Tipping the scales of kindness

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
~Blanche Dubois, A Streetcar Named Desire

Harried restaurateurs Amy and Samy of Amy's Baking Company notoriety have been living an ongoing Kitchen Nightmare since they responded to a negative review on Yelp a few years back.  Their woes increased exponentially when they were featured on a Gordon Ramsay show and recorded on video while engaging in altercations with both customers and staff that left viewers reeling... and seething.

Perhaps the chief point of outrage was the bistro's policy (to date) of paying their service staff an hourly rate, while owner Samy, who taps orders into the POS system, admittedly keeps the tips for himself.  Not only has this practice affected their employees, but the patrons who leave gratuities in the belief that the funds go directly to the person who took and delivered their orders.  The epic backlash has included petitions calling for legal action against the eatery, exposure of the owner's criminal past, and a torrent of vitriol on Facebook, Yelp and Reddit that would've crashed lesser servers... meaning computer sites, not wait staff.

In an economy still limping along and searching to find its feet, the idea of struggling young workers being denied their tips by their millionaire boss leaves a bad taste in America's mouth—more so than anything diners might return to Amy's kitchen. But just when one feels this world's greed is too much to bear, a brief Tumblr post from a cynic, a CasualCynic to be exact, turns the notion of unfair selfishness on its head.  Get a load of the original post:

—SO MY MOM AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING THE SAME WAITRESS JOB FOR 5-6 YEARS NOW. SHE HAD BEEN WAITRESSING YEARS BEFORE, BUT THIS IS RECENTLY. ANYWAY, ABOUT… 15 MINUTES AGO THIS GUY SHE WAITED ON LEFT AND TOLD HER TO TAKE CARE. JUST THAT. PRIOR TO THIS SHE HAD TALKED TO HIM ABOUT ITALY. HER PEOPLE ARE FROM FLORENCE, THIS AND THAT, AND SHE SAID SHE’S NEVER BEEN. SHE’S GOT 8 YEARS OF ART EDUCATION AND SHE’S WORKING A WAITRESS JOB. IT’S PRETTY… SAD AND DISAPPOINTING, I GUESS. HER AND MY FATHER DIVORCED 6 YEARS AGO AND SHE HASN’T HAD A REAL JOB EVER. JUST BEEN STUCK IN A SMALL TOWN SHE’S NOT FROM. THIS MAN WHO WE HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE TIPPED HER 1000 DOLLARS FOR A TRIP TO ITALY. WALKED OUT, NOT ANOTHER WORD. 

…YOU KNOW. JUST WHEN I START TO LOSE FAITH IN HUMANITY….HM.—

So buck up, ye who can no longer bear the doom and gloom of daily news.  Good deeds are still done, even by strangers.