88 wrote:You might think it is intellectual to pour coffee for me
Since I live in the coffee shop capital of the country, I must disagree --
Getting a job as a "barista" (you primitive east-of-the Rockies sorts will become familiar with that term in a decade or two), rrequires that one got a four-year degree...
from a college in the Midwest. Then, they have to make that highly-educated decision to move to the same place that their favorite bands did, despite the fact that their chosen locale has the worst unemployment rates in the country on a fairly regular basis. Maybe they do it because we have the highest minimum wage in the country, too...I dunno. It defies logic, at any rate.
That shit is high comedy round these parts. Local columnist has nothing to write about? Take a swipe at the degree-sporting baristas in their dark-rimmed glasses(you don't need any sort of vision problem to wear these -- just a deep-longing to try and look cool). Slow day on craigslist? A diatribe about transplanted coffee shop "baristas" will instantly endear you to the locals. Trying to sound "high-class?" Start name dropping your local minimum-wage-plus-tips-but-I'm-too-arrogant-about-my-minimum-wage-job-to-earn-tips name, and follow it with "yeah, she got a degree in liberal arts from
**insert name if Midwestern university here**"
I'm sure "baristas" are funny(in a pathetic/sad sort of way) everywhere, but multiply it by 10 around here. When the newsrag regularly runs articles on the "coffee shop economy," you know there's some smack to be run.
Oh well, enough on that...I must get back to my Krupps "barista" that's sitting on the counter. It wasn't the slightest bit rude to me this morning, so I might even give it a tip...or maybe the whole thing...you never know. Only charged me about $0.20 for the whole damn pot, too. And it made this pot in the same amount of time that the
barista at the coffee shop would have spent trying to make change.
Heck, if I put a pair of really dorky black glasses on it, and hid a tape recorder behind it with a loop of "I'm a
barista -- fuck you," it'd be just like going to Stumptown(only the true dregs of the barista(or is that redundant?) world have to settle for Starbucky's.