TIPPING POINTERS

How much should one tip for food delivery? Last spring in New York Press, Jeff Nishball offered some info that converted poorly from print to pixel. Either way it's a little tough to decipher, but here's what I think he found.

Out of people who pay a percentage of the bill, most pay 10-15%, while some pay 20%

Out of people who pay a fixed amount, most pay $3-4.00.

Regardless of whether one pays a fixed amount or a percentage, most restaurant managers felt that the minimum should be $3-4.00.

The best tippers (Upper East Side, Murray Hill, and the West Village) paid about $4.50 plus $2.00 in the event of bad weather.

The worst tippers (Hell's Kitchen, East Village) paid about $2.50 plus $1.00 in the event of bad weather.

Distance, weather, and number of bags are considerations.

So the city's standard might be a minimum $3-4.00 tip, with an additional amount commensurate with an unusually big order or bad weather.

Photo: David Marc Fischer

THERE STILL IS SEX IN NEW YORK PRESS

The new New York Press dropped Dr. Dot and dumped its sex ads (love 'em or hate 'em, they inspired some great work by Jonathan Ames), yet sex can still be found throbbing inside the current issue, where Stephanie Sellars writes about lesbian kink at Burning Man and possibly perverted publicist Kelly Kreth offers a cover story about dating her notorious-for-Gawker client Eric Schaeffer.

Here's Kreth talking up an expensive spa routine as well as a blink-or-you'll-miss-it dating gimmick.



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Photo: David Marc Fischer

FINDING WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU

The current New York Press offers "Emotional Affairs," in which Stephanie Sellars remembers a time when she was, as she puts it, "miserably monogamous." It's a reaction to the August Redbook article "Are You Having an Emotional Affair?"

Photo: David Marc Fischer

LAST RESORTS? There are things I don't like about Brett Krutzsch as he portrays himself in the New York Press article "Gays in the Catskills"--but I still think his piece is worth reading. On the other hand, someone named Alex wrote a response (April 4-April 10, 2007) in which he defended gay vacationing in the Catskills, writing

"...I am gay, and I just returned from vacation in the Catskills with five equally gay friends....We chose a much quieter 'resort,' if you could even call it that; it was more of a double-wide trailer rented out by a quaint and jolly woman with a spiky cut, red lilpstick and three horses who went by the name of Liz. As for his portrayal of the locals, whether they have teeth or not, they are very interested in 'city folk.'"

Meanwhile, Disney has now opened its, uh, Fairy Tale Wedding program to gay couples. Looks like the Catskills just can't get a break these days....

Photo: David Marc Fischer

NEW YORK GLASS. This week's New York Press has a cool cartoon spread by C. Edwards about Ira Glass. I'm not keen about how the paper handled its transition to the Web, but here it is anyway. Happy clicking!

EXTRA Also in a recent New York Press: A piece on Harry Belafonte by Amy Goodman that includes this salute from Bill Clinton: "I was inspired by your politics more than you can ever know. Every time I saw you after I became president, I thought that my conscience was being graded, and I was getting less than an A. And every president should feel that way about somebody as good as you." Here's another report on Belafonte from Goodman. And here's Belafonte talking about the Bush administration, which ought to be getting lots of Belafonte inspiration.



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Photo: David Marc Fischer