![TIPPING POINTS](https://cdn.magzter.com/1422886351/1703478067/articles/Km9cmQA0Q1703491351828/TIPPING-POINTS.jpg)
Before screens, tipping, like a marriage proposal, was a private affair. Tips can reveal hidden values or the rumblings of the subconscious. A waitress’s breast size, for instance, correlates positively with tip size. “Mad Men”-era husbands tipped more when dining with someone else’s wife than with their own. The grief-inflected gratitude of the post-pandemic period introduced new tipping behaviors. Etiquette experts studied the so-called guilt-tip boom. The gratuity, like everything else, has gone contactless—the swivelling of the iPad. In the past three years, according to data from the payroll company Gusto, tips in bakeries and cafés are up forty-one per cent. Apparently, we now tip assistant sports coaches (up three hundred and sixty-seven per cent) and theatrebox-office staff (up a hundred and sixtyone per cent). Do you tip the cashier when all she’s done is ring up your salad? Don’t, and you’re a cheapskate. Do, and you’re a sucker. Where before you scribbled a tip in the candlelit darkness of a restaurant, now you do it in the spotlight glow of the screen. The polite thing to do, standing in line, is to behave as you would at the A.T.M., or the urinal: look away.
This story is from the January 01 - 08, 2023 (Double Issue) edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 01 - 08, 2023 (Double Issue) edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
![ANTIHERO](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/iZ_mJrjwf1719836837212/ANTIHERO.jpg)
ANTIHERO
“The Boys,” on Prime Video.
![HOW THE WEST WAS LONG](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/Vh1HXqPe-1719836720878/HOW-THE-WEST-WAS-LONG.jpg)
HOW THE WEST WAS LONG
“Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1.”
![WHEEL OF FORTUNE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/Tj0upTIEh1719836581848/WHEEL-OF-FORTUNE.jpg)
WHEEL OF FORTUNE
Taffy Brodesser-Akner weighs the cost of generational wealth.
![TWICE-TOLD TALES](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/FSnHEVQ2G1719836202950/TWICETOLD-TALES.jpg)
TWICE-TOLD TALES
The seditious writers who unravel their own stories.
![CASTING A LINE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/zYjGjav-D1719835755852/CASTING-A-LINE.jpg)
CASTING A LINE
The hard-bitten genius of Norman Maclean.
![TEARDROPS ON MY GUITAR](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/F4QZ49jIU1719835464335/TEARDROPS-ON-MY-GUITAR.jpg)
TEARDROPS ON MY GUITAR
Four years ago, when Ivan Cornejo was a junior in high school, he had a meeting with his family to announce that he was dropping out. His parents were alarmed, of course, but his older sister, Pamela, had a more sympathetic reaction, because she also happened to be his manager, and she knew that he wasn’t bluffing when he said that he had to focus on his career.
![THE HADAL ZONE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/KiyGvpfRQ1719834860480/THE-HADAL-ZONE.jpg)
THE HADAL ZONE
Arwen Rasmont waits hours at Keflavík International for his flight; they call it as he leaves the men’s room. He walks past the mirrored wall and is assaulted, as usual, by his dead father’s handsome image: high-arched nose, yellow hair.
![OPENING THEORY](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/9TQXbGoRi1719833635129/OPENING-THEORY.jpg)
OPENING THEORY
Ivan is standing on his own in the corner while the men from the chess club move the chairs and tables around.
![THE LAST RAVE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/nxcRM0EjJ1719831949168/THE-LAST-RAVE.jpg)
THE LAST RAVE
Remembering a summer of estrangement.
![КАНО](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1751212/ImfnMwa-x1719830891222/.jpg)
КАНО
I’ve dated all kinds of women in my life,” the man said, “but I have to say I’ve never seen one as ugly as you.”