Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee

Editorial: Religion: A Word to the WELS

A church body with lots of lovable eccentricities in which many people look pretty much alike, i.e. pretty much like me--how could I resist?  For the last several Sundays, I've been hearing word of how my beloved church, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, is having financial troubles (note: I do not endorse the linked site, but recommend reading it nonetheless).  I feel that the source of the problems is more obvious than others have picked up on.  The WELS demographic is heavily exurban and small-town.  For instance, the congregation to which I belong, Grace, is made up of perhaps half members who come from far away: outer-ring suburbs and beyond.  A survey of the streets surrounding the church building on any given Sunday makes it pretty clear where those folks' money has been going (at least in part) over the last two or three years.  They drive Big Steel.  At the risk of sounding xenophobic, I wonder how those Christians square their faith with the practice of funding the Saudi government and other oil-producing nations who are not exactly promoters of Christianity.  In a bitterly ironic twist, the WELS is pulling missionaries from the field while its members bankroll the caliphate with their transportation choices.

At some point, the WELS became, in my estimation, too identified with the middle-class American lifestyle and its aspirational spending tendencies.  Must have coffeehouse!  Must have granite countertops!  Must have SUV!  This is all the more regrettable due to faith's power to convey real identity, rather than the artificial smoke and mirrors of the aspirational lifestyle.  In fact, it gives us the ability to do things such as walk or bike for transportation, while wearing modest clothing, without this throwing us into an identity crisis.  One could think of this as walking like Jesus, and perhaps even walking for Jesus...

Editorial: Wanted: Wallet Viagra

I must be about to die or something, as I have a backlog of about a week's worth of positive experiences that I haven't gotten around to writing about.  Actually, one part of me already has died: the free-spending part.  I actually flinched just now at the counter at Sears.  That's pretty sad.  I haven't been that much of a Sears shopper in my lifetime (Tarzhay all the way here), but more so over the last couple years. This is mostly to spite Bayshore's disrespect of the store--today, I noticed that the East parking lot turns into a lunar crater-scape when you approach the low-end retailer.  In addition, I've heard rumors that Sears is likely to be the next headline-grabbing closure (though this was on the plane down to Arizona--who knows what difference the intervening months of prolonged recession may have made), so bargains seem especially likely.  Today, though, my purchases didn't scan in at 30% or less than the tag price as they usually do, and I just couldn't do that $26 wallet--which, ironically, I could fill at the moment...

However, feeling flush isn't translating into spending.  And I'm the biggest spendthrift I know!  For whatever reason--as a (still) overemployed person, the reasons are less quantifiable for me than for many others--the buzz was killed in a big way earlier this year and hasn't returned.  I also note that the note struck by the media has changed from trying to tell us it's our patriotic duty to spend to making frugality look like the latest and greatest bandwagon.

Current Affairs: Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery

In another Facebook development, a group has been launched to save the Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery, which I've joined.  I've never been there, but it looks like a nice place.  Maybe all the struggling/closing coffeehouses should combine with all the struggling/closing businesses in other categories to create some interesting "mashups".  A pot of coffee, some Wi-Fi, and I know I'd be good to go...

Current Events: Is It Over Yet?

Hard to believe it will be over 20 degrees tomorrow (Saturday).  Hard to believe I'm excited about that.  And hard to believe I'm in a Starbucks in Whitefish Bay listening to Country music. 

But all of that pales in comparison to this: Tuesday is President Bush's last day in office. 

Hard to believe.

Editorial: Rick Warren

Now that Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee is a "we" again, I have to make it clear that I'm speaking strictly for myself.  With that in mind, people are protesting Rick Warren delivering the invocation at Obama's inauguration?  Give me a break. . .I think I have more respect for people who just say that they're atheists and think it's all nonsense than people who strive to make Christianity dilute itself beyond recognition.  If the selection of Warren (who, to me, embodies Xtianity Lite--the kind of folks who don't have crosses in their churches because they're not "seeker-sensitive") is offensive, very few Christian clergy would be considered acceptable.  My personal attitute of late has been "live and let live," and I note that "Will & Grace" is now probably my all-time favorite TV show.  But where does this end--if anywhere?  I fear we're embarking on a dangerous slippery slope that ends in China, where religion is co-opted and tolerated only insofar as it propogates the party line.

