Let's Make Mirth and Coffee
why so serious
A New Recurring Feature
I have shared with you readers a desire to make my Newsletter a mixture of things. I am hopeful this will be popular with you and fun for me as an escape. So away we go with just a bit of fun.
I have shared the late arrival of mindfulness in my life in the last few years. It has been a welcome addition to better living for me. I recently did a post about silly gadgets in the kitchen titled “I Want That”. I ENJOYED writing that and think many of you enjoyed reading it! What I learned from the writing was that I never want to get SO MINDFUL that I miss the joy and silliness of what surrounds us in this life.
I think “I Want That” was fun and easygoing. There is so much in this world to laugh at and not take ourselves too seriously. Here’s a sample of what I think is funny and why.
Progress Report
I PROMISED to shorten my posts and I have delivered! The average of my last month-plus posts is now under eight minutes. The transition was better than expected! Now let’s make some mirth!
Don’t Look to the Past for Wisdom
In case you don’t know, I have grave doubts when it comes to looking to the past for inspiration. Not a fan of nostalgia either. Here is the best we could do in 1993.
If any reader remembers this thing, please share it in the comments. I’m not sure what the woman at the beginning of the commercial is mixing. I'm very impressed by the guy polishing his car. Even then people couldn't put the phone down.
Speaking of Phones…
It is AMAZING TO ME what sorts of things end up in my search recommendations these days. I believe by writing about ALL SORTS of offbeat topics, I may have broken Google AdSense's ability to effectively market to me. I think that my grammar assistant Grammarly is reviewing my posts and generating a profile of a real person with those interests. A profile of a person who writes about Supreme Court Decisions, CRISPR-enhanced pigs, sentient animals, and important food prep gadgets makes my feed interesting and hard to quantify. I am hoping the adverts for tubs of freeze-dried beef stroganoff can stop soon.
New Tennis Drill for Fewer Mishits
While I love to play tennis my skills leave something to be desired. I often chalk it up to a lack of concentration rather than bad technique. Often I look down at my racquet after a mishit believing there is something wrong with the racquet and the ball merely passed through a hole.
This video is about a committed beekeeper trying to protect the hives from hornets. It makes it clear that my hand-eye coordination leaves something to be desired. This person is amazing and should offer a class. The chopsticks take the cake.
Self-Deprecating Humor
I enjoy baseball. My children are not quite as committed. Even though I still enjoy watching games, it is clear the game suffers to find a younger demographic. Here’s some fun from my favorite satire site TheOnion.com. I expect to hear about this one from some of my friends who are subscribers and love baseball. If you think baseball is an “old person’s game”, this one is for you!
Be Open To Advice
We all benefit when we are open-minded to receiving advice.
Whether you are a football fan, or just follow trends, this is pretty funny.
Decent Coffee
While I never have decided to make a whole post about it, decent coffee is VERY IMPORTANT. When I did my post “Breakfastaganza” there was near consensus on my poll that coffee is the essential element that binds breakfast together.
That might be partly due to my unorthodox breakfast practices. Alas, this means youngsters are being deprived of a decent breakfast. Anyhow, I am a lover of Peet’s Coffee. The story of Alfred Peet is important. What we had in the founder was a man who simply wanted to make the world a better place and his vehicle was coffee. He started his coffee and tea shop in Berkeley, CA. It is stylish to make light of Berkeley as just a bunch of crazies. The truth is much of what has become the modern world does not happen without the University of California. Here’s what makes me believe the world is a better place because of Berkeley. Alfred Peet did his part. Once he mastered the secret of good coffee he behaved a bit like an open-source developer before the idea was a thing. It is stylish in football to refer to as a “coaching tree”. The gist is to show the sprawl of assistants who went on from an original source. Coffee is similar and the only coaching tree of note is Alfred Peet.
