Saturday, March 26, 2005

Deprivation

You'd faint if you knew how far I have to go to get to a Starbuck's. Their online store locator has a maximum search radius of 50 miles, and I get a nearly blank page with the following message:

United States
The nearest Retail Stores in your area are listed below.

[Sorry, no listings]

Back when I was in high school, one of my favorite Simpsons moments had Bart skateboarding full-throttle through a mall and every other storefront was a Starbuck's. It was funny back then. Now it's just scary, because that's almost the reality. I could have sworn I passed two Starbuck's in the airport on my last trip to San Diego.

Starbuck is the name of a somewhat unsavory and rather controversial character in one of my favorite science fiction novels, Joan D. Vinge's Snow Queen (which I haven't read for years). When Starbuck's hit the urban map I had a really hard time adjusting to finding that word everywhere, because I associated it with a character who had less to do with selling high-class coffee than Marvin the Martian does. Too weird. I suppose I eventually got over it, though.

Anyhow I'm a little sad at my lack of Starbuck's, but my bank account is happy, so I won't complain. I'm just disappointed that since Evanston has no Starbuck's and the odds are 99 to 1 against us ever getting one, we'll probably never get one of these, either, and that's something I just have to see before I die.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do you have a coffee grinder and coffee maker ??

March 27, 2005 at 1:40 AM  
Blogger A said...

Heavens no. I have an automatic coffee pot but no coffee grounds (and yes, I know you can get them at Bonnie's and Main Street Artisans but that's not the point), and I have a jar of Folger's instant, probably decaf, that I never open. It's the novelty I want, not the actual coffee.

March 27, 2005 at 7:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can send you some starbucks coffee grounds if you would like !!

March 27, 2005 at 8:18 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home