Bottomless Coffee — February, 2008
Headlines:
Coffee can lower your risk of Parkinson's Disease, Diabetes, and colon cancer.
Wine can raise your good cholesterol—HDLs.
Chocolate can help prevent heart disease, perhaps cancer.
They ticket drivers for going south in front of this cafe.
You can probably guess the name of the joint.
For $3.00 I get a big ceramic mug and a hard, wooden chair.
Bottomless Coffee they call it.
Because I can drink coffee until I can no longer feel my bottom.
When I refill my coffee, I add honey to it.
How does that make you feel?
She asks me this from across the table, at the cafe.
And it's a question about the honey.
And she's serious.
When was the last time you were truly afraid of something?
How long do you have to know someone before you develop trust?
How do you feel about the pecan roll?
What's the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
She interrogates me from across the table while people outside drive north.
And no question is more or less serious than the honey question.
How can someone be equally serious about fear, trust, kindness, pecans, and honey?
I'm intrigued.
I'm perplexed.
I'm wondering if some of the questions are really statements.
I find myself interpreting while I'm answering—my confidence and conclusions wavering.
Does she feel the same way I do?
All the while, cars outside continue heading north.
Is she heading south?
Headlines:
Coffee exacerbates hypertension.
Wine can contain pesticides, herbicides, sulphite preservatives.
Chocolate's stearic acid strongly correlated with coronary disease.
So which is winning: confirmation bias or recency effect?
I'm asking myself this every bit as much as I'm asking you.
~ topher