Non-miserly

It was Skip Tracers, acting for a client anxious to pay Mary B. Powers some back dividends from the Glen Alden Coal Company, that traced her to the New York hotel from which she retired as soon as public attention came her way. Small and sixtyish, the non-miserly Miss Powers simply packed up and disappeared. She was not an extreme recluse, but she loved her privacy. She even did her own dusting and her personal laundry rather than have these small extra contacts with the world. And the door of her personal privacy remained shut even after that $25,000 knock.

“If this affluent society can afford expensive cars, liquor, cosmetics and other luxuries it can most certainly afford a non-miserly system of justice particularly at the lowest level where the greatest impact is felt,” the committee declared.

Tipping can be confusing, and the proliferation of food delivery apps has made it even more so. But since we’re in the midst of a season characterized by its spirit of giving, now seems like as good a time as any to revisit how to best compensate restaurant and hospitality workers for their efforts in a non-miserly fashion.