I know from Top Chef that artichokes are hard to pair with wine but I'd go for the Pinot Gris/Grigio too.

You definitely want beer with artichokes. Wine is wasted money because for whatever the chemical reason, artichokes just strip the taste out of wine. (OTOH, you could go with cheap wine and blame it on that.)

artichokes just strip the taste out of wine.

Seriously, well I guess I'll have to re-cork the bottle until later.

I just got a call on the batphone with this urgent question:

If you are having a fancy multi-course meal (that you got at a charity auction) and the restaurant manager is the one serving you... do you still tip?

If yes, should you you tip the value of the meal, rather than what you paid (which was less)?

I said yes and yes. Thoughts?

So I'm watching the Lost Room (the sci fi miniseries) did anybody see this. It's not really grabbing me yet.

Strega

That seems right to me. I'd assume they were doing tip sharing just in case so that seems like the safe play.

Is that the one where there's a room with different objects with different powers, Victor? I quite liked it to start off with, but I thought it ended up squandering its potential.

That's exactly the one. I'm about 30 min in, its not that I'm not finding it enjoyable, it just really isn't pulling me in as much as I'd like.

It's not great but there are bits where they really use the premise & objects in a very smart, fun way and that's very exciting. It takes a little while to get to that point though. I remember there was some discussion about it in Boxed Set at the time, and I believe some apt comparisons to an RPG.

But I do remember feeling sorta, "These are some neat ideas! I don't care so much about the actual story, though."

I think after this "episode" I'll take a shower and clear my head and try to get into it again. It might just be that I'm in a tired/friday kinda mood.

I said yes and yes. Thoughts?

I agree. The manager isn't the owner, so no anti-tip rule.