Tea is where it’s at, by the way. I’m gonna go make myself a cup right now.

Speaking of hair, thank you for confirming the mystery of the amount of shedding vs. amount of dog.

And after your description of Syd, um, I think my boy dogs will be steering clear.

HOW CAN YOU DRINK COFFEE MADE FROM BURNED TO DEATH BEANS???? That chain is the McDonalds of the coffee world. It’s swill. Expensive swill at that.

Re the dog hair issue. I’ve filled three vac bags in two weeks. My dog only weighs forty pounds. Each full vac bag seemed to weigh at *least* ten. I’m still boggled at that math . . . and it will be SO nice in a couple weeks to be able to eat a dinner that doesn’t have dog hair as one of its major ingredients. Luckily Syd, the dominatrix alpha bitch from hell, only sheds twice a year.

As for should they have to–yes, let’s decide right now they do. Everyone must do nice things from now on. So it shall be written, so it shall be done.

Quick quiz, movie buffs–whose line was that?

a last rant. why don’t corporations HAVE TO do lots and lots of nice things?–don’t they take our money, don’t we work for them, don’t we own their stock, aren’t they citizens of our communities, just like us? don’t we all have to do nice things for the privilege of living in a nice world?–shouldn’t they?

I think that’s so unfair. It’s easy to think that no company, no person (not even Oprah or Bill Gates with all of their charitable donations)is doing “enough.”

What’s enough? Doing SOMETHING is better than a vast majority of corporations and individuals do.

This creates that same panic in me when I see how much need there is in the world, and realize I’m one person with only this much time and money and skills to help.

So what’s the answer? Do a little for a lot of causes, or pick one or two and channel as much as you can their way? I honestly don’t know. I have the feeling it’s the latter, but I’m open to discussion on this.

In the meantime, don’t be so mean to Starbucks. I love it any time a corporation does something nice that they don’t have to.

on one such occasion, approximately a year ago, the particular starbucks i stopped at for a double shot latte for the road had a big display for starbucks’ “charity”, “ethos” bottled water. what a joke, the self-laudatory literature available with each bottle, proclaims that starbucks will contribute a million dollars of the sales proceeds toward providing potable water in emerging nations, i believe the continent of choice was africa. wow, a million dollars. i took it upon myself to communicate with starbucks, very repectfully, the rather apparent hypocrisy in contributing to the plastic beverage container pollution crisis in a country (ours) with arguably the cleanest water in the world. (i resisted mentioning how embarrasingly cheap the contribution is and in fact congratulated starbucks on its desire to effect positive change, suggesting however that its efforts might be better directed at requiring its paper and plastic providers to use only biodegradeable products and saving paper by posting a single sign of its generous humanitarian efforts rather than a slick brochure with every purchase.)

i know what you’re thinking–did i get a response? you bet “…we at starbucks appreciate your patronage, all of our customers are important to us, we value any suggestions that our valuable customers make, thank you for your suggestions, valuable customer, we are pleased you enjoy our products.” i was so touched.

rb, stand tough in london–WALK BY the starbucks to a real coffee house and if you can’t find one, start drinking beer as i understand there is no shortage of local pubs.