Waiters

If books are for tasting, as Francis Bacon suggested, it stands to reason that, in at least a couple of respects, bookstores resemble restaurants: Franchises offer discounts and quick consuming, while independents provide quality and an atmospheric graze. But what about service? In the interest of fruitful book-shopping, we recently sampled three independent local bookstores and three chains to size up the help.

Lakers VS. CLEVELAND When: 6:30. Where: Staples Center. On the air: TV: Time Warner Cable SportsNet, Time Warner Cable Deportes; Radio: 710, 1330. Records: Lakers 15-21; Cavaliers 9-29. Record vs. Cavaliers: 0-1. Update: Cleveland will be without center Anderson Varejao, who underwent surgery to repair a torn leg muscle. But the Cavaliers have two things the Lakers hate - backcourt speed (Kyrie Irving) and youth (Irving, Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson)

As a kid, I was always disappointed at Halloween when a simple "trick or treat" was met by a well-meaning neighbor with a Bible tract in lieu of candy. Sure, I was raised in a churchgoing family, but Halloween was for indulging in sugar, not soul-saving, of all things. How I wish now that I had made good on those "trick" threats if I didn't get the treat I wanted. They were warned. This is what popped into my mind after reading at LAist about the impromptu concertos of the world's smallest violins being played at restaurants across California.

As a kid, I was always disappointed at Halloween when a simple "trick or treat" was met by a well-meaning neighbor with a Bible tract in lieu of candy. Sure, I was raised in a churchgoing family, but Halloween was for indulging in sugar, not soul-saving, of all things. How I wish now that I had made good on those "trick" threats if I didn't get the treat I wanted. They were warned. This is what popped into my mind after reading at LAist about the impromptu concertos of the world's smallest violins being played at restaurants across California.

Salvador Lopez, a waiter at Langer's, has the routine down pat. After a hectic lunch shift serving sandwiches on rye at the pastrami mecca next to MacArthur Park, he negotiates a series of surface streets -- up Normandie, across Beverly -- to make his way into the Fairfax district. He beelines into the locker room of another renowned Jewish deli, shedding the signature Langer's bow tie for a tight-fitting black T-shirt that reads: I ♥ Canter's. Lopez is not a delicatessen double agent, funneling trade secrets on Russian dressing and blintzes.

Diners who complained about the food at the Diamond restaurant in the heart of London's Chinatown got a stronger reaction than they expected--four of the waiters beat them with baseball bats, clubs and sticks. The four were each sentenced Friday to two years in jail for what Judge Denis Paiba described as a disgraceful show of unprovoked violence.

The coffee cup must be placed upside-down with the handle squarely pointed at 4 o'clock. Don't hold the wine bottle by its neck. And the dessert spoon should be just above the place setting, as though a reminder of the sweeter dish to come. Fingernails must be clean. Pepperminty breath is just fine but no chewing gum.

"Hi, my name is Jefferson. I'll be your waiter tonight . . . and your writer, director, producer and star." It is one of the enduring cliches of Hollywood that everyone who parks cars or waits tables is actually a screenwriter or actor earning rent money while struggling to find their tickets out of there. Well, for nine of the waiters working at Beverly Hills' Yanks restaurant last year, the escape route from Hollywood servitude could be a movie based on the cliche itself.

With payments coming due for rent, grad school and her used Ford Focus, 24-year-old Stacy Matulis needs every nickel she earns waiting tables at Hugo's restaurant in Studio City. In addition to her salary of $6.75 an hour, Matulis picks up $140 or so in tips during a seven-hour shift -- about $20 an hour -- sharing some of that with busboys. Although the minimum wage still is modest, that is 165% higher than the hourly salary she made waiting tables in her hometown north of Chicago.

Even from across the crowded courtyard at Spago in Beverly Hills, all it takes is the lift of an eyebrow and Oscar Rios is at your side. Orchestrating a team of servers -- back waiter, captain and sommelier -- Rios waits for the right moment to have each course cleared, to have wine glasses refilled and tepid water replaced with cool, fresh glasses. Fish knives are delivered one beat ahead of the line-caught striped sea bass with black truffles.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Right, Mark Zuckerberg? The Facebook CEO and co-founder was recently in the capital city of Italy celebrating the wedding to his longtime girlfriend on their honeymoon, but on the Web, the young billionaire is getting grilled for his tipping habits -- or lack thereof. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, stopped by Nonna Betta, a kosher restaurant in Rome's Jewish Ghetto, where they spent 32 euros, about $40, on a meal that included fried artichokes, fried pumpkin flowers and ravioli stuffed with sea bass and artichokes, the Telegraph reported . The couple thought the meal was "very good" but not good enough to tip, according to the Italian publication  Corriere della Sera , which posted the story Monday.

