Do you know whether to give a tip or a gift to your hairdresser? What is appropriate for a boss? How about a dog-walker? Niether did I. So this article by Real Simple was real useful is planning how to deal with holiday tipping.

Holiday Tipping: Who? How Much? by Real Simple

A group of my friends with too much time on their hands and an email list were given a bracket of 64 films to determine what we as a community consider the “best film”. There were no metrics provide, it was completely arbitrary selection.

As we approach the final rounds, I find myself with the highest picking percentage of the group, having selected an astounding 81.9% correctly (that’s 51 of the 64 selections). Having chosen primarily based on my favorites, this leads me to wonder:

Why don’t I ever have this kind of a run when money is on the line?

No, actually it makes me wonder whether I am a leader (do the movies I like become everyone else’s favorites?) or a follower (do I gravitate towards movies because they are already everyone else’s favorites), and really how finely thin is that line?

I’ll have to contemplate that while I watch my picks go to the Final Four.

There were many years there where I thought that Sixers GM Billy King was the best manager of the four Philly sports. Andy Ried was continually missing the boat with first round draft picks (how’s Freddie Mitchell doing for ya); Bobby Clarke was still wearing the black eye of his vendetta with Eric Lindros and family; and Ed Wade was reaching new levels of ineptitude with his management of the “small-market” Phillies. Yes, at least one mover and shaker was making things happen, thank goodness for Billy King.

But time distorts, and forces us to look under some rocks that we hadn’t overturned before. Billy King was signing big name players because he was signing big dollar checks. He continuously overspent on mediocre talent which subsequently killed their trade potential as well as the team’s agility. Unable to move the dead weight, the team was forced to accept substandard expectations, and all the while Allen Iverson was not getting any younger or healthier.

I am going to miss having Iverson in Philly. He has been the icon of the Sixers for my entire adult life. I do not begrudge him moving on, he’s seeing the end of his career on the horizon and would like to see another shot at glory before he leaves the game. The Sixers are not only nowhere near giving him that ring, they are not even close to formulating a team that has playoff potential in the gawd-awful Eastern division.

At the CVS at Farragut North three cashiers stood idly waiting to serve someone in the line. Five feet to the right I stood at the photo counter awaiting assistance. The inevitable resolution was that I need to go walk through the cashier line to get a clerk to walk back over to the photo counter to get my pictures. Protocol and structure are important in a business, but so too is knowing when to deviate to improve the customer experience.

I’ve never understood the fascination Mid-Atlantic folks have with the Outer Banks. It must be for days like today.

“A cargo container that apparently fell from a ship washed up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Thursday and spilled thousands of bags of Doritos brand tortilla chips on the beach. People collected the chips, which were apparently still fresh due to their airtight packaging. It was unknown which ship had lost the cargo or to what port it was bound.”

Photo by Donna Barnett / special to The Virginian-Pilot