The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[MrPixel]

berry picking time here in Texas so there is a blackberry pie over in the counter for those with a 'hankerin' for something to munch on with their coffee.

Wonderful! Thank you! The blackberries just outside my office here are going to start turning late next week, with most ripening while we're up at our cabin. The birds and squirrels will really be appreciative - a bumper crop this year.

 

[dmallord]

Coffee and Tx go together like a horse and carriage.

To help out a friend, I attended a seminar as a 'placeholder.' It was a homebuilder one, something I used to do when I was younger.

Walking in, an eager youngster asked me if I'd like a cup of coffee. "Sure, I answered, expecting it to come from a box like Starbucks. Instead, he walked me over to a built-in coffee machine. It had a drawer for beans, one for water, a place for refrigerated milk, and god knows what else it had. He stuck a cup under it, and a device came down and touched the cup. A backlight turned on as well.

"It measures the height and calculated the amount of water to dispense," he said as we waited.

With a whirl, it ground the beans and pumped foamy coffee from two small spouts. When it was done, the column sitting on the cup lifted up, and it was ready.

It tasted like ... but I thanked him with a smile.

"$7,000 for the base model extra from the espresso add-on." he nodded.

I nodded back and took another sip. It still tasted like burnt coffee from a years-old Army mess hall.

That's one expensive coffee machine for old Juan Valdez to deliver beans to from down that a'way.

Forgot to say a new story went up yesterday: Lucy, a Texas Diamond in the Rough - dance hall gal and her lover/hubby. Ya'll – All ya'll are invited to look in on it!

 

[Rustyoznail]

Yeah, we had a machine like that in the office I worked in years ago. It never got cleaned, and people just kept topping up the milk container so it was pumping out sour milk.

Not good at any level.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Yeah, we had a machine like that in the office I worked in years ago. It never got cleaned, and people just kept topping up the milk container so it was pumping out sour milk.

Not good at any level.

I remember a vending machine at a certain international computer company's office. The tea was 2p a cup and tasted of fag smoke.
(that's cigarettes!) The coffee was 5p and tasted of caffeinated fag smoke. The hot chocolate, also 5p, and tasted of sugar and fag smoke.

Unless desperately busy, we'd hike to the canteen for the decent 50p filter coffee (they also had tea, of course). You could tell it wasn't a British company because they didn't allow office kettles nor supply boiling water. I've been in workplaces since where staff simply refuse to work until tea facilities are restored.

They still allowed (and sold) booze on site at lunchtime, though.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Although I don't drink coffee (love the aroma but never acquired the taste) I used to take care of the coffee machine in the break room, making sure it was kept clean and stocked, always starting a pot since I was the first one in the office. I know my fellow co-workers appreciated it.

 

[Duleigh]

You could tell it wasn't a British company because they didn't allow office kettles nor supply boiling water.

Bloody uncivilized! British tanks since WWII had a special device called "the boiling vessel" that would heat and boil water for their brew up and they wouldn't have to stop and brew a cuppa. I'm not throwing shade on the British Army, the B-52 bomber has a coffee maker and a toaster oven. Crews would use the toaster oven to heat up their meals (I believe it was designed for a type of frozen TV dinner) Ground crews working on the plane on a frigid winter night would use it as a space heater. After the tail gun was eliminated from the B-52 and there was no enlisted flight crew member, I wonder who makes the coffee now?

I'll put on a fresh pot and boil up a bunch of dihydrogen monoxide for your morning tea

​

 

[MrPixel]

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

The tea was 2p a cup and tasted of fag smoke. (that's cigarettes!)

As I have done for you before, here's input from a dense Yank on Britishisms: Even I know that 'fag' means cigarette. This term has existed for a very long time, even turning up in pop culture (the first instance that came to my mind, just now, is a mention in Van Morrison's song "Blue Money"). I gather that its origin is from the term 'fagot' (or some other spelling) which seems to have meant something like kindling, in any case something to be set on fire.

This isn't to say that I'm all that hip. I still don't understand why I keep being told that I have an uncle named Bob.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I still don't understand why I keep being told that I have an uncle named Bob.

For you, sir, it can be extended to an aunt named Bobbi.

 

[NotWise]

I grew up a measure on this date 52 years ago. I used to mark the day by remembering the people and events, but it's escaped me in a few recent years. After all, 52 years is a long time.

The Black Hills flood of June 9, 1972 killed 242 people (I think it was) in the town where I lived and turned a large swatch of the place into mud and piles of rubble. It all took about four hours, and I stood on a flower box with three others, just above the water, and we watched it happen through heavy rain by the repeated strokes of lightening.

After that, I discarded my teenage angst and got to work.

 

[MrPixel]

I gather that its origin is from the term 'fagot' (or some other spelling) which seems to have meant something like kindling, in any case something to be set on fire.

You got it. "Faget", in Old English, referring to a bundle of sticks as firewood. Related root to "fagot" in multiple Continental languages, and "fagotte" in German.

Also used in the "bundle of sticks" sense for "bassoon", also something one would want to set on fire, typically using oboes for kindling.

