Monthly Archives: July 2014

SHOPPING IN LONG ISLAND DEPARTMENT STORES CAN BE PAINFUL

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I recently had a suit made for me, a beautiful navy blue suit with white pin stripes. Mr. Kelly convinced me to break away from tradition and get a double-breasted suit. For those of you who don’t know who Mr. Kelly is; its simple he is the best tailor in New York City. You can visit his store on 48th street between 3rd and Lexington Avenues or visit www.tailor.com .

With every new suit I purchase I purchase a new tie and pocket square (sometimes two). So last week I went up to the Purple Store (Bergdorf Goodman Men’s Store) on 5th Avenue & 58th Street. They have to best tie selection I have ever been to. However the store was being renovated for the fall collection and I couldn’t find a tie. So I can’t leave this store without buying something (I know it’s a sickness) I purchased two bottles of Creed Cologne.

While on vacation this week I get an email from Mr. Kelly that my suit and shirt are ready. So now I am excited and I am going to wear my new suit Tuesday I need a tie.

So yesterday, my wife and I decided to go to the Walt Whitman Mall. We start out a Bloomingdales, I figured I would be in and out, because I shop at Bloomingdales 59th Store in Manhattan and love it. Well I was disappointed with the selection at the store. No Hermes WTF? So I say let’s go to Saks, which turns out to be no better than Bloomingdales. I am beginning to think I am in the twilight zone. Off to Macy’s which makes Marshall’s look like a real department store.

On the way to Macy’s we stop in at the Hugo Boss store. I walk to the back of the store and I am stunned that there is a larger selection of colorful socks than selection of ties. They did have one tie that I liked but it was too thin. So I asked to clerk if they had any thicker ties. He told me no and that this is the “Standard” width. I felt like smacking him, this putz in his skinny suit and high water pants telling me they don’t make wide ties anymore.

Then off to Lord & Taylor and again I was disappointed in the poor selection and the place was a dump. It’s been nine days since I was last in Manhattan and I miss her. I miss the pace, I miss the food, and most of all I miss the shopping. Anyone who tells you that the shopping in Manhattan is the same on Long Island, New Jersey, or Westchester is just wrong. Yes they have Bloomingdales, Saks, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus. But those out suburbs don’t carry the same merchandise as those in Manhattan. So when people tell you this, they have probably never shopped on 5th or Madison Avenues.

So tomorrow when I am back at work, I will pick up my new suit and head over to see Sebastian at Paul Stuart and find me the perfect tie.

IS ATLANTIC CITY OVER?

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The Revel has opened and filed bankruptcy twice in less than two years and now I believe they are closing their doors for good.  The Atlantic City Hilton changed its name to the Atlantic and it closed its doors for good in January.  The ShowBoat and Trump Plaza are scheduled to close on Labor Day.  What is going on?

Gaming Houses have been popping up for years.  Racinos like Empire City have cut into Atlantic City’s revenue.  However the two biggest killers are the PA Casinos and the lack of fair games.  There is no denying that the PA Casinos have hurt AC badly.  But AC did nothing to fight them.  They just rolled over and are playing dead.  Bottom line is AC just like Las Vegas (Vegas is in trouble too) they forgot who they are and why they were born.

In the 1850s (yes that is not a typo), gangsters from Philadelphia wanted to create a resort town for the common man, the blue collar worker.  So they took out a map and drew a line to the Atlantic Ocean.  Absecon Island and they bought the property and built Atlantic City.   Railroads were built so regular folk could get on a train and in a short ride be treated like Kings & Queens.  Atlantic City had so many firsts here is a short list:

  • The First Permanent Boardwalk
  • The First Full Time Life Guard
  • The First Post Card
  • Salt Water Taffy

Family’s came for the beach.  At night couples would dance the night away and after the ladies went to bed the men would Gamble.  Yes Atlantic City had Gambling since it was founded.  It only became legal in 1978.  Atlantic City was home to legendary stars like Frank Sinatra and Harry James.  Paul “Skinny” D’Amato owner of the 500 Club in AC was the man who made Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis a team.

The 1970s came and AC had its problems, so they legalized gambling to help save it.  It worked.  During the 1980s Atlantic City was bigger than Vegas.  In fact when the Taj Mahal was completed in 1988 or 89 it was the largest casino in the world.  The Mirage opened shortly after and in the 90s Vegas kicked ass.

