The Old Coot gets a warm-up.
By Merlin Lessler
I was in a brand new Starbucks near Disney World the other
morning. It was early, I was one of only three people inside. Everyone else was
at the drive-thru window. I cashed in some “stars” for a free Grande, dark
roast coffee (that’s medium in the rest of the world) plus a sort of toasted bagel
with sort of cream cheese. I sat there reading the Wall Street Journal on my I-Pad,
a gift from my daughter and son-in law in 2016. It’s a gift that keeps on
giving.
Anyhow, after half an hour I had a quarter cup of cold
coffee left. I went to the counter to get a “warm up.” I asked the server to
add a splash of hot coffee to the remnants in my cup. Refills are free if you
are a gold card member, which I am. He gave me a puzzled look, then turned to
the new coffee making mechanism. It grinds, it perks, and it dispenses, all by
itself. It’s a gadget that was developed to make the process brainless, run by artificial
intelligence, the craze that has taken over the world. It gurgled, growled,
hissed a bit and poured the dark liquid I’m addicted to into my cup. Not a warm
up! But an overflowing fill up. He handed the overflowing cup to me and
apologized for the results. I thanked him for trying, went to the restroom and poured
half the contents down the sink, leaving a trail of spillage along my route.
How different the world has become. It constantly makes me
reminisce about the good old days, when you went to a diner for coffee and
toast, or whatever, and the waitress came around with a pot of hot coffee to
give customers a warm up. It still goes on, at diners like the Harris Diner in Owego,
New York. Sometimes, it’s not the waitress who comes around, it’s a customer
who goes behind the counter, grabs a pot, and wanders table to table giving people
a splash of hot coffee. I’m a lucky guy, to have a foot in both worlds. One,
where the machine is not as intelligent as portrayed and gives me a chuckle, and
the other, where people are better at the task.
Comments? Complaints? Send to mlessler7@gmail.com
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