This would be me, except I don’t wear a suit and tie. That’s right, those delightful Arlo & Janis cartoons you enjoy on a daily basis actually are caffeine-induced hallucinations churned out by the jacked-up fingers of yours truly. No, there is nothing like the aroma and flavor of that first morning cuppa joe. Certainly, that fourth cup is nothing like it! I never drank coffee until I was a young editorial cartoonist at the old Jackson Daily News. The management sprang for a coffee service, and a shiny commercial drip coffee maker appeared in the middle of the news room. Everyone else seemed so excited that I began to feel left out. I took a cup back to my drawing board in the corner, and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
30 responses to “Coffee Me!!”
Demon caffeine!
Where would we be without it?
I’d be visiting the restroom less often without caffeine!
This strip would also fit Adam, from Adam@home.
If everyone were like me, Starbucks would have never made it out of Seattle*, as I never developed a taste for coffee. I attribute that to the fact no one ever seemed to be able to produce a brew that tasted nearly as good as it smelled being perked.
*Instead, they (at least recently) seemed to be opening new locations inside of some of their existing stores.
As some of the regulars here may recall, this morning marks five years since my younger sister (my only sibling) passed away due to complications from a cholecystectomy she’d had eight months earlier. I was standing at the end of her bed as she took her last breath and the monitor flat-lined. At that moment, the recessed florescent light fixture over her bed flickered and buzzed momentarily, something I had not observed it doing during the hundreds of hours I had spent in her room over the six months she was in the long-term care facility.
A last goodbye as her spirit left her body? A coincidence? I don’t know. I do know that as I get older, I wonder if author Laura Pedersen was perhaps right when she said, “Coincidence is God’s way of being anonymous.”
I miss you, kid.
I never drank coffee in my life despite being from Louisiana. Because of being from Louisiana I had a lifelong addiction to Cocacola and iced tea.
Ghost has a heavy habit of Cokes but not tea. He got me to give up both a year and a half go. I drink water and fresh limes for which I thank him.
I gave a coffee habit a try back in basic training. Maybe because I’m just not fundamentally a coffee person, maybe because the coffee available to basic trainees isn’t actually “coffee”, it didn’t take.
My thanks to the person who mentioned the AeroPress the last time coffee was the topic of discussion here. It was the cost-effective answer I was looking for in my quest to make Vietnamese-style iced coffee at home. If you like strong coffee (they add sweetened condensed milk to espresso) and can handle the accompanying caffeine, you should try it at a restaurant to get the real taste. I can only have it there at lunch if I want to get to sleep at my normal time. My home version isn’t quite as good but I control the caffeine level by using a mix of regular and decaf espresso, about a 1 to 4 ratio. I also recently discovered that Borden’s has a squeeze bottle version of sweetened condensed milk that is very handy.
Ruth Anne: http://www.trung-nguyen-online.com/index.html These folks have some excellent coffee.
I used to be quite the caffeine addict. Nearly three years ago after I had lost weight, I wanted to see if I could give up caffeine for Lent. The process of weaning took less than a week, and I haven’t had any caffeine since.
Now, I can honestly say that I feel naturally the way that I did after drinking cup after cup of coffee.
Dec 4 strip
The wine at the Super Market around here is non-alcoholic (The last I looked- awhile back)
Beer is under 3.2%
I’ve bought Vietnamese coffee, Rick, and it’s very good. However, I now get my coffee by mail from Gevalia, and am quite satisfied with it.
Sideburns:
I have no plans to return to coffee, but, if I ever do, I will keep those in mind. Thanks for the tip.
Sideburns, this company has a large variety of European coffees and has given me good service when I’ve ordered from them.
http://www.enjoybettercoffee.com/
I have never developed a taste for coffee, but I enjoy the aroma. A few years ago I was diagnosed with restless leg syndrome and when my Doctor saw the results from my sleep study, she told me that it was a good thing that I never had drank much coffee. As I’ve mentioned before, the only time that I drink coffee is the first few days when I am overseas and I use it because of jet lag. I put enough sugar and cream in it to disguise the taste.
I have the same aversion to alcohol. Never cared for the taste nor the effects of it, so usually will only have plain water when I am out or an occasional root beer. Ironically when I mention this on my trips to Japan I get strange looks as many Japanese associate root beer with medicine.
For the record:
https://chummytees.com/products/i-like-coffee-and-maybe-3-people-t-shirt-hoodie-tank-top?gclid=CjwKCAiAlvnfBRA1EiwAVOEgfHYVIL6LKU0fhPoQlmu8vzSCKdM2Xe7opqd1v_y0EAV7_nELQfv6jRoCHrgQAvD_BwE&variant=43142792838
As Jackie said, I take my caffeine cold, in the form of Cokes. Being from the Deep South, I suppose I should specify that I drink Coca-Cola “Cokes”, as opposed to Pepsi “Cokes”, RC “Cokes”, etc. I’m still trying to get used to hearing them all called “sodas” here in Oklahoma. As I had to get used to them being called “pops” when I was stationed in Illinois.
I am seriously considering giving up my longtime Coca-Cola habit. How hard could that be? Certainly not harder than giving up tobacco many years ago…which was actually not hard at all.
I used the Two-Step Smoking Cessation Program:
Step 1) Extinguished the cigarette I was smoking
Step 2) Never lit another one
Easy-peasy.
I wonder if Hugh Hefner ever gave up drinking Pepsi Colas. Before he died, I mean.
I thought today’s strip might have been a recycled strip, but I think that Jimmy is making a great point about selfies. I know that I looked at it more than a few times.
Have owned a number of cameras with the timer feature for self-portraits. Don’t believe I ever used it. Not surprising, then, that I’ve seldom taken a phone selfie, and almost all of them have been with Jackie in them with me, or me solo at her request. Heck, I know what I look like.
I’d have about as much use for a selfie stick as a buggy whip. Perhaps less, as I know some folks that would likely profit from a judicious application of the latter. So also perhaps better I not have one. 🙂
Can anyone point me to the A&J where they’re dancing wildly and putting on yet another pot of coffee?
My sister’s (>four score years) ankle replacement surgery apparently went well. Now the looong recovery begins….
Ghost, I remember well the passing of your sister. It doesn’t seem like it has been five years. Time passes… you learn to cope… but you always miss them. Hugs & prayers.
It’s been 45 years since my brother died at 17, 29 years since my dad at 56, and 12 years since my mom at 71. They all still show up in my dreams; I still want to send them cards and letters.
20 years @ 86 for Dad & 17 @ 83 Mom – and yes they show up in dreams.
And rarely a day that I do not have a question to ask.
The question was asked ” If you had an hour to talk to anyone – living or dead –
who would you pick?” – so easy my Dad!