The Sunday Digest 135
"I don't drink coffee, I take tea, my dear."
Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you. Or, if podcasts are more your speed on Sundays, we’ve got that too.
Sunday Read › Gen Z Doesn’t Want to Start a Bar Tab
by Paula Mejía for The New York Times
While these days have come and gone, I do not miss the time of waking up on a Sunday morning to mystery charges from the night before. And by “mystery charges,” I mean, “the bar tab that I didn’t close out so now I get to find out what the final balance is in my banking app the next morning.”
When I moved to Texas, I was shocked by the simple fact that most bars give you your card back after swiping once for your tab. When you’re finally ready to leave, most bars tack on 20% gratuity if you don’t close it out yourself — which, as someone who normally tips that at a bar anyway, is wildly convenient.
But as we learn in this week’s Sunday Read, that convenience is rare in the world of bar tabs these days. Here’s an excerpt:
The reasons for this are myriad. For a generation that consumes less alcohol than older drinkers, opening tabs can seem exorbitant. They have become accustomed to one-and-done transactions — usually with a simple tap of their phones — and consider purchasing drinks at a bar to be no different from, say, buying a coffee at a cafe. They can feel anxious about losing track of their spending by leaving their credit cards behind the bar.
“It doesn’t save me anything if I keep a tab open,” said Nareg Haladjian, 27, who lives in California’s San Fernando Valley. “I’ll swipe my card again. It’s an extra 10 seconds.”
“It increases anxiety in me when I leave a tab open,” said Cameron Haluska, a 26-year-old beer sales representative from Walla Walla, Wash. “If we want to move somewhere else, it’s a lot harder to close out and then leave.”
Read in full here.
The Sunday Haiku: I think I’m actually just going to stay here.
It’s hot in the shade,
haven’t left the house today,
and probably won’t.
New Episode › Capturing The Dead with Jay Blakesberg & Ricki Blakesberg
Jay Blakesberg is a San Francisco-based photographer known for his documentation of rock and roll culture since the late 1970s, capturing artists like the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, and more. His daughter, Ricki, has undertaken the task of managing his archive. This week, they both join me to talk all things Grateful Dead, Dead & Company, photography, zines, lot culture, and more.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and anywhere else podcasts are found.
Things I Saved This Week
“How can I support Sunday Scaries?”
Buy our zine, Scenes of Note.
Listen to Retail Therapy.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Subscribe to all Washed Media Podcasts.
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