Explosion of the New Gilded Age

It’s a wet and dreary Monday afternoon and I’m driving to the hospital where I work part time. The dark clouds hanging low in the sky have soaked up what’s left of the day’s sunlight, causing the headlights from passing cars to generate diffuse...

Kellner Rant!

I’m very happy to announce that Droemer Knaur will be publishing the German edition of Waiter Rant! Many thanks to Sebastian Ritscher at MohrBooks for making it happen! Danke everybody!

Toy Box

It’s two-thirty in the afternoon and I’m drinking coffee in a nurse’s lounge at the hospital where I work a couple of days a week. Like any nurse’s lounge, the place is awash with cake, cookies, half eaten cartons of Chinese food, and boxes of...

Preparation

I’m at the laundromat folding my freshly cleaned underwear when Mike, a waiter I know from a local restaurant, walks in dragging a laminated paper bag of dirty clothes behind him. He doesn’t notice me as he starts stuffing his white shirts, black pants, server aprons,...

A Waiter’s Tips to New York

I wrote an article for the Guardian.co.uk about where waiters like to eat in New York City. I’d be interested to hear other NYC servers’  opinions and suggestions about restaurant and bars that I might have overlooked. Many thanks  to the  “waiter...

Life’s Too Short for Bad Porn

I’m lying on my couch watching This Gun for Hire, a film noir classic from 1942 starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. I made myself linguine in white clam sauce earlier for dinner and chased it down with two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. Now, as my stomach noisily...

Vote

Today is Election Day. Vote. I don’t care who you vote for. Just vote. Americans have suffered lynching and torture so we can vote.  Americans have faced down fire hoses and dogs, been bombed, murdered, and maimed so we can vote. Americans have labored in unpaid...

Waiter Rant Habla Espanol!

I’m very happy to announce that the worldwide Spanish language rights for Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip – Confessions of a Cynical Waiter have been purchased by Debolsillo: Random House Mondadori, S.A. of Barcelona, Spain. Many thanks to the good people...

Being Recognized

Nature can be quite cruel to men. As we age, the hair that used to be on our heads begins emigrating to other parts of our body. In a sort of perverted second puberty, men start finding little tufts of hair sprouting where none had grown before. I myself didn’t have...