he's saying that he wants the audience to sympathize with both characters.

Another thread made me think of this: Would this mom kick her teenage son out if he got a girl pregnant? It seems like a lot of the parents of the boys involved do not punish their sons. It just seems like the girls get tossed out of the house, often living with the boy and his family for a time. It really seems like…

I guess my problem is that she seems incapable of self-reflection and that would be needed to really understand how she ended up where she is. At least for me.

It wasn't so much that she wanted to keep the microwave, it was the tantrum/meltdown that she had at the suggestion of getting rid of it (which we had reasons for). I can respect someone wanting to use a microwave to cook- it was her acting like she would starve to death without one and that we were being hugely cruel…

I think this depends on how the teen handles the situation. If she is willing to scale back her fun times and be a responsible parent and contribute to the household I'd be all for supporting her. I'd be happy to babysit when she goes to school or a job. But if she wanted to go out and have fun like a normal teenager…

Crazy! Children are a much bigger commitment than marriage. A child forever tethers you to the other parent regardless of your relationship status or the age of the child. And that child is your child no matter how old s/he is. If you don't believe in marriage that is cool. But calling it a bigger commitment than…

Yes and no. I think it would be really interesting to follow around a bunch of parents who are porn stars and hear about what it's like for them. But Farrah? nope. She is delusional and has so many problems. She won't even say she made a porno. While the train wreck is fascinating, it is also heartbreaking. I'd rather…

I think a lot of these parents think they can prevent their children from having sex through intimidation and fear. And then when the child disobeys they go into punishment mode, as if this is the best or most effective time to punish their child. I have to say, though, that if my teenage kid had a starry eyed view…

When the daughter says, "I can't go live with Cody. We barely know each other!" I was just like o_O. You don't know each other well enough to live together but you are having a baby?! AAAHHHHH!

Oh, that's fine. I appreciate the civil discussion we're having. I really hated the movie, so I do have to say some of my memory of scenes could be tainted.