DARNED COFFEE IS KEEPING ME AWAKE AT WORK
BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted November 16, 2004)
This picture could've been taken on any given day. Terry Bulger and me, in the middle of our newsroom, enjoying a cup of hot coffee.
More on that a few lines down.
Years ago, a photographer here at Channel 4 drank a lot of coffee. I won't use his name because I hear he's been ill recently..... I'll just call him Maxwell Folger.
Every time I saw Max he was drinking coffee. It's still difficult to form a mental image of Max without a styrofoam cup in his hand.
One day I asked him, "Max, how many cups of coffee do you drink in a day?"
He thought for a minute, counting on his fingers, and finally said, "thirty-five".
Now, to me, that seems like a lot.
He told me the reason he drank so much is because the TV station offered free coffee in the commissary.
They still do.
It's not good coffee.... it's not even bad coffee.... it just sort of resembles coffee.... but, hey, it's free!
So I drink it (generously flavored with hazelnut creamer).
Most days at work, I'll have 4 or 5 cups - but when I'm not working, even one cup is rare.
A recurring discussion Terry Bulger and I have concerns whether we would drink ANY coffee if we had to pay for it.
Like me, Terry drinks very little coffee away from work, but I believe he's closer to being a true "free coffee addict" than I am.
He fills his cup a lot - though, from my observations, he seldom actually consumes it.
And that's the thing with free coffee drinkers..... we don't feel compelled to consume it.
Sometimes it's simply a "carrying it around" thing..... a prop.
But every now and then, great excitement spreads through the hallways of Channel 4, and there is a real reason to drink it to the last drop.
It happens when a gourmet coffee distributor shows up and installs a temporary dispenser in the commissary. It's always a trial run. They offer real coffee..... tasty gourmet coffee..... in a variety of flavors and strengths. And IT'S FREE!
And for that one day, it's delightful.... lines form at the coffee machine, and we all rave about the taste and aroma.
Of course, the distributor is hoping serious coffee drinkers will get spoiled and be willing to pay 30 cents or so for wonderful aromatic brew every day.
But when it's time for the reckoning...... would we be willing to pay for such pleasure everyday?.... it's always the same. "No, we'll take the free, hot, brown water over there".
The reality is, if they took away the coffee and offered, say, free buttermilk instead, Terry and I would probably be discussing the merits of smooth versus lumpy - as we drank, or at least carried around, our fifth glass of buttermilk that day.
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