 

[dmallord]

As I have done for you before, here's input from a dense Yank on Britishisms: Even I know that 'fag' means cigarette. This term has existed for a very long time, even turning up in pop culture (the first instance that came to my mind, just now, is a mention in Van Morrison's song "Blue Money"). I gather that its origin is from the term 'fagot' (or some other spelling) which seems to have meant something like kindling, in any case something to be set on fire.

This isn't to say that I'm all that hip. I still don't understand why I keep being told that I have an uncle named Bob.

Long ago, a local grocery store had signs beneath their baskets that said, "Have you seen BOB?"

I asked and was told it was an acronym – "Bottom of the Basket" – meaning, if you couldn't see the bottom you had more to take out and pay for.

More to your point, perhaps it ties to an old expression – Uncle Bob guy, the 'Bottom of the Barrel.' Perhaps?

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I grew up a measure on this date 52 years ago. I used to mark the day by remembering the people and events, but it's escaped me in a few recent years. After all, 52 years is a long time.

The Black Hills flood of June 9, 1972 killed 242 people (I think it was) in the town where I lived and turned a large swatch of the place into mud and piles of rubble. It all took about four hours, and I stood on a flower box with three others, just above the water, and we watched it happen through heavy rain by the repeated strokes of lightening.

After that, I discarded my teenage angst and got to work.

Jeepers! That’s a stiff way to grow up!

 

[NotWise]

Jeepers! That’s a stiff way to grow up!

Sure could have been worse. I was at a friend's house, and my family's house was out of the flood zone.

 

[NotWise]

There's cold water coming out of the sky, and I have a head cold. I'm confused.

I think I'm home until I can test for COVID, just to be sure.

 

[MrPixel]

There's cold water coming out of the sky, and I have a head cold. I'm confused.

I think I'm home until I can test for COVID, just to be sure.

You can just keep that "cold" nonsense out there.

Crap. Too late. I was feeling pretty punk last night and it's not abated this morning. Has that "early summer virus" feeling. Third cup of coffee didn't help.

Probably not going to be any lawn mowing today.

 

[MrPixel]

...perhaps it ties to an old expression – Uncle Bob guy, the 'Bottom of the Barrel.' Perhaps?

I thought the expression, "And Bob's your uncle," was an indication of something good, along the lines of, "And voilà, there you have it!"

 

[Kumquatqueen]

You got it. "Faget", in Old English, referring to a bundle of sticks as firewood. Related root to "fagot" in multiple Continental languages, and "fagotte" in German.

Also used in the "bundle of sticks" sense for "bassoon", also something one would want to set on fire, typically using oboes for kindling.

'Faggot' is still a bundle in UK English, either of sticks - it's not a word I use much but there's an occasional use for it - or of bits of meat and such, as in the satisfying dinner dish of faggots in gravy. Image here.

Not sure what you have against bassoons! Oboes are lovely when played well. Though I'm aware of the cliché about the oboe: "the ill woodwind that no-one blows good".

I once knew a lovely oboe player. Like opera singers, they have the most amazing mouth and lip control and can do wonderful things with their tongues...

 

[MrPixel]

Not sure what you have against bassoons! Oboes are lovely when played well. Though I'm aware of the cliché about the oboe: "the ill woodwind that no-one blows good".

Oh, I play bassoon, too. Along with oboe and English horn, I'm a double-reed triple-threat. It's an old band joke, "What are oboes good for? Kindling for bassoon fires!"

It's even funnier in the context of a US manufacturer of bassoons and oboes, from whom I have bought two instruments, and visited the factory twice. Their annual picnics feature bonfires of manufacturing scraps - citing the joke.

I once knew a lovely oboe player. Like opera singers, they have the most amazing mouth and lip control and can do wonderful things with their tongues...

My wife claims the same thing.

 

[NotWise]

The COVID test came in negative, so I could go into work. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

There’s a nasty, long-lasting cold going around. Both the Boss and I were seriously surprised when our COVID tests came back negative.

 

[NotWise]

There’s a nasty, long-lasting cold going around. Both the Boss and I were seriously surprised when our COVID tests came back negative.

One of my daughters has had a cold most of the year. It waxes and wanes but it's never gone away. She's had tests -- it's just a cold.

 

[dmallord]

You know what happens when you mess around at 2:00 AM with a story? Hum?

I know this is how it happened. I saved the story and thought it was time for bed, but then decided for some crazy reason to tinker with it on Lit to check out the formatting. I opened the file [of course, it was the wrong version.]

I formatted it to get the proper paragraph spacing in the Lit window and saved it. [of course not - Preview and Post instead]

Sitting here two days later, I opened my stories, and lo and behold, THERE it is! I was amazed at the speed it posted and then chagrined to find that as I scanned it, it was the first version.

You know the rest. I sent it again with the right version, apologized with egg on my face, and now it's waiting time. How many will see the flaws of the first version and think – silly old man.

 

[litfan10]

There’s a nasty, long-lasting cold going around. Both the Boss and I were seriously surprised when our COVID tests came back negative.

I'm glad you came back negative. I am on day four and am absolutely miserable. Ugh.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I once knew a lovely oboe player. Like opera singers, they have the most amazing mouth and lip control and can do wonderful things with their tongues...

I knew a flute player with a similar skill...