Coffee Weapon

Lena Horne 93, recently passed, she sang the Sanka 80’s jingle  to the tune of “Java Jive” by The Ink Spots:
I like coffee and I like tea, I love my Sanka ’cause it loves me, my Sanka and me I’m glad we’re caffiene free, a cup a cup a cup a cup a cup – ah! Sanka and me.

Coffee Ring Phenomenon
Have you ever spilled some coffee into the cup holder in your car and then put the cup on your leg and it makes this ring on your pantleg. You wear it for the rest of the day. Big coffee cup ring on your leg. Rubbing it just makes it darker. Big Round Coffee Cup Spot on the Knee or worse on the crotch region. Oh my! You just know it’s going to be a bad day.  That’s not what this is about.

This phenomenon can be noticed when coffee is spilled on a table or counter and observing the spot where the spilled coffee has evaporated. At this spot a dark ring is formed around the perimeter where the particles are more concentrated as compared to the center.

According to scientists these rings can be utilized for analyzing blood or various fluids for disease markers through bio-sensing gadgets.

Topless Coffee Shop Arsonist Caught
Man accused of burning down topless coffee shop arrested in South Carolina
It is being reported that a man who has been accused of burning down a topless coffee shop in Maine was arrested in Spartanburg, SC. Apparently not a case of moral dillema or was it?
According to reports, Raymond Bellavance burned down the “Grand View Topless Coffee Shop” in Vassalboro where his ex-girlfriend was working as a waitress. The shop was burned down in June of 2009.
The topless coffee shop has since been reopened in a trailer. In a trailer Park? So did he burn down the Grand View because his girlfiend wore a bikini to work or was it the coffee really did suck?

Kevin

A brokenhearted New Bedford substitute teacher laced his own coffee with a chemical used to remove graffiti because he was trying to get attention after breaking up with his girlfriend, police said.

In other news:

Leslie Buck, Designer of Iconic Coffee Cup, Dies at 87

It was for decades the most enduring piece of ephemera in New York City and is still among the most recognizable. Trim, blue and white, it fits neatly in the hand, sized so its contents can be downed in a New York minute. It is as vivid an emblem of the city as the Statue of Liberty, beloved of property masters who need to evoke Gotham at a glance in films and on television.

From the New York Times
It is, of course, the Anthora, the cardboard cup of Grecian design that has held New Yorkers’ coffee securely for nearly half a century. Introduced in the 1960s, the Anthora was long made by the hundreds of millions annually, nearly every cup destined for the New York area.

A pop-cultural totem, the Anthora has been enshrined in museums; its likeness has adorned tourist memorabilia like T-shirts and ceramic mugs. Like many once-celebrated artifacts, though, the cup may now be endangered, the victim of urban gentrification.  New York Times

Mother arrested for having coffee in Starbucks – An American businesswoman is fearing for her life after she was arrested for having a coffee with a male workmate in a Starbucks in Saudi Arabia. Yara, a 37-year-old mother-of-three, said she was strip searched and forced to sign false confessions while in custody. A judge then told her she would “burn in hell” before she was released on Feb 4. -  Full Article here

A false fire alarm and a coffee-saturated elevator phone led to charges for a 26-year-old man Stewart Street man, city police said.

Police said two men went into the second-floor reception area of the Social Services Building on Charlotte Street Jan. 8 at 2:40 p.m. because one man believed he had an appointment.

He was told he had the wrong date, police said, and the two men left.

Police said the two opened the phone box in the elevator and one man poured coffee onto the phone, an action captured on the elevator’s video camera.

As they left the building through the southeast exit door one man pulled the fire alarm, police said.

People began to leave the building and the fire department attended, police said.

Thomas Neil Nicholson was arrested at the police station Monday.

He’s charged with mischief and making a false fire alarm. He was released from custody and will appear in court Feb. 21.

A 75-year-old woman was arrested at a Clearwater McDonald’s drive-thru because police said she wouldn’t pull her car forward. Authorities said Jean Merola, a grandmother of eight, was arrested for disorderly conduct after she refused an officer’s orders to move her car while she waited for the coffee and fries she ordered at the drive-through window. Merola said the McDonald’s employees told her to wait there for her food.

Merola was handcuffed behind her back and put in the cruiser. Another officer arrived and took her to the Pinellas County Jail .

Merola said she was searched, photographed and fingerprinted.

“I was under arrest because I was in a wrong parking place. I says well, they told me to park here,” Merola said.

Coffee served in a horrible paper cup – A person who complained about being served their coffee in a paper cup has had a complaint against Burger King upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority. NZ

B Hay complained that a poster advertisement displayed a Burger King outlets and on company brochures was headed “Illy Premium Coffee”. Pictured below was an Illy branded china cup filled with coffee, sitting on a saucer.

