Connie Schultz from Creators Syndicate

Tipping Policies Are the Customer's Business for 07/20/2008

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Like it or not — and most of us lean toward not — the majority of American restaurants rely on their customers to subsidize servers' wages.

We call this subsidy a tip.

By federal law, restaurants are allowed to pay servers as little as $2.13 an hour. Our tips are supposed to bring them up to at least minimum wage.

Last year, Congress raised the hourly m ...

Updated: Sun Jul 20, 2008

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Customers Have a Bottom Line, Too for 07/23/2008

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If the customer is always right, then a lot of restaurant owners are dead wrong when it comes to their tipping policies.

Sunday, I told you about Yours Truly, a restaurant chain in the Cleveland area that now deducts a percentage of the processing fee from tips left on charge cards.

Many restaurant owners argued that this practice is only fair, which means more of them are doing t ...

Updated: Wed Jul 23, 2008

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When the Racism We Hate Comes From People We Love for 07/27/2008

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

A special kind of anguish claws at us when someone we love is also someone who is racist.

It's one thing for a stranger to post a racial slur on a blog or forward a hateful e-mail. The vigilantes who used to hide under white hoods and sheets now cower behind the anonymity of the Internet. They are vile and they are vocal, but they are also easy to dismiss because all we really know about ...

Updated: Sun Jul 27, 2008

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After a Gunman's Rage, Grace for 07/30/2008

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

One of the liberals saved his mother and daughter from gunfire by pushing them under a pew.

Another liberal grabbed her baby to her chest and fell against the door so the shooter couldn't shove it open.

A liberal couple herded children out the back, and another liberal ushered other children to a church next door. Two more liberals jumped the gunman and restrained him until the po ...

Updated: Wed Jul 30, 2008

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Michelle Obama: I'm Still Me for 08/03/2008

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When you're trying to schedule an interview with Michelle Obama, one of the first things you notice is the time zone she navigates.

Regardless of where you are calling from, you will heed Chicago's Central Daylight Time, which probably is best understood as Malia-and-Sasha Time. They are the young daughters of Barack and Michelle Obama. Every interview, every campaign event for their mot ...

Updated: Sun Aug 03, 2008

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New Generation, New Kind of Daddy for 08/06/2008

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

My son leaned over his plate at the dinner table and softly said, "Could you please move the bread?"

"I'm sorry?" I said.

Andy pointed to the basket of rolls perched on the far corner of the table. "Could you move that, please?"

I looked at him, still confused. He smiled, a bit self-consciously, it seemed.

"I can't see him," he ...

Updated: Wed Aug 06, 2008

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Life Begins (Again) at 90 for 08/10/2008

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Last fall, after Frank Hruby lost his wife of 62 years, his doctor sat him down to talk about his future.

"This could be the beginning of a whole new life, Frank," the doctor said. "You should think about what you want to do."

Hruby was 89. He appreciated the optimism and decided to follow the doctor's orders.

"It was like pulling up the window shad ...

Updated: Sun Aug 10, 2008

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'It Was the Human Thing To Do' for 08/20/2008

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

They were 30 strangers.

Thirty strangers, that's what most of the news reports called them, and every last one of them was minding his or her own business on the streets during another bustling midday in the Bronx, N.Y.

But then something happened, something really awful, and in an instant, 30 strangers decided it was their business to save a life. Just like that, they weren't str ...

Updated: Wed Aug 20, 2008

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A Tribute to U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones for 08/24/2008

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In all the years I have known U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, I never have written about her in this column.

She was a public figure, but she was also my friend. That made her off-limits for me as a journalist. But hiding behind professional boundaries now strikes me as not only cruel but also cowardly. Stephanie mattered to all kinds of people, including me.

Whenever I saw Steph ...

Updated: Sun Aug 24, 2008

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Young Feminists Shed Label for 08/27/2008

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When the invitation came, I wasn't sure I was up for it.

The Feminist Majority and the National Organization for Women were holding a reception at the University Club in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. Clever feminists that they are, they called it a Women's EqualiTea and asked me to come.

Sistahs.

