May 26, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn confined to $14 million apartment in Tribeca.

"It's a three-story, 6,800-square-foot palace with a movie theater, antique French oak floors, a gym and a terrace - and $50,000-a-month rent."

Beautiful restaurants in that area. But he can't go out. Had to order in. Got $242.790 worth of "steaks and salad" delivered last night.
The bill was put on 26-year-old daughter Camille's credit card, and deliveryman Ramon Leal walked away with a handsome $25 tip.

"It's a good tip considering I just walked around the corner," Leal said, dismissing reporters' questions about serving Strauss-Kahn. "I'm just doing my job."
Actually, that's not a good tip. It's about 10%. Leal is rationalizing and refraining from bad-mouthing the rich man. And, by the way, the place may be huge and well-located, but — see the pictures at the link — it's in pretty bad taste. Aptly bad taste. Feh.

78 comments:

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

For delivery, people don't tip by percentage.

People tip about the same for large and small orders.

That's my experience.

Sal said...

It only matters who's paying.

Lincolntf said...

Yeah, I'm sure the guy is used to $5 or maybe $10 tips for the same service. Unless he has to make a second trip or something, why tip based on dollar amount?
Anyway, I find it odd when I order something for take-out and they hand me a credit card slip with the "Tip" line. Do I tip someone for ringing me up? Do I put a zero? Do I leave it blank? My solution is usually to hand it to the wife.

Patrick said...

Two things I really hate: Chicago Nazis and super rich socialized.

Patrick said...

Socialists

ndspinelli said...

The French, whether they be from their homeland or Quebec, are like good canoes..they don't tip.

There is no group that dislike the French more than waiters/waitresses. I worked @ a resort hotel in college on the Jersey shore. Over drinks after work waitresses would tell me horror stories.

Anonymous said...

US taxpayers should take a good long look at how the New World Order led by Barack Obama spends its money.

What's amazing is that this rapist already is lining up favorable reporting in the media to support his claim that the maid had it coming.

Just look at Megan McArdle bespeckling herself in this painfully written attempt to provide some plausible deniability for Strauss-Kahn and to blame the innocent victim of his horrifically painful anal rape.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/05/plausibly-deniable-harassment/239392/

Good lord, what the is wrong with Megan McArdle trying to blame this hapless rape victim? Why does the Atlantic see fit to provide cover for these rapists?

No matter ... Strauss-Kahn will be back in France partying with his pal the kiddie-rapist Roman Polanski just as soon as he can arrange the private charter jet.

I'm sure US taxpayers will pay for it, too.

Are you still paying your taxes?

Why?

Anonymous said...

"The French, whether they be from their homeland or Quebec, are like good canoes..they don't tip."

The delivery boy got out of there without getting a cock shoved up his asshole. He should be thankful.

This post should be tagged: The French are like Greeks.

Roman said...

Socialism seems to pay rather well.

Anonymous said...

And why has Strauss-Kahn not been indicted for obstruction of justice yet? It's been widely reported that his lawyers have contacted family members to offer them money if the victim will recant her story?

That's felony obstruction and grounds for disbarment. And yet, the guy's lawyers are freely and openly, brazenly, attempting to obstruct justice.

It's incredible the breadth of crime that the elite Socialists and Democrats are getting away with in this country.

Sal said...

$242.790

Good thing the last digit is a zero or it'd be tough to balance the checkbook.

Anonymous said...

"Socialism seems to pay rather well."

And it will continue to pay well as long as people in the United States continue willingly sending that tax money in.

Stop. willingly. paying. taxes. to. these. criminals.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

MarkG-

Exactly.

Tips are dependent on the customer. Customers tend to tip the same amount every time, regardless of the order.

Sometimes the tips are larger on really large orders, but not always. I delivered a 150 dollar order to a girls' soccer team and got 4 bucks.

Conversely, I've delivered a single pizza and gotten 10. It's totally up to the customer.

I stopped worrying about tips. I just do the job right and let tips take care of themselves. People don't tip more for good delivery service. They will tip less for bad service, but there's no way to get people to tip more than they've already decided.

