The Mocha Lisa

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6 Reasons to Drink Coffee

The LA Times gives us six reasons to drink more coffee.

Friday Book Review: The City and the City

China Miéville is the master of the New Weird. Which makes his latest novel The City & The City an interesting departure. At it's core it is a police procedural mystery novel. When a young woman is found dead in Beszel, a crumbling eastern European type city, it is up to police inspector Tyador Borlú to find the culprit. Borlú's investigation leads him to believe that the murder took place in the neighbouring city Ul Qoma. Ul Qoma is a more middle eastern influenced city who is getting a cash infusion from North America.

Now the interesting thing is that these two cities operate as two independent countries. Think along the lines of East and West Berlin after the second World War. However, in typical Miéville fashion it gets weirder than that as the two cities occupy the same geographic location. Your house in Ul Qoma may be on the same street as others from Beszel but you are trained from birth to unsee anything in the other country. It is a hard concept to explain but it makes sense when you are reading the book.

Unseeing is enforced by a meta police force called The Breach. Anytime someone actively violates the unseeing principle it is called breaching and The Breach will be there to take care of the problem. How they take care of the problem is anyone's guess as no one comes back after being taken by The Breach.

Now Borlú must solve the crime while dealing with internal politics, trying not to create and international incident and avoiding breaching himself. The aspect of breaching breaths new life into an otherwise tired genre and I have to recommend this quick 300 page read.

If you are not familiar with Miéville's work I suggest reading Perdido Street Station which is my favourite.

The Art of Manliness on Brewing Coffee

Thanks to Greg for the heads up on this good article on The Art of Manliness on brewing coffee. It covers the main points that we've discussed before:

1. Buy fresh beans
2. Grind them yourself
3. Use a French Press

I have a French Press that a friend gave me as a present and it is a great way to brew coffee at work. Much better than the dreck in the break room.

Starbucks Stores without the Starbucks Names

Starbucks is opening a number of stores in Seattle under the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea banner. You can see some photos of the new store. Apparently it will also be possible to buy beer and wine at these new stores.

It seems like an interesting strategy to take a recognized brand name like Starbucks off your store front. I guess they are hoping that consumers will flock to these new stores as a Starbucks alternative. Just like those of us in Ottawa who head to Bridgehead.

Dunkin's Donuts Pushing Ahead with More Store Openings

The doughnut chain is pushing ahead with a plan to open hundreds of stores this year to meet growth targets despite a rash of franchisee bankruptcies and a near freeze in restaurant financing.

Starbucks in the News

I haven't been tracking the coffee news to closely lately as we've been busy moving but some interesting things happened last week with Starbucks. Apparently their 3Q earnings report beat the streets projections despite a drop in sales and foot traffic. CEO Howard Schultz is not ready to declare victory in the brands turn around just yet. Which is probably for the best as Business Week reports some people are still skeptical as one quarter of results is in so far.