I’ll do my usual: Say I’m interrested (I am!) and then, at the last moment, have a social-phobia attack (I do!) and not go. So… I’m interrested! 
I’m interested, but only if I get to decide who’s welcome and who’s not. Right now every dam one of you is on very thin ice. Watch it!
Yeah, seriously, was there more than one Dopefest at Pegasus? I was at the one zoid was at, and I don’t remember any issues with the bill, other than some people being surprised that meze in Chicago were going to cost more than they thought.
Buh?
Also, my memory of how we ended up on the roof was that the decision was reached by consensus among everyone who had arrived at the appointed time - one can order full meals downstairs, but only meze on the roof, and the group decided we’d rather be on the roof. This was several years ago, so no, I don’t remember what the dinner tab was, but it didn’t strike me as unreasonable, and I eat in Greektown and in restaurants featuring similar cuisines on a fairly regular basis. (And I don’t tend to drink much, so when checks are divided evenly, I tend to end up subsidizing other people.)
P.S. gaffa, the Dopefest I’m talking about was way more than 2 years ago. How were you there if you just joined the Dope in 2008?
Well pluck me running. I really like mediterranean food, and I really like tapas, and I’ve never heard of meze before. It’s a whole new world.
Does it rhyme with “cheese”?
Nope, you pronounce each “e” separately. E, like in “fez.”
I never ate on any roof and I’ve never heard of meze either, so I am not to blame.
(phew!)
Can’t come this time. Hope it’s good for all.
He wasn’t a Doper at the time, but I was, and he was there with me. It was a party for Cervaise, who was in town visiting. We had a very good time, until the bill came.
I’m not here to defend gaffa or apologize for him, but I did want to explain. At the time, he wasn’t a Doper, had no interest in the Dope, and was with me because I asked him to come. We didn’t drink (other than iced tea and Coke) and only had a couple/three appetizers. I’m sure that what we ate and drank came to under $20, but gaffa threw in either $60 or $80 (I can’t quite remember) because of the shortage. He didn’t have to do that. He could have just paid the exact amount we owed plus some extra for the tip, but he did, so he deserves props. I didn’t have any money on me, and I didn’t ask him to put in extra, he did it on his own, to help out a group of people he’d never met before, had no prior interactions with, and might never meet again.
gaffa has never mentioned his generosity or frustration before now, and probably wouldn’t have mentioned it now except for the amazement of who started the OP.
While I agree that politics shouldn’t be part of a DopeFest planning thread, Rand Rover has been making it very very VERY clear in other threads that he’s not willing to pay even a couple bucks extra out of his paychecks to help needy people get health care or other social services, and is very disdainful of people who do (not to mention his utter, dripping, hateful scorn for poor people) but he’s willing to take money from the government for his education, so I think all that’s what prompted gaffa’s rant (though we haven’t talked about this, so I can’t speak for him). My first thought too would be that if Rand Rover is at a gathering, he’d pay the exact amount of what he consumed, or far less (at the least, no tip money, I would guess), leaving others to make up the difference.
Me, I’m more laid back. Hey, if I were rich I’d go to every Dope gathering and pick up the entire tab every time, happily and with great cheer, but I’m not. We’re not.
Btw, I don’t remember who peed on the toilet seat. I just know I was behind one of the Doper women in the line to use the restroom. She went into the stall, and I went into the same stall after she came out. The toilet seat was covered with urine, and not just a few drops either. Yuck. Nasty. People who pee on toilet seats should at least clean up after themselves.
What did I do? Gosh!
It’s good to see that after nearly a decade and a completely different cast of characters, ChiDopes haven’t really changed much.
Ooh, a cowering gladiator! I like that! You’re in.
As you probably know, there are some damn good reasons why the cast of characters changed. But let’s not get into that here.
Hadn’t intended on it, especially since I certainly don’t know the half of it. It was just a le plus ca change observation.
P.S. As someone who has been in charge of a monthly group dinner under the auspices of a local nonprofit for lo these 10 years now, I certainly understand and can appreciate what a PITA it is to coordinate splitting the check for a large group, and I hate it when people cut out without covering their fair share. And, as mentioned above, as a relatively light drinker, it annoys the crap out of me when I have one glass of wine and everyone else has 6 cocktails, and I am expected to subsidize them. (It was always fun when I had to gently bring it to the attention of the high-powered, $500/hour lawyers that although they could easily afford the multiple appetizers and drinks, the poorly paid NGO employees probably hadn’t stuck to the $8 appetizer for dinner with a glass of water because that was their actual food preference, so maybe they should pay according to what they had actually consumed, especially as what they’d just spent was probably pocket change for them, but might be a week’s groceries for the others.)
OTOH if it’s a buck or two more for a group dinner because someone else ordered a more expensive dish, I am probably going to suck it up to the cost of social harmony. That’s simply the cost of living in, you know, civililzation, and if your budget is so tight that an extra buck or two is going to make that much of a difference, maybe you shouldn’t be going out to eat with a bunch of relative strangers. Dinner in a restaurant isn’t a life-or-death necessity.
(And yes, these views are also more or less transferable to, say, the U.S. medical system, as far as I’m concerned.)
Next time we’re in the same of the woods, I’ll tell you the whole sordid story, if you’re interested.
I’d love to meet up with you again in general, even if we don’t get into sordid storytelling. I don’t think I’ve actually been to Veneiro’s since you were last in town.
Well, by all means, go there and have a chocolate cannoli for me! I haven’t been in NY much lately, either - the last trip was all of maybe 36 hours in December, and was packed to the gills with family stuff. but one never knows.
Fair enough. I had a few business trip possibilities in Chicago, but they were all in and out in one day so I gave them a pass. I figured that if there were no opportunities to catch up with people, I would let folks hungrier for client contact than me go. But like you say, one never knows.