UPDATE: My comment about Warren merely reflects my personal reaction to hearing the news and may be qualified by futher research.  I note that the website for his Saddleback Church displays the cross prominently.

Current Affairs: Dirty Dining Database

You can search the Journal Sentinel's "dirty dining" database for the keyword "coffee".  Most infractions are rather minor (YMMV).  Contrary to my expectations, Rochambo had perhaps the most negligible infraction.

Editorial: Gather 'Round Kids, Uncle Mike's Got A Story To Tell

I woke up before dawn this morning and lay awake worrying for a bit--not so much for myself, but for people that I've met recently, many of whom are in their twenties.  In many cases, they seem to be repeating the same mistakes I made--albeit with more dire consequences given the worsened economy.

I thought up this little sermon, which will no doubt extend over multiple posts.  Its main points are as follows:

1.)  Everyone over the age of, say, 25 really oughta have a full-time job.  Unless your last name is Fowler, preferably a sit-down job.

2.) Get out of school.  If you can read my blog, you're smart enough and the working world needs you.  Trust me, it needs you.

3.) Put up with bullshit.  Not much, but some. 

4.) Get your driver's license if you haven't already.

Take this advice as coming from a place of experience, not judgment.  I wish I had a webcam: as I write, at the next table, two old codgers are reflecting on their careers and bemoaning the general state of the world. They just mentioned how uneducated--or at least how narrowly educated--people who graduate from college nowadays are.

Here are my elaborations of the above points:

1.)  We (by which I mean Generation X and younger people) have to think in terms of a 50- or 60-year working life.  You need to start earning and, more importantly, accumulating job skills in your twenties.  Do not get an early start on accumulating credit card debt.  I wouldn't reassure myself that student loans are "good" debt either.  Frankly, right now, I don't think any debt is good debt.  

I just can't see Starbucks as transmitting job skills, any more than fast food.  I know the job market sucks, but I imagine you'd be better off in an 8-buck-an-hour clerical job where at least you'd probably learn computer skills, business E-mail, and the like.

2.) If I were involved in hiring decisions in a company, the amount of stock I'd put in even a Master's Degree would be zilch.  Nada.  It would tell me that the person is fairly literate and not white trash, to put it very bluntly.  That's pretty much it.  On-the-job training is everything.

In that light, I think I would save the $80,000 or however much the degree costs, even if it is so-called "good" debt.

OK, more of this rant later...

 

Current Affairs: No More Bread and Circuses Media

I feel that in these trying times, our media are doing the public a tremendous disservice by increasing coverage of celebrity gossip and "news of the weird".  I've made an early New Year's resolution: I'm taking control of my information intake.  No more checking CNN.com or Yahoo.com for news headlines.  I'm going to Bloomberg instead.

Current Affairs: Alterra Goes Intermodal

Alterra seems to have all the transportation bases covered. When I got home tonight, I'd received a mailer from the Milwaukee County Transit System advertising themselves as a green transportation option and including coupons for two free rides.  You can even get transfers!  The flyer features strong promotional participation from Alterra. I'd read about this on their blog--or at least about the marketing partnership--but didn't know that it would be quite this big (and good!) a deal.  Alterra has thrown in a coupon for a free 12 oz. drip coffee with a valid bus pass or transfer.  Since you can get a transfer by redeeming the attached MCTS coupon, you're not out anything.

If your taste in mass transport is rather less down-to-earth and Earth-friendly--as I will readily admit mine is--or if you just want to be around people who meet that description, you might be interesting in the following: 

Interested in employment opportunities at Alterra/Mitchell International? There is a hiring fair at 6362 S 13th Street, Oak Creek, 53154, from Tues. Nov 18 through Tues. Nov 25 - 9am-4pm.

The first of the airport SSP/Alterra locations opens on December 21st (if you didn't catch it, I reported on this when it was first announced some months back).

Current Affairs: Free Coffee on Election Day

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.