More books
Jun. 7th, 2005 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coffeesnob318Update: Still sick, but the end is in sight. I feel that I shall be well by the weekend. On the up side, I've lost 5 pounds, due to my seriously stunted appetite.
Summer I classes have started. My students are really nice and laidback. I am giving them Wednesdays to have group meetings, because the debate presentation is a lot to put together in six weeks. Plus, it frees up my Wednesday nights, for the most part! I am going to drop by campus and unlock the classroom door, though.
More books toward The 50:
1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe - Fannie Flagg
2. The Whitney Chronicles - Judy Baer
3. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan - Sophie Kinsella
4. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
5. Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
6. Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop by Gregory Dicum and Nina Luttinger
Great subject. :) A little repetitive, but they pimped Equal Exchange, so I'll forgive some of their redundancy. And, of course, I have quotes, most of which are the authors quoting someone else (noted where applicable).
From Consumer Reports - "Caffeine is a little like a criminal suspect who's repeatedly pulled in for questioning with the evidence always too thin to indict, but usually substantial enough to justify continued surveillance."
"Now the largest coffee brand in the country (Folgers) is owned by a soap company [Proctor and Gamble *pauses to spit*], while its major competitor is owned by a combined cereal [General Foods] and cheese [Kraft] company that is owned by a cigarette company [Philip Morris]. It isn't hard to see why this system has provided us with such bad coffee."
They refer to instant coffee as "the Spam of hot drinks." That made me laugh and laugh.
"Starbucks has become the antithesis of the independent specialty coffeehouse, providing a corporalized, homogenized, retail experience with a consistent but not outstanding product." Right on!
A quote from Myrna Greenfield that makes me want to read her book - "Consumers have more control over the food chain than many of us think. Since the free-market system respects buying power above all else, consumers need to speak the language the market recognizes. That means expressing a clear choice about how we want our food grown, processed and delivered to us, and whom we want to profit from the conduct of trade."
From J.S. Bach's Coffee Cantata (guess who just became my favorite composer?) - "If three times a day I don't drink my bowl of coffee, then in agony I'll wither like a dried-out chunk of roast goat...if anyone wishes to please me, let him present me with coffee!"
And I can't remember if this quote is from this book or the very dull one that I gave up on, but the quote is good - from Charles Trigg (coffee researcher), about the average U.S. coffee drinker, particularly until World War I - "Take a carefully blended, full-bodied, highly aromatic coffee and brew it carefully...obtaining a heavy, delicate, enjoyable beverage. Give it to the average coffee drinker and he will say, 'This is no good.' Then take the same coffee, boil it until all its delicate characteristics have disappeared and a lye-like drink has been produced and give it to the same man, who will accept it joyfully, exclaiming, 'Ah! That is coffee!"
Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living by Bailey White
Nice collection of short stories. My thoughts wavered between "Hee! Funny!" and "Whoa! That reminds me too much of my extended family!" It was a very easy read - so easy, in fact that you could read it and follow Tomb Raider at the same time. Not that Tomb Raider is a challenge to follow, but anyway...it was an easy read.
My favorite stories were the ones she told about her first-graders (she's a teacher). They also made me sad, because I know that, with all the testing and red tape teachers have to put up with, such stories are only a small part of the job.
If you have a short attention span, this book is the book for you. Most of the stories began and finished in two or three pages. I enjoyed it, but not enough to run out and read everything she's ever written.
Summer I classes have started. My students are really nice and laidback. I am giving them Wednesdays to have group meetings, because the debate presentation is a lot to put together in six weeks. Plus, it frees up my Wednesday nights, for the most part! I am going to drop by campus and unlock the classroom door, though.
More books toward The 50:
1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe - Fannie Flagg
2. The Whitney Chronicles - Judy Baer
3. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan - Sophie Kinsella
4. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
5. Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
6. Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop by Gregory Dicum and Nina Luttinger
Great subject. :) A little repetitive, but they pimped Equal Exchange, so I'll forgive some of their redundancy. And, of course, I have quotes, most of which are the authors quoting someone else (noted where applicable).
From Consumer Reports - "Caffeine is a little like a criminal suspect who's repeatedly pulled in for questioning with the evidence always too thin to indict, but usually substantial enough to justify continued surveillance."
"Now the largest coffee brand in the country (Folgers) is owned by a soap company [Proctor and Gamble *pauses to spit*], while its major competitor is owned by a combined cereal [General Foods] and cheese [Kraft] company that is owned by a cigarette company [Philip Morris]. It isn't hard to see why this system has provided us with such bad coffee."
They refer to instant coffee as "the Spam of hot drinks." That made me laugh and laugh.
"Starbucks has become the antithesis of the independent specialty coffeehouse, providing a corporalized, homogenized, retail experience with a consistent but not outstanding product." Right on!
A quote from Myrna Greenfield that makes me want to read her book - "Consumers have more control over the food chain than many of us think. Since the free-market system respects buying power above all else, consumers need to speak the language the market recognizes. That means expressing a clear choice about how we want our food grown, processed and delivered to us, and whom we want to profit from the conduct of trade."
From J.S. Bach's Coffee Cantata (guess who just became my favorite composer?) - "If three times a day I don't drink my bowl of coffee, then in agony I'll wither like a dried-out chunk of roast goat...if anyone wishes to please me, let him present me with coffee!"
And I can't remember if this quote is from this book or the very dull one that I gave up on, but the quote is good - from Charles Trigg (coffee researcher), about the average U.S. coffee drinker, particularly until World War I - "Take a carefully blended, full-bodied, highly aromatic coffee and brew it carefully...obtaining a heavy, delicate, enjoyable beverage. Give it to the average coffee drinker and he will say, 'This is no good.' Then take the same coffee, boil it until all its delicate characteristics have disappeared and a lye-like drink has been produced and give it to the same man, who will accept it joyfully, exclaiming, 'Ah! That is coffee!"
Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living by Bailey White
Nice collection of short stories. My thoughts wavered between "Hee! Funny!" and "Whoa! That reminds me too much of my extended family!" It was a very easy read - so easy, in fact that you could read it and follow Tomb Raider at the same time. Not that Tomb Raider is a challenge to follow, but anyway...it was an easy read.
My favorite stories were the ones she told about her first-graders (she's a teacher). They also made me sad, because I know that, with all the testing and red tape teachers have to put up with, such stories are only a small part of the job.
If you have a short attention span, this book is the book for you. Most of the stories began and finished in two or three pages. I enjoyed it, but not enough to run out and read everything she's ever written.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-08 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-08 09:23 pm (UTC)Sorry you are still sick. Someone needs to be yelled at for that.
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Date: 2005-06-10 12:10 am (UTC)This lovely image was brought to you by the letter M.
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Date: 2005-06-10 12:12 am (UTC)The coffee book was interesting enough, but if one were going to read a book about the history of coffee, I would suggest The Devil's Cup: The History of the World According to Coffee. But I forget who wrote it.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 01:02 am (UTC)