A Good Cup of Joe, cont'd

I read today that a 55 year-old Chicago cop has been (allegedly) running around demanding free coffee from Starbucks. There may be something to these allegations since she has been suspended and referred for counselling. I remember great police scandals when I lived in New York: police so corrupt they were implicated in protecting drug dealers and demanding sexual favors from prostitutes. That is stuff worthy of an Al Pacino movie. This woman was running around flashing her handcuffs and her badge at the poor barristas working at Starbucks. This is stuff worthy of a Molly Shannon Saturday night live skit or Reno 911. Please, police officers, if you are going to go the corrupt route, please have some dignity and use your office to extort a trip to Atlantic City or some steaks or something. Waving your gun around for an overpriced cup of coffee (and baked goods)? I know you are better at corruption than that.

Sometimes You Just Need a Good Cup of Joe

The other day I heard about a guy who lived above a Starbucks in New York City protesting it's closure. As part of a plan to close 600 stores nation-wide, they're closing a total of 10 stores in the whole sprawling city of New York -- leaving 225 apparently. I hope someone can find this guy a cup of coffee. You see, I'm not a coffee drinker, so I don't really understand the insanity that the specter of Starbucks deprivation can bring on. In fact, I'm fairly oblivious to Starbucks mania ... until this morning.

Now, Atlanta has a lot of things going for it. A top notch public transportation system is not one of them, but I still ride the bus to work. My job gives me a free bus pass in exchange for not driving to campus, so the price is right. Generally, my morning bus ride is uneventful -- assuming the bus comes. (Yesterday, it failed to show up.) This morning it arrived just when I expected it and all was well ... I thought. As we pulled up to a little strip of stores, the bus driver slowed down about a hundred feet short of the bus stop, let a passenger out and then left the bus herself and went into Starbucks. I sat there for a minute waiting for her to run back into her idling bus, but she didn't. "Did the busdriver just walk out of her bus, leaving it running and walk into a coffee shop?" I asked myself. I stepped out of the bus deciding to walk the rest of the way to work. As I crossed the street, I turned back to look at the bus. Still driver-less, a long line of traffic had begun to appear behind the bus. I really hope that she suddenly had a emergency and had to run into the bathroom. More importantly, I hope an impatient passenger does not decide to take the bus for a joyride. I would really be horrified if I walked into that Starbucks and found the busdriver enjoying a nonfat latte and a scone -- that has a horrible impact on "on-time performance." Of course, I may have a clue now why the bus didn't arrive at all yesterday morning.