It Must Be a Slow News Day

I checked Breaking News at al.com this afternoon and saw the shocking and incredibly newsworthy report that Starbucks will be closing the store just down the street from us, as well as several others in the Birmingham area. 15YOD will be sad, but the people who own the local coffee and sandwich place across the way are likely thrilled.

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Anyway. The typical breaking news item on al.com might garner one or two comments at most -- unless it's about Birmingham mayor Larry Langford, and then there will be one after another, some expressing rational concerns (sources tell me he'll probably be indicted before Labor Day), some vehemently defending the mayor from the evil forces raging against him, and some just flat out racist. The Starbucks story is up to 39 comments at current count (leaving off two duplicates). Most of them are of the "Starbucks coffee is TEH SUCK" variety, and I'm right with them there. Can't drink the stuff, although I love the chai lattes. However, I've always been impressed by the friendly, polite staff and quick service, so I don't feel the need to express any hatred toward the company.

Not so greywool, who left this uplifting message:

I prefer a good cup of Maxwell House or Red Diamond brewed fresh at home and away from all the hippies.

Community coffee chickory blend is the best IMHO.

But until you've had a good pot of coffee cooked over an open fire, you haven't really had a cup of coffee.

Starbucks didn't serve coffee. They served drinks with drops or two of coffee in them. Mostly made up of sugary, milky, creamy, goo.

Glad they and their Hippie, Seattle based bunch are leaving.

Hopefully the west coast will soon be swallowed into the pacific and that beachfront property in Arizona will become reality.

Ah, al.com -- the place to go to read manly men wishing death and destruction for those not like them. I think I'll skip the coffee and have a drink instead.