progressive involvement

Worthy of an Oscar

 

 

This is a Chipotle infomercial, in which the word Chipotle does not appear.

Sweeter than muscatel wine?

Dear father, do not be so strict!  If I can't have my little demi-tasse of coffee three times a day, I'm just like a dried up piece of roast goat!  Ah!  How sweet coffee tastes!  Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine!  I must have my coffee, and if anyone wishes to please me, let him present me with--coffee!

Letter of his daughter to Johann Sebastian Bach

Choppers still lives!

A Denver institution, the Rocky Mountain Diner, is closing.  Located in the heart of downtown for twenty years, this fine establishment is being forced out because the lease is up.  After that, the details get murky.  (See talk left for more.  They don't know either, but have some background.)

The building is in the historic "Ghost Building."  It was designed by architect William Lang for a man named A.M. Ghost and built in 1889.  Lang designed 250 buildings during his time in Denver, but only one was for commercial purposes, the "Ghost Building."

As it happens, the owners, Tom and Barb Walls, also own the Trinity Grille, across the street from the Brown Palace, and Choppers Sports Bar near Cherry Creek, the best sports bar in the metro Denver area, and the Colorado home of the Kansas Jayhawks.

At least she didn't say, "Can I get...?"

An English prof got kicked out of a Starbucks in New York City for ordering a multigrain bagel then coming unglued when the staffer asked her if she wanted cheese or butter on top.  She didn't want anything on top.  She just wanted the bagel.  One thing led to another, accompanied by much shouting, and the woman wound up getting kicked out of the place.

Why it's important that the woman had a degree in English, I don't know, except to say that, at the very least, she would not have begun her order by saying, "Can I get...?"  Of course you can.  The question is:  Will you?

Starbucks rocks

Yes, they raised their prices overall, but they lowered their price on the only drink I ever get, which is a cuppa joe.

Granted, it's a corporate enterprise, and every one of them seems like all the rest.  On the other hand, it's a "clean, well-lighted place," the music is good, and they have just about singlehandedly rescued Our Country from the dreck we used to drink.

Now, if they would only serve fair trade coffee every day, along with Ethiopian yergecheffe and Sumatra, the world would be right.

Hillary outlines administration's plan to fight world hunger

Hillary presented the plan in a guest editorial at the Huffington Post.  About 17% of the world's population, roughly one billion people, suffers from hunger every day.  Fifty years ago, about one-third of the world's people were hungry. 

In one sense, we have made great progress in halving the hunger rate.  In another sense, because of the increase in the world's population, the sheer number of the hungry is about the same as it was then. 

It is one thing to unveil a plan, and quite another to do those things which can put the plan into place.  One commenter notes that Monsanto, for example, sells seeds that are not re-plantable.  Every year, farmers have to buy seed.  Oil companies and mining companies are forcing indigenous farmers off their farms.  Water for irrigation will be in increasingly short supply.  Alas, there are many problems.  One hopes the administration will stick to these priorities:

Seven point plan on the flip.

No respect for Hays, Kansas in Beer City Poll

The top ten "beer cities" according to the bogus results of the Beer City Poll:  Portland, OR, Asheville, NC, Philadelphia, San Diego, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Portland (ME), and Milwaukee.

Could any of these ersatz "beer towns" pass the "Acts test"?  In the book of Acts, the disciples have fire on top of their heads and they all start talking in different languages.  The bystanders thought the disciples were "filled with new wine," but Peter said that these people couldn't possibly be drunk because it was only 9:00 in the morning.  The apostle Peter, alas, had never been to Hays, Kansas. 

And some people still say we can't learn anything from the French

Here's what was for lunch last Tuesday in the French government-sponsored school lunch:

Cucumbers with garlic and fine herbs
Basque chicken thigh with herbs
Red and green bell peppers and olive oil
Couscous
Organic yogurt
Apple

Eat chocolate, get smarter

As we near the end of Lent, here's some good news from the world of science:  Eat chocolate and do better at math!  A study by Prof. David Kennedy of Northumbria University demonstrated "that chocolate could be beneficial for mentally challenging tasks."  The flavanols in cocoa increase blood flow to the brain. 

If that's the case, I've been out of my mind since October of 1968

Drink the equivalent of four cups of coffee a day at Starbucks and you may have hallucinations.  "People who drink at least 330 milligrams of the stimulant a day were three times as likely to have hallucinations as those who consumed less than 10 milligrams a day," according to a report at Bloomberg on a study conducted at Durham University in the UK.