Andy wrote on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:00:54 -0500:

>> Andy wrote on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:21:32 -0500:
>>
>>>> In article
>>>> > , Dave
>>>> Smith > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> What I would like to know is where the hell they are
>>>>> hiding when you need them and why you can't catch their
>>>>> attention then.
>>>>
>>>> Smoke break. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of
>>>> smokers by type of employment. I'll bet restaurant workers
>>>> are right up there.
>>
>>> Dan,
>>
>>> There's a restaurant in town that if you don't have
>>> reservations they put you on the waiting list and give you a
>>> radio transmitter "hockey puck" that you keep in your pocket
>>> while you have a cocktail or something, that will vibrate
>>> when your table is ready! Too bad wait staff don't have to
>>> wear them in return!
>>
>> Again, I'm not trying to start a war but for years I've
>> considered waiter not to be gender-specific and used it call
>> male or female staff without problems. I wonder what others
>> think?

> James,

> Since I'm addressing a broader audience here at rfc rather
> than my just wait staff for breakfast, I just choose not to
> take sides. You know what I meant.

> If at the diner I'm waited on by a man, I address him as
> waiter. If waited on by a woman I address her as waitress.
> That's all.

It's possible that the fact that I don't raise my voice and usually wave
when call the waiter avoids arguments but, if I got a feminist lecture
from a waiter in a *restaurant*, I wouldn't come back :-)
--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not