On a side note, the absolute worst tippers are professionals, like doctors and lawyers. They're also the rudest. The best tippers are bartenders and hairdressers, and anyone who works for tips. Really rich people are often good tippers as well.

Patrick said...

Nothing McArdle wrote excuses rape or blames dsk's victim.

Anonymous said...

"The bill was put on 26-year-old daughter Camille's credit card, and deliveryman Ramon Leal walked away with a handsome $25 tip.

"It's a good tip considering I just walked around the corner," Leal said, dismissing reporters' questions about serving Strauss-Kahn. "I'm just doing my job."

Strauss-Kahn is probably too stupid to even realize that his piss-poor tip led directly to the delivery-boy calling attention to the receipt to the press and thus, outing his location again (which, I'm sure will lead to his removal from the premises shortly).

The French are fucking dense.

KCFleming said...

From The Aviator, the scene in which Howard Hughes is being interrogated at dinner by Katharine Hepburn's charmingly loquacious family.

MOTHER HEPBURN: "Where do you stand on politics, Mr. Hughes?

HUGHES: Excuse me?

MOTHER HEPBURN: We're all socialists here.

[LATER]
BROTHER HEPBURN: How did you make all that money?

MOTHER HEPBURN: We don't care about money here.

HUGHES: Well, that's because you have it.

[AWKWARD SILENCE]

MOTHER HEPBURN: Would you repeat that?

HUGHES: You don't care about money
because you've always had it.

Some of us choose to work for a living.

Speaking of which, I have more of that airplane guff to attend to.

[LEAVES]
"


http://movieclips.com/CYSQ-the-aviator-movie-dinner-with-the-hepburns/

vet66 said...

The hypocrisy of the entitled rich, aka: limousine liberals. Class warfare contributed to the French revolution. Apparently that bit of history is lost on the current socialist entitlement drones who treat the rest of us like house slaves on the old plantation.

I often wonder how the rich and the poor entitlement addicts can look at themselves in the mirror without gagging. But then I remember they have no conscience, shame, morality. They do have situational ethics that are based on the false god of moral equivalence.

They are a cancer on the exceptionalism of our great country and are morally bankrupt. One of the more telling results of this immorality is our prison population.

Ron said...

that link took me to a page that also had a link about Jennifer Aniston's new bob being perfect for those over 40....which was a more interesting story.

Anonymous said...

"Nothing McArdle wrote excuses rape or blames dsk's victim."

The article itself is named "plausible deniability" and here's what Megan McArdle wrote:

"I travel a lot, and I've had housekeepers walk in on me in various states of undress, especially in hotels with turndown service ..."

Now, first, this is complete bullshit. She's lying through her teeth. This can only happen if you WANT it to happen because every hotel Megan McArdle has stayed in has a lock preventing anyone from the outside from entering without her express permission.

What she is doing is setting the stage to blame the victim of Strauss-Kahn's rape.

Then, she writes:

"I'm sure it could happen to a male traveler perfectly innocently." See, she's already used the word innocent.

Ahh, now we see how it's really the maid's fault that she's in a room with the naked Strauss-Kahn. He's completely innocent.

McArdle can't come right out and blame the maid, but the gist of what she's trying to do is pretty obvious. It's transparently attacking the victim and attempting to provide "plausible deniability" for Strauss-Kahn.

But wait, it gets better: Strauss-Kahn was right to be angry with the maid, according to McArdle!

McArdle: "If it happened to you you'd be humiliated and enraged ..."

See how it works? Why, you might be so humiliated and enraged, so out of your head, that you might just act on that humiliation and rage. Totally in self-defense, mind you. And you could hardly be blamed, since it's not your fault.

McArdle: "Don't get me wrong; rich guys get away with stuff they shouldn't. But that's not the whole story."

Wow.

Tell us Megan. What's the "whole story." This isn't really a rape-rape is it Megan?

Because I thought the whole story was about how a very rich man raped a helpless maid. But apparently, that's not the whole story.