Normally, I would jump at the chance to spend time with so ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

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Finally, We Care About a Teen Pregnancy for 09/03/2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Under normal circumstances, it's sad, but it's hardly news when an unwed 17-year-old girl ends up pregnant.

As of last week, though, there's nothing normal about this teenager's world, which is why this anguished time in her young life has become fodder for media and bloggers around the globe. That's what happens when your mother knows you're expecting but runs for vice president anyway ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

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One Blessing of a Life for 09/07/2008

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Willa's gone.

We keep saying it — Willa's gone, Willa's gone — but the mantra won't stick. We run into another person rocked by the loss, and we lapse into the language of disbelief: "I can't believe that Willa's gone."

It's fair to say that most readers of Cleveland's Plain Dealer never knew Willa Knight. It's just as fair to say that's a real shame. She wor ...

Updated: Sun Sep 07, 2008

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Our Debt to the Community Organizers Known as Suffragists for 09/10/2008

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Since the beginning of the year, the same e-mail has been forwarded to me routinely by readers who care deeply about women's right to vote.

The e-mails have a variety of introductions and final paragraphs, but the meat of the message is always the same and always without attribution. Nevertheless, I am reminded of the writer every time I read the original first paragraph: "The women ...

Updated: Wed Sep 10, 2008

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A Tip Toward Making a Difference for 09/14/2008

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There are many reasons to be chest-thumping proud of Cleveland, and my own list is long.

But my travels around the country remind me time and again that above all, what makes my heart swell is Clevelanders' inherent sense of fairness and their willingness to act on it, particularly for hourly wage earners who check our coats, serve our food and pour our beer.

To state the obvious: ...

Updated: Sun Sep 14, 2008

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RSVP -- This Means You for 09/17/2008

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Nearly two months have passed, but Debbie Nemecek still is stewing.

It's not that she's angry. It's just that it's always there . It's that prickly feeling, like the starchy label in a shirt collar that keeps rubbing the same spot on your neck. It may seem like a little thing, but after a while, it's all you can think about.

Debbie needed to vent.

"I'm alarme ...

Updated: Wed Sep 17, 2008

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If We Only Had a Brain for 09/21/2008

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"I've never been an intellectual, but I have this look." — Woody Allen

How is it that, in a country founded by intellectuals, it's an insult to call someone an intellectual?

Or, as my friend Wendy put it yesterday, "When did being smart and educated become a bad thing?"

Wendy is college-educated but came from a working-class family, j ...

Updated: Sun Sep 21, 2008

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Do as I Praise, Not as I Yell for 09/24/2008

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Four-year-old Knox knew exactly where he was not supposed to go.

The fact is we all knew. Every last one of us sitting outside on the coffee shop's patio earlier this month saw Knox's mom, my friend Kim, point to a patch of flowers growing under the tree.

We all heard her say, "Knox, you stay out of there."

Knox heard it, too, but that didn't mean both of us weren ...

Updated: Wed Sep 24, 2008

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To Palin Supporters: Where's Your Outrage? for 09/28/2008

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

To all those women who are so excited about Sarah Palin and furious with those pesky reporters who want to question her, I have to ask:

Where's your outrage?

We keep hearing about how groundbreaking her candidacy is, how she's shattering the glass ceiling that Hillary Clinton only managed to crack. Lots of chatter over her moose hunting and wolf shooting, too.

We hear a lot ...

Updated: Sun Sep 28, 2008

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I'm a Liberal? Why, Thank You for 10/01/2008

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

To say I'm proud to be a liberal is a little like saying I'm proud to have teeth.

Both are essential parts of who I am, but I tend to take them for granted.

It's not that I mindlessly trot through life without giving them a thought. Our teeth, after all, need daily tending and regular checkups, and so do our values. Neglect is corrosive. But they're also such a part of us that we ...

Updated: Wed Oct 01, 2008

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How To Talk to Someone Who Sounds Racist for 10/05/2008

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

What should we do when racism catches us off-guard?

I don't mean those anonymous comments on blogs or strangers who shout racial epithets from speeding cars. That's horrifying behavior, but we don't feel empowered to do much about it.

It's a different story, though, when someone we know, maybe even love, says something that makes our neck hairs stand up and our mouths drop open l ...

Updated: Sun Oct 05, 2008

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