coffee, that evil desert berry

Oh coffee coffee, you good friend to me. I'm going to make resolutions for the year this week. Giving up coffee or lessening my intake of coffee will not be on that list and reading an NPR article about coffee which was reposted by the lovely Tiffany S. has bolstered me up in my decision. After all, coffee makes me happy, makes me write, makes me sit still then spring into action (rubber-band style). Coffee quickens my senses and shortens the amount of breathing I need to do between talking. Coffee makes me think about all the good things about Communism.

That's right.

You can't deny it: Communism brought people together -- yes, a lot of bloodthirsty, over-thinking, hyperbole-dealing young geeks, but still, people. Doris Lessing!

So anyway. The coffee article quotes Stewart Allen, author of The Devil's Cup: Coffee, the Driving Force in History, and talks about how coffee has, historically, been trouble, been banned, and been at the center of political action. The dark little coffee shop seething with intellectuals? Not made up.

Saith the article:

"According to one story, an Ottoman Grand Vizier secretly visited a coffeehouse in Istanbul.

'He observed that the people drinking alcohol would just get drunk and sing and be jolly, whereas the people drinking coffee remained sober and plotted against the government,' says Allen."

Yay for thinkers and talkers and the young revolutionaries. Later we can boo them when they destroy countries and wipe out people groups. But, as I drink an Americano and observe a small child walking through the door wearing animal print feetie pajamas with brown cowboy boots, I will toast those who are not yet stagnant, who will not suffer corruption, injustice or stupidity to remain. So maybe not Communism, but you get what I'm saying, right? Maybe? Mostly, I just want more people to read the coffee article.