Morning Coffee (22)

Good Morning All.

Winter has us firmly in its grip, eh? Something like 18 degrees out. I despise winter for two reasons. One, static cling. Two, it's winter. What is there to like? Snow? Please. Christmas? Again, who cares? The withering broadside that USS Morning Coffee dealt Christmas in edition 18 should have served to permanently crippled the capitalist flag ship HMS Christmas. The heavy cast iron guns of truth ripped through the flimsy hull of Yule that wrapped around a keel of capitalist greed. Winter sucks. Period. I see nothing good about the season. It is useless.

Something not useless, however, is coffee. I watched a great special on coffee on the History channel, one of perhaps four channels that can be considered real TV. They, of course, gave the History of coffee, which might be a bit younger than you think. They delved into the different brewing methods, cultivation practices, how it's produced, even instant coffee. Utterly fascinating show. The world's most expensive coffee is Kopi Luwak, which is made from coffee beans that have passed through the digestive track of the palm civet, a "cat-ish" creature in Indonesia. The beans are harvested from the animals feces. Yum. Goes for something like $300 a pound.

I've watched most of the HBO series Rome over the weekend. It's an excellent series. The character development is fantastic. Not much in the way of fighting; so not much like Band of Brothers in that regard, but the bond between soldiers is shown well in the relationship between Lucius Verenus and Titus Pullo. These two are perhaps the luckiest unlucky chaps ever to have served in the Roman Army. While these common citizens know of the most important qualities: love and loyalty (and Verenus and Pullo are fiercely loyal - it's a beautiful thing that), the aristocrats are the most immoral and corrupt people ever. Constantly politicking and maneuvering, using thugs to terrorize another family while maintaining plausible deniability. It's sick. To me the intrigue is just that, interesting. But what I love about the show is the human relationships between the lower classes; the essence of their lives is captures perfectly. The ethos of the Roman soldier (bravery, loyalty, honor - perhaps the only traits worth anything) is completely embodied in Verenus, and the slow witted perseverance of a common man in Pullo. The show is pretty devoted to detail, so it's remarkably accurate. To the point that the layman might not get many of the references. I fancy myself as an amateur Romanist, and there is a great deal that I must look up. But I do like the show a great deal. And they're doing another season, thank Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, that starts on 14 Jan. I'll have to wait for it to come out on DVD though.

Word of the Day: Skulk (intransitive verb): 1. to hide, or get out of the way, in a sneaking manner; to lurk; 2. to move about in a stealthy way; 3. to avoid responsibilities and duties.

On This Day in History: Lisa Beamer, wife of Todd Beamer, through the Todd M. Beamer Foundation, registers the trademark "Let's Roll" with the Patent and Trademark Office, less than three months after his death on 11 Sep 2001. How quickly she acted, eh? Well, at least I'm not actually dead.

Today is also the day during which the secret rites in honor of Bona Dea were held. Bona Dea is the Roman goddess of fertility, virginity, and women.

"My warning meant nothing, your dancing in quicksand. Why don't you watch where you're wandering? Why don't you watch where you're stumbling? You're wading knee deep and going in. And you may never come back again. This bog is thick and easy to get lost in. I hope it sucks you down."

Until tomorrow...