Monday, July 24, 2006
Brew on!
If coffee be the food of school, brew on.
I’m talking to the hermit about what I had for dinner last night, a quesadilla, and he responds that a quesadilla is the perfect food. For no apparent reason beyond the fact that they both involve tortilla shells, I tell him that when I was in college the first time, I ate peanut butter and jelly rolled up in tortilla shells, which was great, or, if not actually “great”, at least affordable sustenance, especially when supplemented with wine and cheese from art gallery openings, with the occasional pieces of sliced fruit. But then the peanut crop failed and the price of peanut butter doubled, blowing a huge hole in my food budget.
The hermit looks at me and says “That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard.” I’m amazed – this is, after all, a person who was eating cold baked beans out of some Tupperware (with a fork!) just minutes ago, before I dragged him off to have some coffee. We all eat odd things – not odd to us, because we, through necessity, or convenience, are brought to think of them as food, – but odd to others. Rice cakes spread with peanut butter, strips of dried papaya and wasabi, pickled herrings in sour cream, or cold baked beans.
So much of college seems to be survival. That and screwed up priorities. I mean that on my present miniscule budget I am vaguely willing to spend $1.45 on a medium cup of very dark coffee – by “vaguely willing” I mean I suffer some heartache, but not so much that I don’t do it, – yet I’m appalled by paying more than $1 per pound for apples, especially apples that don’t look too good to start with – and as a result often I don’t buy them. Why is that?
There has to be some sort of sliding scale/equation involving the variables of solvency, quality of apples (visual appeal), historical pricing, guilt regarding appropriate consumption of recommended daily intake, and so forth:
If (S (solvency) + Q (quality)) – (H (historical pricing) + G (guilt)[a negative value???]) is greater than M (market price) then P (purchase) is a positive value.
The end result is that I need more money to start with, and the apples need to look less crappy. Otherwise, it’s applesauce time.
Coffee requires no such calculation; its cost is justified by the value of caffeine, conversation, goofing off, and taking a break. Having it jump start the afternoon.
I like coffee with copious amounts of half and half, and sugar. Like many other folk I still refer to half and half as “cream” although it never is. More than one person has said to me “Have a little coffee with that cream and sugar.” If the opportunity presents itself, I’d rather have café au lait, which Starbucks persists in calling a misto. All it is is half coffee and half steamed milk. I make a poor man’s version at home, heating the milk up in the microwave. It’s one of the great pleasures of my life. Pathetic? Nope. Brew on.
If coffee be the food of school, brew on.
I’m talking to the hermit about what I had for dinner last night, a quesadilla, and he responds that a quesadilla is the perfect food. For no apparent reason beyond the fact that they both involve tortilla shells, I tell him that when I was in college the first time, I ate peanut butter and jelly rolled up in tortilla shells, which was great, or, if not actually “great”, at least affordable sustenance, especially when supplemented with wine and cheese from art gallery openings, with the occasional pieces of sliced fruit. But then the peanut crop failed and the price of peanut butter doubled, blowing a huge hole in my food budget.
The hermit looks at me and says “That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard.” I’m amazed – this is, after all, a person who was eating cold baked beans out of some Tupperware (with a fork!) just minutes ago, before I dragged him off to have some coffee. We all eat odd things – not odd to us, because we, through necessity, or convenience, are brought to think of them as food, – but odd to others. Rice cakes spread with peanut butter, strips of dried papaya and wasabi, pickled herrings in sour cream, or cold baked beans.
So much of college seems to be survival. That and screwed up priorities. I mean that on my present miniscule budget I am vaguely willing to spend $1.45 on a medium cup of very dark coffee – by “vaguely willing” I mean I suffer some heartache, but not so much that I don’t do it, – yet I’m appalled by paying more than $1 per pound for apples, especially apples that don’t look too good to start with – and as a result often I don’t buy them. Why is that?
There has to be some sort of sliding scale/equation involving the variables of solvency, quality of apples (visual appeal), historical pricing, guilt regarding appropriate consumption of recommended daily intake, and so forth:
If (S (solvency) + Q (quality)) – (H (historical pricing) + G (guilt)[a negative value???]) is greater than M (market price) then P (purchase) is a positive value.
The end result is that I need more money to start with, and the apples need to look less crappy. Otherwise, it’s applesauce time.
Coffee requires no such calculation; its cost is justified by the value of caffeine, conversation, goofing off, and taking a break. Having it jump start the afternoon.
I like coffee with copious amounts of half and half, and sugar. Like many other folk I still refer to half and half as “cream” although it never is. More than one person has said to me “Have a little coffee with that cream and sugar.” If the opportunity presents itself, I’d rather have café au lait, which Starbucks persists in calling a misto. All it is is half coffee and half steamed milk. I make a poor man’s version at home, heating the milk up in the microwave. It’s one of the great pleasures of my life. Pathetic? Nope. Brew on.
# posted by Charlie @ 4:20 PM 
