Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
Philo of Alexandria
Big Tomato
Big Tomato is a pizza place in Des Moines. They sell whole pies, but I know them primarily as a ‘by the slice’ kind o’ place. Rather like an Iowa version of Pizza Mart.
They had a sheet of paper by the window where you ordered with a list of numbers and after each number, the toppings. Random things like an Irish themed peas and potatoes pizza or alfredo sauce, olives, pimentos and gorgonzola. You ordered by number and if you did not or attempted to get off the menu, you were publicly shamed.
And you didn’t want to be shamed, because if it was 2 am and you were slightly tipsy and under thirty (which I was, barely, in those days), the punk rock girl on the other side of that window was the beautiful thing you had ever seen and you did not want to be on her bad side because, hey, you know, maybe you had a shot, you know? I mean, not really, but you didn’t want to rule it out by not ordering properly, did you? I thought not.
I’m Back
I suppose that I’ll have more to say about Thailand. Later. Right now, mostly, all I can say is that it is in a radically different time zone, being twelve hours different from Washington, DC, which is pretty much the best possible difference if your goal is to cause crippling jet lag.
There was some new family to meet. Beautiful scenery. Elephants. Street noodles. Drinking soda out of plastic bag.
As I said before I left, I got a lot of reading done (four books and half a dozen short stories, plus I re-read a lot of Wordsworth).
Now, I’m just not at all excited about going back to work.
BRB
By which I mean, “Be Right Back.”
Which isn’t exactly true. Be back in something close to three weeks.
I won’t be adding much to the coffee philosopher for several weeks, not that I’ve been all that consistent in adding stuff lately. Life has been stressful. Let’s just leave it at that.
But, to speak more specifically about the upcoming couple of weeks, I will be flying to Thailand where mrs coffee philosopher (not that she has changed her last name, nor that, if she did, she would literally change it to ‘coffee philosopher’) has been living it up with family and friends while I have suffered through countless bouts of polar vortex induced depression. Actually, that’s not fair. A lot of things have been making me depressed lately. I’ve got a litany of stuff to rival the traditional Latin mass.
The good lord willing, Thailand will cheer me up. I hope to do a lot of reading and writing while I’m there. Yes, that’s right. I intend to spend my first time visiting a new country reading and writing in English. I am an ugly American.
But I am sure that I will have some things to add while I’m away and may even add a picture to this blog whilst overseas. Depends on the availability of wi fi, really.
Saw wat dee krap, b—–s!
French For Frat Boys
Society Sucks
I saw a cool device today: it lets you turn the warm, full sounds of vinyl into the narrower, tinny sounds of CDs.
God d–n it.
Oh. And there’s terrible inequality, too.
Cool
Though it feels creepy to write it, this polygamous community looks awesome (architecturally speaking).
Beard Envy
The Coffee Philosopher Reaches A Minor & Unimpressive Milestone
As of sometime this afternoon, yours truly (or rather his blog) got his fiftieth ‘follower’ (which is less cultish and apocalyptic than it sounds) and has been visited more than 10,000 times. Took me long enough. I’m really not very much read considering the amount of time that goes into this. Maybe I should get a real job.
Deviled Egg Day
Did you know that today is National Deviled Egg Day?
Me neither.
I mean, I like deviled eggs well enough, but it just doesn’t come up that often in my life.
the coffee philosopher 