A daily series, Connect! Unite! Act! seeks to create face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups regularly socialize but also get out the vote, support candidates and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert influence on the powers-that-be. Visit us every morning at 7:30 A.M. Pacific Time to see how you can get involved. The comment thread is fun and light-hearted, but we're serious about moving the progressive political agenda forward.

I am. I come out of the service industry. I started waiting tables at the age of 15 and worked hard at it until I graduated from college in my mid 20s. I loved it for the most part and the make or break of it was tips. It was the part of my earnings that mattered. The small pittance I received in a check from the restaurant owner really meant nothing. What mattered was the grading I got from each table every shift I worked. My tip, that was the carrot and I learned how to maximize the outcome. To this day I aim to please and I can successfully guess all the extra little efforts that help ensure that the object of my attention knows they're important. It paid off, got me through high school and college. I had a long, good experience at waiting tables. Many exceptional tips and stories to go along with them.

Ask me sometime about the Queen of Tahiti.

So I tip well. Because I've been there.

In this map, the darker a state is, the more generous its residents are