Subject: [Tweeters] Are we birders one of a feather?
Date: Aug 24 13:42:33 2006
From: Kelly Cassidy - lostriver at completebbs.com


I listened to NPR's Talk of the Nation this afternoon on my drive home from
work. The subject of the show was tipping, featuring a waiter and waitress
as guests. The talk turned to stereotypes involving good vs bad tippers.



The waitress told of how she had once worked on Block (?) Island in New
England. The area was scheduled to host some type of birding event. Her
fellow wait-staff persons moaned and groaned, saying that birders were
terrible tippers. She scoffed. Then they all showed up. Her conclusion.
Birders are CHEAP!!! I'm conveying her emphasis on the word. (or maybe she
meant CHEEP).



Now, I despise the whole tipping system, but always considered myself a
fairly generous tipper. I had a mother who relied on tips for many years
when I was a youngster. Although after learning from the show that 20% is
now considered the standard tip, maybe I'm CHEEPER than I thought.



Not meaning to start an off-topic discussion of tipping on tweeters, but
rather to comment on how remarkable it is that birders (if this waitress is
to be believed) could be so predictably categorized for a particular
behavior. Based on past tweeters discussions of, say, politics or religion
when those were allowed, the birders on tweeters seemed to be a very diverse
group.



Perhaps there is a personality type drawn to birding, independent of
political or religeous views, which includes the trait of thriftiness. Or
maybe it's because birders get into the habit of carrying sack lunches.



Kelly Cassidy

Pullman, WA