What made Alfred Peet special was that once he understood the basics and refined the details, he willingly shared it with others instead of treating it like a “trade secret”. The link in the previous sentence is worth a read for two reasons. It is cool to learn about coffee because it is such an important part of our lives nowadays. The other is you will be visiting Wikipedia. This is another shining example of the collaborative economy that has transformed our lives and put Brittanica and Funk and Wagnalls out of business.
I’m sure someone who went to business school is sure Alfred was dumb to do that. The truth is Alfred wasn’t in it to get rich. He wanted the show the world the path to decent coffee. The Starbucks founder and many others traveled to Alfred to learn his secrets. For starters, the world is full of two significant kinds of coffee beans. While there are technically four different types of beans, a good simplification is bad coffee is robusta beans and good coffee is arabica beans. Although that seems judgmental, I have skimped in the past and bought robusta beans. It’s not worth the price difference. Life is short, drink good coffee!
The next thing I think I understand about coffee is the roasting of the beans is an art. I am not a fan generally of Starbucks’ Coffee. I believe it has migrated in the coffee arms race to stronger and stronger. In that way, it is similar to the absurdity of “that’s not a hot pepper, try one of these Carolina Reapers. The needless mine’s stronger, mine’s hotter, misses the point for me. Because of the EXTREME bitterness and strength of the coffee at Starbucks’ the solution is to add splashes of all sorts of things, all phases of matter of cream and milk, and every conceivable nut milk option to thin the brew to a taste of acceptability.
Furthermore, the price of what can still be a commodity is foolish too. Okay, so now I have backed myself into a corner and perhaps insulted some Starbuckinistas. Please tell me I’m wrong in the comments. I can take it. Years ago, I had a family rent a home from us who had relocated from Northern Italy. They were a wonderful family and we got to know them. I never minded going over to do a task at the house or just checking. The woman of the house was just wonderful and always offered food or drink. The coffee she made was simply wonderful without all the fanfare of the barista slinging bottles of flavored nonsense.
I think of coffee with the Genoria’s as a wonderful memory. I also have concluded that the old-world ways will always retain a special place in how things are made. I stumbled upon this video and have finally found a cup of coffee that JUSTIFIES the asinine pricing model of Starbucks without resorting to having to add a couple of “shots”. This is the craft of making Turkish Coffee the old-world way. A bit of transformation of matter, a bit of heat transfer, and remarkable dexterity. It is all done with local ingredients as this example was made in Jordan. You will get the joke after you watch the video and understand the medium it is made in.
It’s a Wrap
If this turns out to be popular with you the readers, this will be a new recurring feature and a change of pace from the rigor of one topic. I hope this experiment was a success. If you love Starbucks and want to defend it, I welcome the comments. By the way in the United States, either Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts is the MOST POPULAR coffee in each state. Of course, there are fifty states and the outlier is, you guessed it, Minnesota. Here, Caribou Coffee “reins” supreme. For coffee addicts out there, a wonderful splurge at the holidays is the seasonal offering from Caribou called Reindeer Blend. A hint of chocolate finish in a bold brew AND IT IS NOT STARBUCKS BITTER!
The Poll & Music
Tonight was a change of pace. Sometimes not being so serious is a good thing. Here’s a song.
What’s Next
Next time, our title is “Mr. Tantlinger”. While the world advances based upon the collective inertia of the last couple of centuries since the scientific era began, I love the unexpected! Sometimes, a person comes along who transforms our lives even more than Alfred Peet. I doubt they even realize how important their singular effort or contribution will be. I hope there is some way in this world for such people to know how much they improved things for all of us. Mr. Tantlinger is one of those people.
The Phone Relief video is amazing! Was 1993 that long ago? The best part is the scene where the guy whips out his credit card to order the gizmo WHEN HES ALREADY WEARING THE GIZMO!
A pot pourri of topics. Fun. I am a Starbucks lover, though I know many people feel it's more bitter than Caribou or Dunn Bros. I use Dunn Bros. beans for my in-house coffee needs, but I find the Starbucks coffee shops are where i enjoy going to write and read. There. Sharing. :-)