LETTERS: Bartenders with bad attitudes get what they deserve

To the editor:

I was appalled to read the comments by various bartenders in your recent feature, "Mind Your Manners: Raising the Bar." I have been a patron of nearly every bar mentioned in your story, and I have never seen any of the negative behaviors attributed to bar-goers upon initial intro to the bar.

Jennifer Harvey of the Lucky Bar complains about "yelling out, waving hands, (or) snapping fingers to get a bartender's attention." Guess what? That only happens when a bartender is "busy" chi-chatting or kowtowing to gamblers as opposed to taking care of the customers at hand. She goes on to say, "Sometimes we'll even make you wait longer." Oh really? And you wonder why your tips are abysmal?

Patricia Richards from Parasol Up states she may have "110 things in her head" which prevents her from attending to patrons in a timely manner. Perhaps bartending is too cerebral for her.

"Everyone is in a hurry. ..." Yes, they are -- they are in the bar to drink and socialize, not to stand around and wait for overpriced drinks while the bartender contemplates the theory of relativity.

Ms. Richards recommends eye contact in order to hurry service -- this was the best piece of advice in the article. As long as the eye contact is acknowledged and followed up upon by the bartenders. When they don't follow up, that is when the hand raising and finger snapping likely begins.

Tommy Smith, Revolution Lounge manager, recommends standing at the bar and waiting your turn. Let's face it, the customer who does that, particularly at a busy Strip dance club, might be waiting 20 minutes or a half hour for a drink.

The only bartender in your story who really seems to have an understanding of who the customer is and what they expect is Drew Levinson of The Bellagio. Be assertive but not aggressive is his advice -- that is how you get a drink in a busy club in Las Vegas.

As far as the complaints about people asking them for advice on what to drink -- that is no different than someone getting in a cab and asking to be taken somewhere "fun." Often they will end up at the very bars these whiny bartenders represent.

The bartenders who were the focus of your story came across as lacking customer service skills and appreciation for the customer (feigned by one or two of them).

Most of all, though, they appear to have a feeling of entitlement -- you better tip well for good service, rather than I will provide good service to earn my tips. Sorry. You work in the service industry: Adjust your attitudes.

Rick Evans

LAS VEGAS

Wage hike

To the editor:

Hats off to the current gang of public servants on the Clark County Commission. They may have learned a lesson from their esteemed mentors -- former commissioners Dario Herrera, Lance Malone, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and Erin Kenny. Rather than run the risk of begging for tax-free bribes from their special-interest masters or trying to hide expensive perks from snooping investigators, they opted for voting themselves pay raises (Review-Journal, Wednesday).

It's good to know the county can afford this when School District Superintendent Walt Ruffles -- he of the 53 percent pay raise in July 2005 -- is whining and sniveling about a lack of money.

What the citizens of Nevada really need are ballot initiatives preventing elected officials from voting themselves and other elected or appointed officials pay raises -- and, from preventing elected and appointed officials from receiving pensions.

John Oreschak

LAS VEGAS

Spending priorities

To the editor:

Thank you, Knight Allen (June 21 letter) for the information about teacher salaries compared to the private sector. That is very valuable data.

"Average" salaries and benefits, however, do not tell us what "starting" salaries might be. Chances are, a first-year teacher views the salary as inadequate. But, didn't we all when we first began our careers?

Back then, though, (for me it was 1965) we did not expect to buy a home or even to live alone. We had a roommate or two. And we learned to manage our meager take-home pay and forgo owning a car, unnecessary groceries or much in the way of entertainment. But, we managed.

After a number of years, I was able to then afford those "extras" which are now deemed "necessities."

It's all about prioritizing.

Linda Dahlquist

HENDERSON

Pay standards

To the editor:

In response to the Thursday letter by Knight Allen on teacher salaries:

Has Mr. Allen ever thought to compare the average pay of other professionals against teacher pay? The average private-sector wage he cited, $39,208, includes everything from high school dropout, minimum wage employees to top-ranked surgeons. What is the average pay of other professionals in the Las Vegas Valley?

This would include people with similar educational levels who also must hold state certification to perform their jobs for instance: engineers, lawyers, doctors, architects, certified public accountants and nurses.

I think Mr. Allen is a victim of his own ignorance of statistics. Perhaps a refresher course by an educator could help him understand the appropriate application of the use of statistical averages, unless of course his goal was to further confuse our citizens and victimize teachers with more propaganda.

Has Mr. Allen ever looked into what the firemen, policemen, attorneys and doctors earn on average?

I only ask that people apply some common sense to the teacher pay dilemma. We would gladly accept a fair wage increase to keep our wages from falling victim to the same high costs as everyone else (the 4.9 percent to which Mr. Allen alludes includes a 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment, increased wages from step increases (these are in place of merit raises and average less than 1 percent) as well as raises that come from teachers attending additional post graduate college coursework -- for which we pay and receive no reimbursement.

Nick Ungaro

LAS VEGAS

Hot air

To the editor:

I could not stop a big grin upon reading your front page wire story this week, "Hot air fuels gas cost debate." Admittedly, I am not bright enough to agree with or dispute the physics involved in the expansion and contraction of gasoline versus the cost.

Like many voters, however, I am astute enough to realize that most of the "hot air" blows from Washington, D.C., and has nothing to do with climate change.

AL Ciricillo

LAS VEGAS

By the numbers

To the editor:

So, John L. Smith correlates political polling numbers with credibility ("Poll numbers show Gibbons climbing out credibility hole," Wednesday Review-Journal)?

Mr. Smith mocks Gov. Jim Gibbon's May favorable rating of 28 percent as "down in Bush and Cheney country." But the good news for Gov. Gibbons is that even at his lowest moments he never dipped to the 19 percent favorable ratings (latest Rasmussen poll) of Nevada's favorite son, Majority Leader and Democrat Harry Reid.

Dick Cheney's favorable number doubles that of Nevada's most notorious politician. I wonder why an astute observer of politics such as John L. Smith would omit any mention of such damning data?

I guess there is more than just polling data to research when trying to objectify who is and is not credible.

JEFF SMITH

LAS VEGAS