Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Thursday, November 25, 2010

If You're Eating Out This Thanksgiving, Thank Your Server

By Steve Hynd


Happy Thanksgiving, folks...even though my family had ours yesterday.


You see, my wife manages the local branch of a family diner which is open 23 hours/365 days, one with a name that rhymes with "Benny's", and Thanksgiving is the second busiest day of the year. That means she, like all her staff, will be pulling 12 hour shifts today for not a huge amount of money. And again on Christmas Day, New Year's Day, 4th July etc etc. Thus we always end up having our holiday meals on a different day, her closest day off to the actual day. For Thanksgiving this year, her only day off in an 80-hour week was yesterday.


So if you're eating out today - or shopping at the many stores open - remember to thank the staff working for below-average wages so that you can do so. They'll have had to make arrangements with their families that compromise their own holidays so you can have yours.


And TIP YOUR SERVER. They make less than minimum wage and are expected to make up the balance from your tips. Nothing says "Thanks" like a better-than-15% gratuity.



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