FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for August 21, 2020

Paper? What paper?

I live off the street so they have to drive in to deliver my paper, maybe an extra minute to do that. That means I get it half the time and they deliver several days worth at the same time. At least I can read the electronic edition on time.

Used to get the paper until it got much smaller and the fee went up a lot. Why pay for something that’s mostly ads and not even want-ads (except maybe one day a week). I go online too.

Four weeks…twenty papers…that’s two dollars! Plus tip! -Johnny the paperboy in 1985’s Better Off Dead

I remember when we had newspapers—-and they were delivered by kids! (semi-joking: I still get the paper but those times when kids had paper routes seem to be long gone!)

I quit getting the paper when the delivery guy missed me more days in a week than he delivered it. They asked my reason for stopping the paper and I told them of my dissatisfaction with the guy’s delivery record. The person on the phone said, “I’ll just put down that you’re getting the paper from another source.”

Sounds like my mother-in-law. Her maximum tip in a restaurant is $5. They eat breakfast and lunch at the same small restaurant every day, and she tips $2. When the owner waits on them she doesn’t tip at all, because “she’s the owner.” She once took my son to a nice restaurant and the bill was $75, and she left a $5 tip. My son refused to leave until she left a proper tip. He was 13 at the time…

I was a paperboy and I got some tips at Christmas. One I remember in particular was when I was collecting at the very last house on my route, they invited me in and gave me Christmas treats. No extra money, but I was in hog heaven… ☺

People here are young, it seems.

call the paper distribution dept and complain about your service.

I will admit to this tactic, years ago.