As if you needed another reason to vote, if you do, you'll be rewarded with free coffee Tuesday at Starbucks and Stone Creek. (Starbucks announced the news with a commercial on Saturday Night Live.) Anyone else care to join in? If you do, I'll gladly post the news here.
I couldn't resist clicking on this article with a headline like "Baby Boomers have led us into fiscal and moral bankruptcy"!
There are a lot of extremely important things going on in the world, especially over the next ten days. I feel like I should be doing something more worthy than diddling around on my computer. At the same time, like so many others, I feel like time is coming to a crawl. At the risk of sounding like a Kool Aid-drinking moonbat, I can't help imaging that the sun will shine a little brighter and the birds will sing a little sweeter on the morning of November 5, assuming that things continue to unfold the way they have been.
Here's the best news I've read all week. Toronto is considering a ban on paper coffee cups and other take-out packaging. (Link and Link) I've actually been formulating my own ideas for such a ban and am currently searching for the right officials to address correspondence to.
If you would retort that either an outright ban or taxation is "un-American" or whatever, I would strongly encourage you to spend a day walking for transportation. You may notice how many people simply toss garbage out of their car window. Taxpayers have to pay to clean that up. In many or most cases, taxpayers also have to pay to dispose of the solid waste stream, even when disposed of properly at home. Unless your name is Grover Norquist, you surely believe that taxation is a useful tool for government to wield, in this case to suppress the solid waste stream at its origin.
I don't know why, but for whatever reason, I feel like I just have to know which coffee shop Sarah Palin was at when this picture was taken. I can't read the logo on the cups, and it's driving me crazy. The resolution of the picture is too low. I've been to Columbus, OH where she was today (and where the picture was presumably taken). (AP Photo)
I've run into a couple groups of F-bomb-dropping, text-messaging 16-year-olds today. I'm pretty throroughly scared. In another disturbing trend, classic rock groups are shedding original members and replacing them with stand-ins. I'm followng this trend particularly closely because my favorite group, Yes, is probably going to employ this tactic. Another group I've come to like, Journey, probably pioneered it. Now I read that Chicago is doing the same thing (interestingly, neither Yes nor Chicago have made offical announcements yet, leaving the fan base to speculate voluminously on bulletin boards).
I've been so distracted by the whole content "unpublishing" kerfuffle over at Boing Boing--believe me, it's incredibly entertaining, what with all the accusations of hypocrisy and censorship a flyin'--that I nearly forgot to inform y'all of a small bit of specialty coffee news: Starbucks is closing 600 stores nationwide.
That's right, boys and girls, the java giant is taking down its shingle at 600 US stores, more than half of which have only been open since the kickoff of fiscal 2006. No locations have been announced yet, but I suggest all you 'Bucks baristas update your resumés and quick.
Gentlemen, are you looking for a way to increase your stamina so you'll have more time and energy to attract shallow, witless gals while simultaneously making smart, savvy women scatter in terror? Well rejoice, because the omnipresent beverage corp known as Coca-Cola has got exactly what you're seeking: Full Throttle Coffee!
Combining Colombian Arabica coffee and Coke's Full Throttle energy drink, it should be just the thing to narrow down your mating choices to the lowest common denominator. And, as an added bonus, the brand will take over the title sponsorship of the National Hot Rod Association's professional drag racing series next year--gods be praised!
Lest you think that I unfairly direct this post at you males of the species, Coke's official press release makes it perfectly clear who its marketing target is, as witnessed by this seemingly innocuous statement via Rafael Acevedo, Senior Brand Manager of Energy Drinks in Coca-Cola North America: "Guys are increasingly looking for great-tasting beverage options that will give them the extra 'kick' they need to conquer their day." Conquer their day indeed.
Link (via Coffee Talk and SmartBrief)
Boing Boing has been running a series of posts about the growing trend of guerilla gardening worldwide. From Tokyo to London to Tijuana, everyday people are commandeering extremely small parcels of land or building structures to hold potted plants along city streets.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how my hubby and I could start a garden around our urban apartment building. Seeing these folks make it happen in even more cramped quarters than ours is truly inspiring. Let’s do it!
Local microbrewery Sprecher is on a roll. Last week it managed to score the title of the Official Premium Beer of The Milwaukee Mile, and now the New York Times has crowned its root beer the best in all the land.
Eric Asimov--no relation to the Sci-Fi literary genius Isaac Asimov, as far as I know--and his panel selected to taste 25 root beers that could be purchased in New York City stores or ordered online. He calls Sprecher's offering, “a wonderfully balanced and complex brew.” Truer words have never been written, my friend.