Now Atlantic City is faced with a big problem and I am not sure it can survive.  I have been going to AC since I was 13 in 1979 and I have been every year since.  In the late 90s early 2000s I was there almost once a month.  I love that town and I am very concerned about its future.

The only hope I have is that AC has two very important things:

  1. It has been here before, it was down in the dumps and rose from the ashes it’s like a cat it has nine lives
  2. The Atlantic Ocean – Vegas doesn’t have it, the Pocono Mtns doesn’t have it and neither does Foxwoods

I believe if AC goes back to its roots and offers a family vacation for a reasonable price with the beach and concerts and other things it will be reborn once again.  Let’s not forget the gaming,  bring in sports betting and bring back 4 and 6 deck black jack.  Give players real comps.

Please AC I beg you don’t die on me.

TO TIP OR NOT TO TIP, THAT IS THE QUESTION

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Recently I have been reading about celebrities who don’t tip. This week a big story on Twitter was how Warren Sapp didn’t tip a waitress because she called him and his guest boys. Not leaving a tip on a $69 tap is just shameful.

 

Many restaurants are beginning to ban tipping. I know several restaurants that automatically include the tip on the bill or even give the customer what the amount of a 15%, 18% or 20% would be.

I know I am old school and I wear that badge with pride. I know that many people are frustrated with tips because you feel like you don’t have a choice and have to give an 18% tip whether service is good or bad. However I believe that tipping should not be banned or curtailed it should be embraced. Yes folks I don’t only believing in tipping I believe in OVER tipping. Here is the reason why:

  1. Don’t be cheap – wait staff, valets, bellmen, and any other people that we tip regularly work for less than minimum wage. This is legal because of Tips. I learned in my short time in the Hotel business that many hotel staff receives double pay on their vacation days, because they don’t get tips when they are off.
  2. You get better service – I know people say, “They share the tips”. SO WHAT. The problem with people is they tip after the service. Try tipping before your serviced. When you park you car with a valet tip him/her when you drop your car off. They will appreciate it and take better care of you car. The staff receiving tips learns very quickly who are good tippers.

Many of you that know me, know that I frequent a small number of establishments that I like and probably 80% of the time I go to one of five places (Look at my Top 10 Restaurants and Saloons). I do this because I like being a regular customer, the staff knows me and knows that if they “Take Care of me”, and I will Take Care of Them. Here are some of my rules for tipping:

  1. The tip should match the service. My bench mark for a tip starts at 20% (15% for cocktails only) and I work from there. If service is terrible I may go as low as 5% and let the staff or management know I wasn’t pleased with the service. However for exceptional service I have given at times over a 100% tip. Both methods work. Every time I have given an extreme tip either to low or too high the next time at that establishment my service improved.
  2. Give Cash Tips Prior to Service – There is nothing wrong and the staff greatly appreciates cash tips prior to service. If I am dining with an important client, or want to make sure that I am going to be taken care of that evening I will slip the staff a twenty spot at the very beginning of the night. Many times the staff puts the cash tip in their pocket and don’t share the tip. Cash tips prior to service works real well at the following:
    1. Wait Staff at a Casino – Tip big in the beginning and they will keep the drinks flowing
    2. Wedding and Networking events – bartenders and wait staff at “open bar events” do not get a lot in tips. So when ordering your first cocktails explain what you like and slip them a $20 and see how your service improves. Two years ago I was at a business event and I did this at the beginning of the night. When the bar was crazy the Host of the event was waiting for a drink for quite sometime. I went up to him to say hello and to get another drink and the bartender handed me my cocktail. The Host of the event said to me “doesn’t she know I am paying the bill?” I replied, “YOU ARE PAYING THE BILL, I AM PAYING THE BARTENDER!”

 

PLEASE NOTE: When giving a cash tip please do it discreetly, you don’t want anyone to know.

 

Bottom line is folks, tipping is a good old-fashioned policy. In this age where so many traditions are going by the wayside, let’s keep this one alive and tip often and tip well.

 

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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As I was thinking what to right on July 4, 2014 Independence Day, so I thought the words of Thomas Jefferson said it best. Here is the Declaration of Independence signed July 4, 1776 (while most people recite the first sentence of the second paragraph, my favorite is the second sentence which I bolded the text:

 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. 
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. 
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.