Gas Price Rant #11 caffeinated panic sets in · Thursday April 24, 2008 by colin newell
What happens when you have to make the choice; food or gas?
It seems that coffee hungry Californians have made of their minds – much to the chagrin of coffee giant Starbucks
Java junkies looking for that last legal rap on the cortex are counting pennies by sipping less expensive coffee drinks, home-brewing or eschewing the brown elixir entirely. The turning tide is effecting everyone from the mom-and-pop java joints all the way up to Starbucks, which reported Wednesday that it expected lower second-quarter profit and full-year earnings. The economy not its prices appear to be the culprit.
Faced with deciding between a 99 cent of black coffee from the 7-11 and a 4 dollar latte from the Green Machine has never been easier – or so it would appear.
Starbucks is also facing down the Ronald McDonald brand of gourmet Joe which threatens to shake up the specialty market entirely.
Unconfirmed reports have Starbucks C.E.O. Howard Shultz uttering: “Cannot sleep… Clowns might kill me…”
Now I know what he means.
“The current economic climate is the weakest in our company’s history,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks Corp.‘s chief executive. The company said it was being hit especially hard in California and Florida, which make up nearly one-third of its U.S. retail revenue.
No surprise considering that California and Florida residents would give up coffee, their spouse or certain vestigial appendages before getting out of their SUV’s.
There are exceptions mind you. I will take my coffee before the car thank you very much. I mean, I cannot drive if I am asleep.
I am running pretty lean anyway. I brew specialty coffee in my lab at the University that I work at. I bake all my own muffins from scratch… so my monthly treat budget is pretty low.
So. To those with this tough choice to make, I salute you… by raise a steaming hot mug of Organic Ethiopian Sidamo brewed at exactly 196 degrees (F) into a thermal glass carafe! Cheers!
Thanks to Jeanie Sepin for the inspiration and research that went into this blog
If they say so · Wednesday April 23, 2008 by colin newell
Sometimes you don’t.
Of course… if you are missing details in your visual environment, you will never know will you?
Click on Chemainus Coffee Shop photo at left for full-size
The funny thing about the eye and the human brain… and how they are connected is this:
Your brain fills in the gaps on things your eyes miss. Kind of a fuzzy logic thing.
An example: A colleague of mine spends a lot of time shooting nature photos – and I am always staggered by the quality of the images he gets – because we are using similar technology.
Except that when I take a really close look at his work I start to see the same flaws I see in my digital shots.
Keep in mind that I am a film guy from way back. And despite our advances in technology, even the best full-frame digital dSLR’s are only a baby step ahead of most 99 dollar 35mm point and shoots for their overall quality.
Like the human brain, 35MM (and medium-format) films gather a tremendous amount of information – with little or no need for fuzzy logic or post-processing to get the most out of the image.
And love or hate the technology, it has brought the art and science of photography to just about everyone.
But for me, I still keep my Pentax 35mm loaded up with film… and a venerable Rolleiflex twin-lens from 1965… well, it is freshly serviced and ready to roll if and when I need a crystal clear look into my visual environment.
How big is big in the World of Coffee? · Saturday April 19, 2008 by colin newell
So I pop over to Google for a couple of seconds…
and type in the word coffee.
It seems that I am number 4 in a list of 250 million references.
Starbucks is 3rd.
I guess the point is – diligence and tenacity pays off. In some small way.
Funny thing is – Although I have been writing about coffee, online, since the mid-nineties and experimenting with it since the seventies, I still feel that I have just shaved off the tip of the iceberg… with a 99 cent box cutter.
I am sure of it in fact.
And as I cruise through my late-forties (how did I ever get here!?), I think… I am definitely going to need another 40 years to master this bean thing.
Speaking of Starbucks – starbucks has now surpassed McDonalds as the most parent-requested outing from children.
No kidding.
Children, aged 4 and up, are now more likely to ask mommy for a hot chocolate at Starbucks than a happy meal.
Damn.
Living with the health mullahs of British Columbia · Monday April 7, 2008 by colin newell
I am a non-smoker.
And as I wander past the Old Morris Tobacconist, on Government Street – Victoria, like hundreds of times over the last 25 years, I slow down to take in the wonderful smell of leathery tobacco and cigar products – merchandise that represents of all things: Being Male!
My wife even muses, “If you had the occasional cigar… I would be OK with it…”
Thank you, dear wife! This is one (of many) reasons why I love you so much: From time to time (but not too often), she lets me make up my own mind.
Not so in the province of British Columbia! God forbid we actually use our heads occasionally. Oh no. This society wants, no it needs, to be protected from decision making. We need to be protected… from ourselves. And the World around us.
And I here I am, walking past the tobacco shop… for the 4000th time in as many Saturdays of years gone by. Still not tempted. What I do love about adult products in this (apparently) adult World is knowing, at any time, I can have a flight of whimsy and turn right (or left) into the Old Morris and buy myself a big, fat and unhealthy cigar, pipe or cigarette.
Because the ability to see temptation and make up my own mind… Well, it is a wonderful thing. Because God… or whoever she is, gave us the ability to think these sweet temptations out and make up our own minds.
And although I have had the odd cigar and cigarette in my 40 plus years on the Planet, I have not been a regular (or irregular) consumer of tobacco products.
Now, after all these years of luscious free will, the glass windows at the front of Old Morris Tobacconists at 1116 Government St. have been frosted over. Owner-operator Rick Arora knows its not enough – he leaves the doors open. It is part of the draw… part of the experience of letting us make up our own minds.
But that has been taken away. Tobacco products in stores, like Rick’s Old Morris, have been forced to cover-up. Ostensibly to protect us and our children… from the evils of tobacco. New word: To-Burqa – meaning the shrouding of any tobacco product or smoking accessory.
So how about this… To those other Government Street tourist traps that taunt me: Enough with the vanilla waft of the waffle cone vendors! Take those ice cream cones out of the window!
And finally, a message to all grocery stores: How about covering up those displays of candy bars and junk food? I have never been able to resist the siren song of the Salt and Pepper potato chip… or peanut and chocolate in a deliciously satisfying bar.
And don’t get my started on all those coffee shops!
The mind. It was meant to be used… and tuned along the way. Do not let the government take yours away.
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