It's sickening what McArdle is doing in this article. It's transparently justifying Strauss-Kahn's rape of this lowly maid.

Just sickening.

Known Unknown said...

From The Aviator, the scene in which Howard Hughes is being interrogated at dinner by Katharine Hepburn's charmingly loquacious family.

That's the best scene in the movie.

Known Unknown said...

I think "confined" is the wrong word.

Robert Cook said...

I've eaten twice at that restaurant (Landmarc). It is expensive, but it is very very good. (My last meal there was among the cheaper selections they offer...a cheeseburger with a side salad and a pint of draft beer. I think it came to something between $20-30.)

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)

I've eaten twice at that restaurant (Landmarc). It is expensive, but it is very very good. (My last meal there was among the cheaper selections they offer...a cheeseburger with a side salad and a pint of draft beer. I think it came to something between $20-30.)



*WOW* It’s good to see the resident Stalinist is a man of the people, just like his comrades…$20-$30 for a cheeseburger, a salad, and a pint of beer. I’m a Right Wing Death Beast, War-Mongering Neo-Con Who Oppresses the “Other” (Womyn, Gays, Lesbians, the Transgendered, People of Colour and the Poor) and I and my Life Partner seldom spend more than $30 on the WHOLE meal for two! I guess worrying about the “Other” and seeking social justice for them and justice against the War Criminals pays well….

Patrick said...

Seriously Bob, do you not see a difference between accusations of "letting your robe fall open" with a defense of "I didn't know the maid was in the room" as opposed to raping a woman? Is there anything McArdle has written anywhere that would lead you to conclude that she would defend DSK's alleged behavior? Your reading is so strained as to be ridiculous.

William said...

The real test of a man's character is not how much he tips the delivery boy, but how much he tips the maid....The maid can go through the judical process. I don't think the trial is even scheduled until September. During that time every untoward fact about her will be revealed. Then, presuming that he is found guilty after a legnthy appeal process, she can sue him for damages. I presume this will also be subject to a lengthy appeal process. Or she can walk away tomorrow with a few million dollars. See how it plays out.

Kirby Olson said...

At least he didn't rape the delivery guy.

Bayoneteer said...

"Bad taste"? Compared to Riker's Island or the Tombs I'd take it every time.

Sal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

You think that's in bad taste? OK it's not the best. But THIS is the epitome of rich douchebag bad taste. And it's not a Trump spot, though he takes a strong second.

Known Unknown said...

Maybe he gave the maid "just the tip".



Keep your eye on that period.

Anonymous said...

"Is there anything McArdle has written anywhere that would lead you to conclude that she would defend DSK's alleged behavior?"

Yes, this:

"Don't get me wrong; rich guys get away with stuff they shouldn't. But that's not the whole story."

Like Whoopie before her, McArdle is suggesting, slyly without saying it outright so she can have plausible deniability, that this really isn't a rape-rape. That there's "more to the story." That Strauss-Kahn has "plausible deniability" and that the maid is somehow responsible for the rape by being in that room in the first place, and that DSK was right to be angry and humiliated by maid - enough even to act on that humiliation and anger.

Come on, it doesn't take much of a strained reading to see the groundwork McArdle is laying for her friend.

Keep in mind that Megan McArdle is a Socialist and former employee of the World Bank, so it's hardly surprising to see her defending her friend and Socialist colleague the rapist.

It's fucking disgusting.

elmo iscariot said...

nevadabob, you're fundamentally misreading McArdle. She's explaining that harassing hotel customers create and use plausible deniability--that they exploit the fact that inadvertent exposure can happen innocently--to make their illegitimate, unacceptable harassment harder to identify and deal with. There's no issue of "blaming the victim", or "excusing the offender", just a discussion of the difficulties that exist when you set out to properly defending the victim and dealing with the offender.

McArdle seems to proceed from the assumption that DSK is guilty, but that in a free society, we can't and shouldn't proceed with the "presumption of guilt" that would be necessary to get every harasser every time.

Patrick said...