The plunging price of Facebook stock aside, Mark Zuckerberg seems to have become ensnared in a kerfuffle over his apparent decision not to leave a tip on a meal during his honeymoon in Rome. The online Telegraph newspaper reports the Facebook tycoon failed to leave a tip after spending about $40 on fried pumpkin flowers and sea bass-stuffed ravioli at Nonna Betta in the Italian capital's historic Jewish quarter. What he ate isn't important, but what he should have known about tipping etiquette is. Travel outfitter Magellan's says 10% above the service charge is appropriate throughout Italy . Conde Nast Traveler 's tipping guide says leave as close to 10% as possible, no more than that, when in Italy.

A powerful, personal portrait of history's unfolding and its effect on the future, the documentary "Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story" is in equal measure a look at two families, the ongoing legacy of America's recent past and an essay on one man's moment of transformative courage. Director Raymond De Felitta (his last fiction feature was"City Island") does a noteworthy job of allowing those separate topics to feel distinct and give each equal consideration. In 1965, De Felitta's father Frank traveled to Greenwood, Miss., to make a documentary for NBC News.

SAN FRANCISCO - Its decaying architecture, fluorescent lighting and kitchen prep sink wedged next to a toilet have served as fodder for a ribbing by comedian Conan O'Brien . Its 3 a.m. closing time made it a favorite for late-night club hoppers But most of all, the Sam Wo Restaurant in the heart of Chinatown was a haven for unassuming regulars and curious tourists - who for decades streamed through the cramped kitchen and up a narrow staircase...

Azer Farag Azer is here. So are the caricaturist and the writers, lots of writers, and that tall dentist, the son of the movie star. All here for lunch, herring and boiled egg. Where is Felfel? Praying. He'll be back. They're protesting again in the square. The revolution is over, but they march past with banners and rage. Maybe it's not over. There have been others. 1919. 1952. This one seems different, though. Who would have ever dreamed of the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak?

At the Tarzana restaurant where he worked as a waiter, Bernardo Alvarez was well-liked and reliable. When he didn't show up last month after not missing a single day in 10 years, his boss at the Greystoke Grill grew concerned and filed a missing-persons report. Authorities on Wednesday identified Alvarez as the man whose body was found burning next to the 101 Freeway in Santa Barbara County about 4 a.m. on July 15. At a news conference, officials from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department appealed to the public for clues into Alvarez's grisly death.

Once upon a time, waiters didn't wait for the main course to appear, and for us to take our first bites, to appear at our tables and demand, "Is everything all right?" But now the practice is so firmly part of the American dining experience that the question is asked every day, from breakfast to dinner, from truck stop to gastronomic temple, in 48 contiguous states, along with Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. "Yes," we mumble through half-chewed food. But since they asked, No. Aaack. Water!

They come every day, the dead. Some die in accidents, others from natural causes, but the body washer knew something scary had happened when the sheet was lifted off Farouk Sayed. "I realized he was beaten to death once I saw him. I could see the marks on his wrists, chest and back," said Moetaz Abdel Aziz, who bathes and purifies the dead at a Cairo morgue as part of the Muslim burial rite. "While I was washing him, I kept saying, 'I protest to God, who is my best resort, against whoever did this to him.' " Sayed's wife, Takwa, thought her husband seemed so small in death, shrunken almost.

Salvador Lopez, a waiter at Langer's, has the routine down pat. After a hectic lunch shift serving sandwiches on rye at the pastrami mecca next to MacArthur Park, he negotiates a series of surface streets -- up Normandie, across Beverly -- to make his way into the Fairfax district. He beelines into the locker room of another renowned Jewish deli, shedding the signature Langer's bow tie for a tight-fitting black T-shirt that reads: I ♥ Canter's. Lopez is not a delicatessen double agent, funneling trade secrets on Russian dressing and blintzes.