Laurels & lances: Tips, trips and last-minute gifts

Laurel: To a show of gratitude. Some people leave the bare minimum for a tip. Some people will do 20%, maybe 25%. Some don’t give a dime.

But, on Saturday, Kayla Webster got a whole lot more while serving a party of eight a lineup of gingerbread pancakes and eggs Benedict at David’s Diner in Springdale Township.

The diners call themselves the Just Be Claus Crew, and they were definitely feeling the spirit of St. Nick when they handed Webster a Christmas card instead of just tucking a few dollars under the edge of a plate or rounding up the bill when signing the credit card slip.

“I thought she was going to hit the floor,” said the diner’s co-owner, Pam Morrow-Wolfe.

The card contained a sweet and simple message of good wishes for the holiday — and $900.

Betsie Bish Marks founded the local crew in 2021. The members have surprised other servers since then, at places such as Kelly O’s Diner in the Pittsburgh Strip District and Deer Creek Diner in West Deer.

The generous gift was generously shared. Diner employees pool their tips, and Webster followed through, handing out $100 to each of the five kitchen workers and $200 to her fellow server, keeping just $200 for herself.

Everyone should put as much effort into giving back as the Just Be Claus Crew. And everyone should be as selfless in sharing their good fortune as Webster.

Lance: To tight lips. When an airplane experiences turbulence, flight attendants help you buckle down and the captain gives you a heads-up. When an airport does, it’s harder to tell.

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport has a $20 million expansion plan with dozens of jobs and a pile of revenue on the line. But what is the future of that given the proposed $3.8 billion merger of JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines, which has flights out of the Unity airport?

JetBlue has not said if it will continue Arnold Palmer flights after the merger. That makes the expansion, which includes an expanded terminal with two gates and a larger waiting room, feel very up in the air.

Laurel: To getting it done. Late Wednesday, Pennsylvania lawmakers finally concluded their major job — funding services that residents use every day.

They came to a decision about an appropriations package including $261.6 million for community colleges, as well as things such as K-12 mental health programming and student teaching support. It was only almost six months late.

It seems wrong to give this a laurel when it was dragged across the finish line at the last minute and might have only been done now because of a pending hiatus due to construction in the House of Representatives chamber.

But a laurel we give because they did finally get something done — making them once again just a razor’s edge more productive than Congress.