The Washington Post’s Reliable Source reports on a trip to Watertown, South Dakota–my home town–by Bill Gates and Tom Brokaw. They were taping a story on the Gates Foundation’s $250 million gift of computers to “rural America.” While in town, they stopped at the Past Times Cafe, where Mrs. Rocket and I have eaten on occasion, for a cappuccino. They then left without paying the bill or tipping the waitress.
The waitress, Jackie Harrington, displayed typical “red state” courtesy: “It’s all right,” she said. “A tip is not an obligation.” I don’t really understand it, but it seems that when people get rich enough, they become accustomed to not paying for things. Brokaw says that he has now sent the owner of the cafe two twenty dollar bills, one to pay the tab and the other “with an inscription, for Corinne to hang up on her wall.” I hope she spends them both.
-
-
Most Read on Power Line
Donate to PL
-
Our Favorites
- American Greatness
- American Mind
- American Story
- American Thinker
- Aspen beat
- Babylon Bee
- Belmont Club
- Churchill Project
- Claremont Institute
- Daily Torch
- Federalist
- Gatestone Institute
- Hollywood in Toto
- Hoover Institution
- Hot Air
- Hugh Hewitt
- InstaPundit
- Jewish World Review
- Law & Liberty
- Legal Insurrection
- Liberty Daily
- Lileks
- Lucianne
- Michael Ramirez Cartoons
- Michelle Malkin
- Pipeline
- RealClearPolitics
- Ricochet
- Steyn Online
- Tim Blair
Media
Subscribe to Power Line by Email
Temporarily disabled
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.