You're getting worse Bob. She's not talking about DSK. She's talking about exhibitionist behavior or boors, and the possibility that such behavior is, in fact innocent. She is decidedly NOT taking about raping maids when they enter a room, regardless of the circumstances. I feel pretty confident that McArdle is anti rape.

And McArdle a socialist? I don't think that word means what you think it means, to borrow a phrase.

elmo iscariot said...

And McArdle a socialist? I don't think that word means what you think it means, to borrow a phrase.

I get the impression Bob's entire point is based on failing to look up a phrase he's intuitively misunderstood. Reading back over his comments, it looks like he read "plausible deniability, and thought "hey! She's saying his denial is plausible!"

edutcher said...

Funny how the Lefties tell everybody they hate the Rich, but love living even better than many of them.

Roman said...

Socialism seems to pay rather well.

It should. It's all your money.

Lipperman said...

The delivery guy said it's a good tip. You say it's not. I suggest you send him an extra $20 ;)
That place looks like a lavish fuck-pad. You can tell by the leopard skin bed spread and the safety headboard.

Fred4Pres said...

You don't tip a delivery guy 15%.

It is a decent tip.

You tip based on bringing the stuff. $5 would have been adequate for an average delivery. If there were a lot of bags you tip more. I am guessing that meal was way over priced so he probably did not carry that much.

Fred4Pres said...

French oak floor? What is he making wine in there?

Actually I just got European oak floors myself in a room. It was on sale. Looks great. I suspect it is from some old growth forest in Belarussia.

Fred4Pres said...

Having worked for tips myself, I do not stiff people if a tip is warranted. I typically do 20% of the gross of a restaurant receipt if the service was good, and occasionally even more if exceptional. If not so good I go 15%, excluding the tax. I rarely do less even for bad service unless the service is surley (that has only happened once or twice), figuring they had a bad day.

If I am getting take away, however, I do not leave a tip. That is when I go and pick it up.

Fred4Pres said...

I used to work on Franklin. I think I know the building he is in.

Robert DeNiro lived on the corner.

Meryl Streep used to live in a different building on Franklin with John Cazale until he passed away.

It is a great neighborhood, but it is also completely gentrified now.

Methadras said...

That's what $14 million in Tribeca gets you?

Titus said...

I am a big tipper. Always have been. I generally tip a minimum of 25%.

I have gone out to dindin with my parents while here and they tip for shit. I end up leaving more money after they leave and they catch me and get pissed off. So do most of their older friends.

What's that all about?

Titus said...

That is the best scene in The Aviator.

Fred4Pres said...

Tribeca is way over priced.

Fred4Pres said...

Talking about that scene in the Aviator:


My wife's pet peeve in movies is hair styles not being authentic to the time of the move...mine is passing off British Columbia or Toronto locations as being somewhere else.

virgil xenophon said...

TEST

Fred4Pres said...

Titus, I do not know what that is about. But my dad does the same thing. It is old school. Are your parents boomers or older?

I do 20% of the gross. 10% x 2. My math skills go down after a few glasses of wine, so doing 25% is too much work. But I occasionaly times that 10% by three if the dinner is really really good.

virgil xenophon said...

"Bad taste?"

Althouse is expressing typical status-seeking, academic-style, displeasure w. any environment that doesn't come replete with oodles of well-filled book-cases--preferably w. lots of additional books/mags, etc., stacked on the floor as well..

Academic chic..

Fred4Pres said...

I do not recall many douglas firs growing in Connecticut. But maybe the Hepburns transplanted a bunch fifty years earlier on their estate. Or not.

Sorry Marty, I know it is nitpicking, but it bothers me.

Fen said...

15-20% at restaurant
10% delivery
0% for pick up

DaveW said...

I don't understand what this guy is doing out of jail. In addition to being a serious flight risk, he's a danger to the public based on the record and all the women coming out of the woodwork.

Why isn't he in jail with no bond awaiting trial? I'm pretty sure I would be.

Fen said...

Why isn't he in jail with no bond awaiting trial?

Laws are for the little people.

Not our socialist overlords.