Complainant Hay said the coffee ordered was served in a “horrible” paper cup.

“When I asked for a decent cup to drink the coffee from I was told that the picture was for advertising purposes only and I had to accept the coffee I had ordered in a paper cup. I feel this was grossly misleading advertising and would certainly not have contemplated even going into the outlet if I had known the coffee was not to be served in a porcelain cup and saucer as on their advertisements.”

The Complaints Board upheld the complaint, saying Burger King was in breach of Rule 2 of the Code of Ethics, relating to truthful presentation.

full story

I guess because just recently I had some kind of crumby Cornish flavored,  unnamed hotel coffee this article caught my interest.

American consumers use more than 16 billion disposable hot beverage paper cups each year. Unlike conventional cups, the ecotainerTM is lined with a coating made from corn, making the cups fully renewable and compostable, and helping to reduce some of the 25 million pounds of petroleum-based plastics needed each year to make conventional plastic-lined paper cups.
The introduction of the ecotainerTM to the more than 340 Hilton Garden Inn hotels now open will replace more than 6.5 million non-renewable styro-based cups used each year.

Full story here: Hotel Interactive

All three high school girls were expelled, but will not be prosecuted  The incident happened at the Greenwood Career and Technical center in September. News Channel 7 spoke with teacher Marilyn Rambish who said she found the condom in her cup after she got home from school. She believed the students should be prosecuted.
Read more here

So We finally bit the bullet and got a shiny new microwave, the rusty, stained old Sylvania from 1983 just wasn’t getting the job done. It actually had rust on the inside and was an embarrassment whenever we had guests. It’s a miracle no one ever got sick from putting food in that thing. I often wonder if it’s the cause for my tingling fingers. Oh Well, it worked and would heat up the coffee ok and I was used to the timer to get my Joe at the right temperature.

So I went to take my heavy old Sylvania microwave to the dump. I grabbed it from the back of the truck and debated whether to put it out front where they have other old appliances that someone may want, after all it still worked. I decided not to do that and draw attention to myself and the ancient heating device and dropped it in the used metal section at the recycling center, giving it a proper burial. There were a few old dishwashers there and other assorted metal objects.

The big woman there that was collecting money in a huge wad shoved into her pocket for trash bags asked me what I was doing. “Getting rid of my old microwave,” I told her. She scolded me and handed me a blue flyer “You can’t put that there” it must look bad or worse, be radioactive, contaminated, toxic and it would have to be moved. She gave me the look and said that “she would take care of it.” Oh and it’s $5.00 to chuck it out.. “ok I tell her and hand her a twenty for my rubbish and radioactive microwave. She quickly filed the twenty in her stack. So what’s this, ” I held up the blue flyer. ” “Price increase in November” she tells me. “That’s good for a free trash bag disposal.” Great, I already spend an unreasonable percentage of my income to throw stuff away. I kept the flyer.

Anyways, the new microwave is really tongue burning powerful as I found out the first time I reheated.
What’s this microwave got to do with coffee? I was getting to that. Just yesterday the old Proctor Silex died. We tried plugging it in all the outlets. No go it’s a goner. So it’s heat the water in a pot and pour the scolding hot water into the filter basket that’s balanced on top of the carafe while it’s sitting in the sink. Doesn’t make great coffee but yes it is coffee. Good news is that the wife will be taking the lunch hour to shop for a new proctor. The bad news is I have a dilemma, what to do with the old unusable plastic proctor. Do I quietly put it in a trash bag and pay the $3.75 to dispose of it or should I risk the wrath of the big woman and go drop my old proctor silex in the plastic recycling bin and be done with it?
coffee

What haven’t curled up with a good book lately?
Upon learning that this brewed coffee delicacy is produced from beans picked from the excrement of the “Luwak,” a catlike animal common to the region. Author and Scientist Massimo Marcone adventures begins with a request to investigate the mystery shrouding the world’s most expensive, bizarre and also the most coveted brew, Sumatra’s Kopi Luwak coffee.

Marcone explains his penchant for unusual foods in his recent book In Bad Taste: The Science and Adventures Behind Food Delicacies. His discovery that the coffee bean is effectively cleaner after passing through a Luwak’s rectum.
“When I incubated the sub-samples, allowing ample time for bacterial growth, I was shocked to see that the Kopi Luwak beans had one hundred times fewer bacteria than the corresponding control samples.” He also uncovers how progression through a Luwak’s digestive system chemically alters the bean so that it produces a different, richer flavor. Umm yea..A few chapters in and you might just find yourself hankering for a cup of Kopi Luwak joe.