A cuppa joe......

"I love coffee, I love tea, I love the java jive and it loves me....."
Anybody who knows me, knows that I’m a inveterate coffee drinker...take it after my Mother is my guess...I recall when I wuz a boy, we usually had Sunday dinner at my G’parents house...at a big old round table so dark it wuz almost black...My Grandfather, John Sam Smith drank his coffee black...and really, really hot. After Grandma poured a cup of coffee for him, he carefully saucered a portion of it....yeah, you got it...he tilted the cup and filled his saucer with the hot coffee....then he’d blow gently to cool it....and then, of course, sip it. I admired my Grandfather and drank my coffee the same way...nobody interfered or said I shouldn’t drink coffee (I must’a been five or six years old at least)...
Later on, when I was in my teens, I took my coffee the way my Mother did....with a shot of cream...as the years progressed (and they always do) I switched first to half ‘n half ‘n then to milk...sometime in the late sixties or early seventies, non-dairy creamers became very popular...I have no idea why, they just did...problem wuz, I didn’t like any of ‘em so I began taking my coffee black....I remember a period when it seemed like everyone was lacing their coffee with brandy or whisky or vodka ‘n I tried them...I just didn’t like them...tho’t it was a waste of good coffee ‘n good booze....back then the only additive I even considered wuz if I happened to run onto really good high-fat, high-calorie vanilla ice cream....’n it had t’be vanilla...a nice large dollop of really good ice cream in a cup of good coffee is, as Martha Stewart might say, a good thing.
I don’t really put ice cream in my coffee anymore but, if I happen to find a superior ice cream store, I’ll order a cup of coffee to go with my vanilla ice cream....and to heck with my blood sugar.....
It’s been in the newspapers and on television that Starbucks is closing a bunch of stores all over the country...turns out that it ain’t just here in the good ol US of A.....
This week Starbucks closed 3/4 of its shops in Australia, leaving only those in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Local blogs panned their product, and gave free ads to local coffee shops where real coffee was obtainable. Another triumph for free choice. Hershey and Dr Pepper also failed Down Under.
Leonard Colquhoun, Launceston, 7250, Australia
My son, David, presently touring in India (nokilli.com/rtw/) circumnavigated Australia on a forty year old Ducati motorcycle...he holds a very high opinion of Australia and Australians...seems to me he’s right......