Fred4Pres said...

DaveW, most people qualify for bail. You are presumed innocent. The bail is for flight risk. He has addressed that by turning over his passport, submitting to house arrest and guards (at his own cost).

What happens is you probably could not meet these financial conditions. Then again, I dobut you have ever been accused of raping a hotel chambermaid either.

Fred4Pres said...

In Europe and Australia/New Zealand, the service charge for a restaurant is 10%. That's it. No tip is required or expected.

Unless of course you are American (or Canadian). Then you will stupidly tip too and the waitress or waiter may mock you for your stupidity behind your back.

But they also appreciate it.


It is complex.

Fred4Pres said...

There is no tipping in Asia ether (generally).

But there is always baksheesh to get things done anywhere in the world.

Revenant said...

I only tip by percentage if the waiter or waitress is serving me for the entire meal -- refilling drinks, checking to see if everything's good, etc.

For places that just hand you the food and then walk away I kick in a few bucks -- plenty of tip for a couple of minutes' work.

Robert Cook said...

"*WOW* It’s good to see the resident Stalinist...."

WRONG!! You lose and X gets the square.

I do not and would not normally eat at such a pricey place, but both times I've been were good-bye meals for retiring work colleagues. You kinda hafta pony up in such circumtances...y'know?

Sigivald said...

10% ain't bad for delivery, nor is a flat $25.

It's not like actual restaurant service, where you're tipping for, well, ongoing service.

Lincoln: CC slips are printed the same by the POS software or CC processing box, regardless of the context.

It doesn't know or care that you're picking it up rather than paying after a meal.

Tip appropriately (which in context might well be zero, I suppose - though my impression is that especially in NYC one is expected to tip something for the cashier's time in taking and fulfilling the order).

Known Unknown said...

"*WOW* It’s good to see the resident Stalinist...."

WRONG!! You lose and X gets the square.

I do not and would not normally eat at such a pricey place, but both times I've been were good-bye meals for retiring work colleagues. You kinda hafta pony up in such circumtances...y'know?


You needn't supply us with reasoning, Cook. This is America — eat any damn place you want.

ErnieG said...

"...mine is passing off British Columbia or Toronto locations as being somewhere else."

Somewhere else, like where they would have to pay union wages. Oh, the irony.

The Crack Emcee said...

virgil xenophon,

"Bad taste?"

Althouse is expressing typical status-seeking, academic-style, displeasure w. any environment that doesn't come replete with oodles of well-filled book-cases--preferably w. lots of additional books/mags, etc., stacked on the floor as well..


As an artist, Ann's fascinating, both for what she "sees" and for what she doesn't. Namely, there are *some* similarities between DSK's lodgings and that awful place Ann and Meade vacationed in a while back.

The Crack Emcee said...

Titus,

25%? Dude!

I know you're kinky but that's masochism taken to the extreme,...

Unknown said...

"it's in pretty bad taste"
Like a hotel room. A Sofitel penthouse apt. perhaps?

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)





Who cares WHY you ate there, obviously the resident Stalinist makes good money…I see you and your comrades, can afford to dine well…well I would have expected you and the Collective to have dined modestly, at a place that is a co-op with an employee profit-sharing program. But INSTEAD, you’re dining extravagantly, so it seems. So you are a PART-TIME socialist, with a high-paying CAPITALIST job, or does your company really, really “care” and you all just make good money?-the usual excuse.

So YES it does count where you eat, when you care about the workers and the like….that’s what’s so funny about the “Socialist” DSK flying 1st Class and staying in a $3,000 a night Sofitel, whilst making about $496,000 per year at the IMF. You guys seem to have no problem with YOUR lifestyle being good, you just seem to worry that MINE’S somehow unjust…again I guess as long as you “care” and are willing to spend someone else’s money to provide “Social Justice” then it doesn’t make much difference how much lobster, filet, or champagne you consume.

Methadras said...

Fen said...

15-20% at restaurant
10% delivery
0% for pick up


Yeah, that's my formula too. However, on pickup, I might kick in a bit if they give you a little something extra.

