Don Senneville and Jim White
What kind of New Year’s Resolutions are made in coffee houses? We ponder this question as we sip our first coffee of the day by Local Jonny’s fireplace. Our resolutions seem mundane. Don’s is to cut down on to-go cup usage. Jim’s is to grow grapefruit. However, after the second cup comes the revelations, and not the Biblical kind. What do we now realize in 2024 that we did not before? Don realizes the coffee in music. From Johnny Cash to Otis Redding to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, songs have glorified the benefits of coffee.
They probably sang about cigarettes, too. We also realized in 2024 that we should read the bumper stickers in the parking lot before entering a coffee shop. Cheering on Brandon seems to be popular, as do $150,000 cars with “Don’t Tread on Me” glued to their paint job. Who’s doing the treading? Another said “Ban Amazon Prime” –Grinch! Another car with an Oregon plate had a Ralph Nader sticker. The best was “Astronauts Drink Espressos”. No to-go cups up there, no place to go. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Apologies are due to our emissary to the COP28 Climate Conference in Dubai last month. We misquoted her when we erroneously reported that she had coffee at a Dunkin Donut Shop in Dubai. The sign was in Arabic, and we just read it wrong. She did have a Mr.Coffee in her hotel room. In this election year The CUP will support the candidates that pledge to end the use of to-go cups, thereby doing our small part to save the Earth from overconsumption. We still don’t have a clear answer as to how and where she got a donut in Dubai. (Could be a song – “Donuts in Dubai”?)
Caffeine fueled Revelations that led to Revolutionary Resolutions in subversive coffee houses that seeded the roots of resistance. We will keep an eye on the Tea Room in Carefree in light of the historical precedents described below.
From the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston to the Smyrna Coffee House in London, coffee was seen as a patriotic drink in the colonies after the Boston Tea Party, when drinking tea fell out of fashion. At the time, American taverns served coffee alongside liquor, and the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston was nicknamed the “Headquarters of the Revolution” by Daniel Webster for housing many meetings of the Sons of Liberty, leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. Over in New York, Merchants Coffee House was known for its gatherings of patriots eager to break free from George III. In the 1780s, it became the site where merchants organized to create both the Bank of New York and to reorganize the New York Chamber of Commerce. Benjamin Franklin wrote his “Open Letter to Lord North” satirizing the king’s power over the colonies from the Smyrna Coffee House in London. (History Channel, 2020)
Send us your thoughts to The CUP, [email protected].
Special thanks to Editor Tom for his inspiring New Year’s Message!
