Ticklish Ideas

I'm working tonight and at my leisure this afternoon. I was online just now doing nothing much, reading and following my nose around. I started thinking about snapping some photos on my way to work at five, and made my way toward some weather information. I went to one of those clearance-house-of-everything websites, one that knows my name and gives me the weather for my zip code without being asked . . . and immediately I forgot about the ambient temp because the headline was "Dems take Senate."

Being me, I took that tidbit and raced over to The Stranger to see what Mr Dan "ITMFA" Savage has to say about it. Nothing yet, but while I was there I followed an interesting picture to a lovely rant from Sherman Alexie. Here are some of the best bits:

I'm an insomniac, so it makes sense that I'd need a highly predictable cup of coffee at any and all hours. And Starbucks coffee tastes exactly the same whether I buy it at 3:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. And it also tastes the same in Seattle, Des Moines, Manhattan, Tucson, and Bismarck, North Dakota.

A few years ago, during a room-service breakfast in an Oklahoma City hotel, I drank Starbucks coffee and can assure you that it tasted absolutely familiar.

In fact, it tasted good.

...

[behind the counter] She laughed, relieved that I wasn't offended. I can't remember the last time I was offended. In fact, I prefer offensive human beings. They make for better stories.

Trust me. I am the great-great-great grandson of a man who was killed by a Ninth Cavalry soldier, so short of genocidal murder, it's very difficult to offend me.

I have a high tolerance for shit, in solid or liquid form.

I have swallowed gallons of truly horrible coffee at various powwows, bingo halls, casinos, and grange-hall meetings, so I know that, in comparison, Starbucks brew is liquid sex.

WooHoo! Sherman Alexie makes me laugh. - and sigh and relax about my unusual attitude toward Starbucks. [The article was kind of really about professional basketball, but I left that part out because it's not what made my day.]

I drive a truck full of books around the county for a living. I know about truly horrible coffee, I buy a lot of it in exchange for use of the facilities. It's not just gas stations tho. For the record, in the midwest, you can't walk up to a randomly chosen espresso counter, pay $2 for an americano, and depend on getting a decent cuppa - I've procured unbelievably bad coffee by that method. I really appreciate the standardness of Starbucks. I take my money elsewhere when I'm on home turf and know where to go, but they've got a good thing going and I don't mind 'em. Plus they have cushy velvet easy chairs, a sure way to win me over to anything.

I have been letting a lot of time slip by online lately and will probably be reforming myself soon, but I'm happy to document today's niiiiiiiice tangent.