Almost Ali said...

Dinner over, I remember the host's wife lingering at the table-for-six as everyone else in the party was leaving. Her husband, the host, had placed the tip partially under his dessert plate, about half of which she then picked up as discreetly as she could and stuffed into her designer handbag.

I've always wondered if those two weren't actually in cahoots. That he makes a show of flashing a generous tip, and she lingers to cut it down to 10%.

Or... that he was a capitalist who happened to marry a socialist.

Robert Cook said...

Joe the Crypto Idiot goes DOWN as he spouts a flurry of nonsense and misassumptions! The crowd goes wild at this totally expected turn of events!

Those of sounder mind yawn, as his patented schtick has grown stale. "Surprise us!" they hoot. "Naw...that's all I've got," he replies in humiliation.

"Booooooo...ya bum!" shout they, in concert.

Have pity, say I, for he's just a Crypto Idiot.

fivewheels said...

Miss Manners once had a guide for tips (covering everything from restaurants to casino dealers) that had pizza deliveries down for $1 per pie. Most places these days, that's less than 10 percent, and it doesn't go up if you get surf and turf on it.

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)





I was crushed by your response Cooke..to recap it’s Ok to dine at fancy restaurants, as long as you are suitably concerned about War Criminals and the like, right?

I mean Yhwh forefend you eat modestly, at a co-op, profit share with the workers, and take the difference between a $30 hamburger and donate it to some cause, like bringing the Bush!tler to Justice….

No, your rspeonse says it all….it was witty, erudite, well-reasoned, and the evidence overwhelming. I mean yes you defended yourself quite as well as Jeremy or “J” could have…

Ann Althouse said...

I love the way some of you assume you know what aspects of that place strike me as bad taste. It's not the modernism or the lack of books piled up!

It's:

1. The rectangular cushions stuck on the wall behind the bed.

2. Everything else about the bed, especially the brown plush strip around the edge.

3. The undersized, thick rugs splattered about meaninglessly.

4. The undersized, haphazard rectangles of whatever-the-hell on the walls.

5. The unpleasant random diagonals and other lines that make this huge place seem claustrophobic.

6. The utter lack of anything charming or interesting.

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)

The utter lack of anything charming or interesting.




That pretty much sums up the European/Academic Left, there Althouse…be careful or your Madison Privileges will be revoked.

Scott M said...

I'll say it, as it doesn't appear anyone else has in this thread.


KAAAAAAAAAHN!!!

Fred4Pres said...

The Crack Emcee said...
Titus,

25%? Dude!

I know you're kinky but that's masochism taken to the extreme,...

5/26/11 12:56 PM



Come on. You knot Titus can be a pain in the ass...so to speak.* So the tip is likely earned.

* Yeah Titus, I know, you don't go there.

Fred4Pres said...

I agree with Ann, the apartment interior decor looks rather banal for a $14 million dollar spread. But it is a rental right now, so that is part of it.

Fred4Pres said...

If this was a permanent home then DSK could get an interior designor and buy some expensive French crap from this place.

Of course, he is trying to avoid this becoming his long term residence right now.

Fred4Pres said...

Titus, I am just teasing about you being a pain in the ass at restaurants. I assume you are probably pretty decent to waiters, waitresses and bartenders.

Steven said...

DaveW:

He's under guarded house arrest, being watched by the same people who watched Madoff. That should be sufficient to negate his flight risk, to negate any risk to anybody not actually on the premises, and minimize the danger to anyone working on the premises.

Given that he actually hasn't been convicted of anything (yet) and that this way he is financially responsible for his food/housing/clothing/watchers instead of the State of New York, it seems to be reasonable enough to me.

virgil xenophon said...

Oh, I agree, Ann, about the banal barrenness of it all, just wanted to bestir you to rise to the bait and go into some detail while at the same time gently ribbing an "academic" on the "academic" lifestyle (not that there's anything wrong w. that :) ) I rather thought the defects you cite might be the cause of your contempt/displeasure--as they certainly were mine also--just wanted to be sure. :)