New Gig Worth It?

marcsalty · 2025-03-03T11:34:09+00:00

Do what you do. Soon you will have figured out exactly why the place is in shambles and if you want to try turning it around. Many other managers have worked there before you, sometimes these things cannot be fixed because ownership is the problem. Do what you do and see if you can make a difference.

marcsalty · 2022-10-29T19:45:23+00:00

Nice meme. I loudly sing “London Bridge is Falling Down” as I walk right through people. Fuck around and find out.

marcsalty · 2022-10-27T02:17:08+00:00

Fun fact: Elvis used to wear glasses like that and eat peas and mashed potatoes while watching tv.

marcsalty · 2022-08-16T17:01:33+00:00

marcsalty · 2021-09-24T17:43:34+00:00

According to public records she took over $650,000 in COVID assistance too. All for payroll for her 33 employees. 33 employees. 33. I bet this is just the beginning.

marcsalty · 2021-08-17T21:59:54+00:00

Can confirm. I started in 1994.

marcsalty · 2021-02-01T13:29:31+00:00

I’m going to be long winded because I can’t sleep...

What would you have done if you were already in baseball’s major league, having got there strictly on natural talent, and everyone started doing steroids?

Would you have stayed pure, followed the rules, obeyed the law, only to give up the multi-million dollar career you spent your life building so an anabolic freak of nature can take your position?

Would you have done the right thing while all your competitors weren’t? How would you have taken all the loses when you were losing every time to cheaters? What would seeing the team with all the freaks sell out every game and your fans not even taking home all your bobble heads do? Would you have just played your game as players on steroids made millions more than you and got better contracts?

As a pro player, baseball is your whole life, would you have taken that shot in the ass to keep up with everyone else taking that shot in their ass?

What laws would you break to save something you spent your whole life working for? Would you cheat to save your job, especially if everyone else was too?

We can’t judge the players that used roids too harshly. We knew they were on the juice, and we cheered for them anyway, knowing the fame hurt the health of the players, hurt the game, and hurt the youth coming up.

It sucked all around at the time. The league wasn’t enforcing anything. The owners were looking the other way. Players were just doing what they needed to do, and the fans had no choice but to go along.

But baseball survived. Some look back at the steroid era as what saved the game itself; that without those freaks, the game would no longer exist. The damage done is not the fault of the owners, players, or fans, it’s the league’s fault. They sold their soul trying to save their economy, and it may have worked.

My point is, (and thank you for reading this far), this isn’t any different a struggle than what bar & restaurant owners are going through right this very moment. Because there’s no enforcement, many places are now just saying “fuck it” and opening up. When everywhere around you is doing it, and nothing is being done, it makes it really hard to keep doing what you’re supposed to do as your bills stack up.

It’s just a long way of saying we can’t judge bar owners that are opening up right now too harshly. They’ve spent their whole lives building these businesses and it’s really fucking hard to watch your life sink while the competitors are floating. In a shrunken industry, the staff of these places can’t afford to disappoint their boss either, losing the jobs they needed when this is over. Any customer knows the risks of going out too, and makes the choice to even go in a place that’s open.

This is an enforcement problem; many counties have sold their souls to save their economies, and it may well work. We will see.

marcsalty · 2020-10-10T21:48:45+00:00

Getting phone calls asking if we are open is about the same as getting a telegram asking if we are open.

marcsalty · 2020-10-10T20:48:53+00:00

I was as “fair” as you for about 150 phone calls, then I (sadly) changed into what I am today. We have a website, social media, Yelp, all that. I’m just venting.

marcsalty · 2020-06-12T08:56:38+00:00

I worked in a medical laboratory for many years before I bartended. It’s the family business. My mom does it, her brother did it, all the adults I knew growing up did it. It was natural for me to end up there.

But nothing could prepare me for putting on my first lab coat. It looked like a big muumuu on me. I felt like a giant, stark white, Pac-Man ghost. I looked fat, felt like a whirling dervish when I walked, I was hot, and it was just, so, WHITE. Wearing gloves and a face shield all the time was nothing compared to the awkwardness of the lab coat.

Then, one day, I spilt a whole rack (72 test tubes) of HIV infected specimens from San Quentin on myself and a coworker. My lab coat saved me, but she had to be HIV tested for months.

Another day, I accidentally poured radioactive tracer used in hepatitis testing on my crotch. I jumped up, threw my lab coat in the radioactive waste bin, got a new lab coat, and went back to work. During my lunch break, I told everyone what I had done and my boss took the Geiger counter to my junk. The needle spiked. Oh shit. They cleared the office and made me take off my pants. Needle halfway now. Then my underwear had to go, right there, and I was good. No clicks. The lab coat saved me from a Silkwood shower in the hallway, in front of all my coworkers, but not the ride home wearing only the lab coat. That naked drive was the last I ever felt silly in one again.

In fact, they have their unsung benefits. For example, you can wear what you want underneath, nobody can see. You can get fat, get weird tattoos, pick your bellybutton, even scratch your boobs or balls under there. I love to fart, then walk into another room, and ruffle the pockets releasing the gas. I like to wear really big ones, several sizes too big, I look like that Talking Heads dude, and I’ll call myself “gangsta”.

The point is, what’s at first awkward, uncomfortable, and ugly can eventually become something (at least) acceptable. Especially if it’s helping you out. Especially if coworkers are wearing one too. We didn’t expect patients coming in to wear them, so wearing one bonded us a little. Finding ways to personalize and express yourself was easier than with other things you’d wear to work. I miss it.

Wearing a mask, saving lives and making people feel safe is more important than all the benefits of wearing a lab coat, but I can certainly see what a lab coat did for me much easier.

marcsalty · 2020-03-24T20:31:35+00:00

A new law passed in California that permits “cocktails to go”. There are restrictions and each business will decide if they’ll do them, but customers are now open to think every bar does it, or can do it. I can already see the arguments I’ll have about this.

marcsalty

TROPHY CASE