Customer at pizzeria leaves two $1,000 tips
By Kara Spak Chicago Daily Herald Staff Writer

Nick's Pizza & Pub in Crystal Lake apparently has a loyal customer with deep pockets and an even deeper appreciation for good service.

On Friday, servers Aimee O'Claire and Georgeann Escorza each received a $1,000 tip - passed from the customer, who requested anonymity, to owner Nick Sarrilo, who surprised the two waitresses with the money at a regular meeting held before weekend shifts.

"We were both in tears," said O'Claire, whose previous top tip was $60 after working at a party. "I have no clue who this came from. Not any."

Sarrilo said he was approached earlier in the week by the customer, who singled out the two women, in part because they are both single mothers.

Sarillo held on to the tips until Friday, the first time both waitresses were working together.

"We have the meetings so I can tell them what the specials are," Sarillo said. "That was the special Friday. There was just a buzz in the restaurant the whole night."

Sarrilo said that another customer left a $500 tip several months ago.

"That says a lot about the actual community that this happened two times in six months," he said. "The people of Crystal Lake are very nice, very generous people."

He added that the customer requested anonymity because "he wants to come back, but he doesn't want to be hassled."

O'Claire plans to spend $500 on Christmas gifts and save the rest. She couldn't pinpoint the secret of her serving success.

"I really don't know," she said. "I'm just doing my job."

On Saturday afternoon, O'Claire was again just doing her job, serving a table of regulars who stop for lunch at Nick's every weekend.

"She's organized and efficient," Ray Romnayk, a Lake in the Hills resident, said of O'Claire.

His friend Bill Odom agreed, adding despite her stellar service, "she's not getting $1,000 from me."

Earth to Planet J.Lo: Who cares?
By Renee Graham, The Boston Globe

Tomorrow night, Jennifer Lopez will confirm what folks who care about such things have long guessed - she is engaged to Ben Affleck.

An engagement is certainly a joyous occasion. Still, I think of it as a private event best shared with close friends, family members, and the dozen or so co-workers within earshot who will be bored silly by every niggling detail about subsequent wedding planning. Most people, even if they could, might not feel a need to announce such things to ditzy Diane Sawyer on ABC's ''Primetime Live,'' but then again, they aren't intoxicated with the The Self-Importance of Being Jennifer Lopez.

See, Lopez thinks this is news we can use. There's the threat of war with Iraq and a national economy as unstable as Anna Nicole Smith, but hey, Jen and Ben are going to have a go at it, and don't we all feel better? Inhaling the rare air of Planet J.Lo, Lopez clearly believes that if it's important to her, it must be important to us.

Pardon me if I pass on this cup of celebrity Kool-Aid.

Hollywood, of course, is swollen with people utterly convinced that everything they wear, everything they do, and frankly, everyone they do, means something to the rest of us. But Lopez has taken her Mighty Me-ism to such extents that she makes her ex-boyfriend, the musical scavenger formerly known as Puff Daddy, seem shy and retreating. Let's think about this for a minute: Lopez is going on TV to announce, among other things, that she's engaged. Again. And will soon be married. Again.

For those keeping score, this will be Lopez's third marriage. (It's the first for Affleck.) First there was a yearlong union with model Ojani Noa in 1997. Then she hooked up with backup dancer Cris Judd in 2000, shortly after the high-profile bust-up of her high-profile publicity-stunt relationship with Sean ''Puff Daddy-P.Diddy'' Combs. Her marriage to Judd was barely longer than the honeymoon, and now she's sporting a golf-ball-size pink diamond engagement ring even before her second divorce will become final in January.

In the future, we will all be married to J.Lo for 15 minutes. Read on