Saturday Kate and I went to the Rafal Spice Co., one of the many permanent stores that surround the farmers-market space at Detroit’s Eastern Market. They specialize in, duh, guess what, but they also have a sideline in coffee. Lots of coffee. The clerk asked me what I was looking for.
“You know that Folgers commercial where the smell of coffee permeates the house, and everyone upstairs yawns and stretches and smiles and sort of lolls out of bed and heads for the kitchen to get a cup? I don’t want that. I want coffee that’s like a drill sergeant. I want coffee that doesn’t coax me out of bed, it kicks my ass with a caffeine boot. I want the strong stuff, the methamphetamine of beans, reveille in arabica form.”
(Note: The above quote may be improved a bit to make me sound cleverer than I actually am. I may have actually said, “What’s the strongest blend you have?”)
She pointed to the Turkish stuff. “I’ll take a pound, whole bean. Now what’s the second-strongest?” She pointed to the Cuban. “Same thing again.”
That lady knew her stuff. I may write a novel today. Thank you, Turkey! But now I have to take a shower. I may actually be sweating a bit.
mary said on June 21, 2005 at 11:29 am
I like a good coffee buzz as much as the next person, but I can’t do coffee after about 5 pm anymore, or I lie in bed thinking about what color to paint my ceiling. I have found that for a late afternoon booster, Trader Joe’s brewed black tea is unbeatable. They just started selling it this year, and it comes in gallon jugs for us very lazy people. It seems much stronger and than the ice tea I make, yet doesn’t taste nasty. It’s very tasty, in fact. And pretty buzzy without keeping me awake all night.
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mary said on June 21, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Completely off topic…
someone mentioned a few entries ago that she thought Ruth was going to die this year on Six Feet Under. Last night had some suicide hints, I thought. What does anyone else think?
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Carmella said on June 21, 2005 at 12:51 pm
I think that if Ruth doesn’t die naturally…someone just might kill her, b/c she is one miserable bee-otch so far this season. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to live with George either.
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Nance said on June 21, 2005 at 1:25 pm
I think if anyone is suicide-bound, it’s George. The agony.
Actually, I think this show does mental illness better than any other I can think of. Billy’s behavior is textbook hypomania, but does Claire notice? Nooooo, she’s too happy with the constant flattery. I loved that line, “How am I supposed to go to Europe and ripen if you won’t give me my money?!”
I was reading Susie Bright’s blog a couple months ago, and she said she had just shot an episode of 6FU where she played herself — sex journalist and provocateur, I guess — and that “someone we know” is the opening death. I got the impression that she played a friend of whoever died, so for some reason I thought “Brenda’s mom would know Susie Bright.” However, I really don’t want Brenda’s mom to die. She’s becoming one of my favorite characters. And her death would make no narrative sense, since she’s only there for comic relief anyway.
Which this season needs more of, if you ask me.
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mary said on June 21, 2005 at 3:20 pm
Claire is being pretty awful right now, isn’t she. I gather from the preview scenes that she’s going to figure out that Billy is nuts very soon.
Maybe Brenda is going to off herself? She is having some issues about her past sins preventing her from living the life she now wants. In general the characters are paying for their sins of the past right now, and it is getting a bit grim.
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Mindy said on June 21, 2005 at 3:59 pm
I had way, way too much coffee this morning and am still very aware of my eyebrows. They felt kind of crawly earlier but now they’re just sort of tense.
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Lex said on June 23, 2005 at 2:53 pm
If you’re not sweating, it’s not strong enough.
I gave up on 6FU two seasons ago when we dumped HBO in a cost-cutting move. So Claire’s involved with Billy? Jesus wept. Guess I missed the episode where they gave her a lobotomy.
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