Iowa Waitress Speaks Out: Clinton Didn't Leave Tip, Media has Misplaced Priorities

[mod mom]

Iowa Waitress Speaks Out: Clinton Didn't Leave Tip, Media Has Misplaced Priorities

November 13, 2007 01:40 PM


For the past week, Anita Esterday's life has been turned upside down. A single mother of two, she found herself in the middle of a media circus when it was reported that Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign failed to leave her a tip after they were waited on at a Maid-Rite in Toledo, Iowa. In the ensuing frenzy, the Maid-Rite manager insisted that a tip was, in fact, left. But Esterday says the manager just told a fib to make the attention go away. And the press, she adds, needs to get a perspective on what actually matters. Esterday took time out of her day on Tuesday to answer questions from the Huffington Post.

Huffington Post: What is it like to be in the middle of a campaign-related media frenzy?
Esterday: It is nuts. Even going on the web for anything. There was a website in Cedar Rapids that said I had committed suicide. I understand that whoever wrote this meant it as a joke, but I have family in Cedar Rapids and I know people in Cedar Rapids and my mother committed suicide. So it wasn't a joke to me... It's taking it to an extreme and I guess in America now that's what people like and it's a shame that the media ran with this.

Does the press have misplaced priorities?
In this country, look at how many homeless people there are. There are millions. There are people just like me. I'm not the only parent who has had to raise two kids and barely makes $20,000 a year... This is supposed to be the United States of America, the strongest nation in the world, and we can't even provide places for our homeless. The media should be focusing on that.

Point taken. But could you set the record straight about the tip? Your manager says they left something but you contend it never happened.
If your phone is ringing from six in the morning till four in the afternoon and customers are saying what's wrong, the telephone lines are down, and it's because reporters are trying to get through, you say whatever you have to say . I don't know if they left a $100 tip or not but I haven't seen it yet. And none of the other waitresses have said they got the tip. .



-snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/13/iowa-waitress-...