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| And now, a review:
The Chumscrubber is like a more comprehensible Donnie Darko. | | |
| "Last year, however, Starbucks finally found the perfect literary medium for its audience -- the coffee cup. Its "The Way I See It" campaign places original quotes from a sundry mix of famous and sort-of-famous Americans on its cups. Their thoughts (PR team do your stuff) "do not necessarily reflect the views of Starbucks."
Stylistically, the quotes are mostly the literary equivalent of Bearista Bears: sentimental, squooshy, with no aphoristic bite. "What a privilege to be here on the planet to contribute your unique donation to humankind," muses singer Shelby Lynne. "Each face in the rainbow of colors that populate our world is precious and special," observes civil rights leader Morris Dees. OK, sorry, Bearista Bears -- even you could come up with pithier quotes than those.
Still, Starbucks' customers are actually reading the cups, and in the great coffeehouse tradition of conversation and debate, threatening boycotts. In August, a cup featuring novelist Armistead Maupin's reflection that "(his) only regret about being gay is that (he) repressed it for so long" drew the wrath of the Concerned Women for America. Because the cup was too nice to gay people, the group suggested, it was offensive to conservatives and people of faith. A few weeks later, employees at a campus Starbucks at Baylor University, a predominantly Baptist school, purged hundreds of the Maupin cups.
But why boycott when you can integrate? Soon after the Maupin controversy, Starbucks confirmed that Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life," will join the ranks of its coffee-cup sages in spring with this bit of divine salesmanship: "You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense ..."
Call it a craven attempt to mollify miffed Christians if you will, but since Starbucks' 33 million weekly customers include plenty of knuckle-dragging evolutionists, too, it's also a bold, self-destructive move. Indeed, what happens when people who have no interest whatsoever in what Jesus would brew get a shot of Warren's deep-roasted evangelism in their morning lattes? Starbucks will no doubt plead objective neutrality: It doesn't believe in God any more than it believes in happy gay men -- it just wants to carry on the great coffeehouse tradition of (inoffensive, conflict-free) conversation and debate."
San Francisco Chronicle | | |
| Lindsey did Dallas:
And procrastinated on everything else.
Dec. 28- Jan. 3 | I met a cowboy! |  | And that is what I do to new friends. |  | This might have been illegal in some form. Or maybe I'd just like to think that. Either way, I waited until it got dark to climb up there. |  | The cold hard stare of the cowboy... |  | Went and saw the Rocket Summer at the Gypsy Tea Room. Stared at Reverend Horton Heat posters. Was introduced to Fishboy. Gave Fishboy CD to Hilary. Went home and listened to Reverend Horton Heat. |  | James and I took a double decker train into Fort Worth on new years eve. The ride was a lot longer than we expected, and we didn't get there until after the museum we were heading to closed..... |  | .....So we walked around and ate and looked at things like this..... |  | .....And gave each other foot rubs on the 2 hour ride home. The train was completely empty, as it was new years eve. That is my foot. |  | On new years day, we all went out to this beautiful ranch. The house has been in several architectural digests, and sits on a cliff 380 feet above the river, so we were on soaring height with the eagles and hawks; they flew by instead of above. James slept on the deck overnight and froze, but waited it out for the sunrise. |  | There were two palaminos, and we'd asked if we could ride them, so after James dad snuck up on my horse and finally caught him, we took them out for a 2 hour spin down to the river and back. As we walked them into the river, James horse started to sink into the sand. He threw himself off and I jumped off my horse to help his horse out, and my horse took off, with the 2-way radio strapped to its saddle. Fortunately everything worked out, we got his horse out and caught mine, and his brother watched the whole thing from the skeet deck. |  | This is the shirt James is wearing in the above picture. it's a Christmas gift from me. |  | And this is the project James and I worked on the whole week I was there. It's a pedal box for his guitar gear. He and his dad built it, and I cut the stencil. You can see more of it on Craftster |  | And then I came home and took care of business. |  | They needed to be evened out. |
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Mmmmmmm.........
That's good eatin'. | | |
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Who is that handsome man?
(answer: mine.) | | |
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