Don't like it: Coffee Snobbery

I enjoy a good cup of coffee; life is too short for a bad one. I enjoy the morning rituals of making a cappuccino. I've blogged about the coffee shops I like.

A few weekends ago I was in NYC when I was overcome with a wave of nostalgia. I remembered a summer in Spain. I recall spending many afternoons drinking cafe con hielo, laughing with friends and watching the world go by.

Inspired I popped into a coffee shop I frequent and asked for an espresso and a glass of ice. I was shocked by the barista's refusal. The ice she informed me "shocks" the espresso.She was perfectly polite about the whole thing and offered me a number of alternatives. Not being in the mood to argue I ordered without the ice..

Supposedly this type of coffee snobbery is quiet common. The "victims" responce in the linked article was a little more extreme that mine.

Now I appreciate the barista's art. I really do. But at the end of the day it's only coffee and you should be able to drink it as you like especially if the objections are really just based on some bogus assumptions.

Like It: RBC Cafe

Another awesome coffee shop. Fantastic espresso and according to my wife, the best scones ever. What more could you want? A sence of humour, well that covered as well.

Like it: The Player of Games by Iain Banks.

This was the first of Banks' Culture novels I read and it remains one of my favorites. More focused and intimate than than his other Culture works it acts as good instruction to this intriguing future history. Banks loves dealing in big ideas and bizarre alien settings and this novel allows his to showcase both.

The Culture is a space faring Utopian socialist society. Gurgegh it the titular player of games. He is a master of all the games the played in the Culture..It's his life, but his passion is starting to fade.

Contact is the part of the culture that deals will interacting with newly encountered species and societies. It  has been monitoring the Empire of Azad, a totalitarian regime where everyone position in society is based on their success in a game also called Azad..

Gurgegh is recruited by Contact to represent the Culture in the game of Azad. The novel chronicles his interaction with a new and very different society. There are games within games. Both sides are manipulating Gurgegh for their own ends. He must call on all of his skill and stratagems if he is to survive let alone succeed.