No Decaf After Noon - Follow-Up

Thanks to Matt for bringing this to my attention.

I wrote earlier of my complaint that a Starbucks at a Target store that I went to stopped serving decaf coffee after 12:00 Noon, which I thought was rather strange. Well, it turns out that this is a new Startbucks policy that I missed!

To cut costs, the Seattle coffee giant has instructed its U.S. baristas to stop automatically brewing batches of decaffeinated drip coffee after noon, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by the company.

Instead, from noon on, baristas will brew decaf coffee only when a customer orders it, a process the company says will take an extra four minutes or so.

Stores that determine they have enough demand can continue to brew decaf regularly in the afternoon and evening. Starbucks spokeswoman Deb Trevino said the change shouldn't affect customers. "We're just saying brew it based on your store needs rather than a one size fits all," she said.

This makes very little sense! As I've said, one would think that people would want decaf coffee after Noon, and as the day progresses towards the evening. In fact, in that news article, someone mentioned the same thing.

I wonder if they're keeping track of how many people they turned away by this, and if they realize the amount of business they lost. Oh well. Looks like I'm visiting my Caribou Coffee joint more often now.

Zz.

US Endorses UN Gay Rights Text

Some time, you read something that is full of hypocrisy, it makes your blood boil.

The US, the so-called champion of "human rights", finally endorses the UN declaration on gay rights after the Bush administration made the US the only western country not to sign it.

But what made my blood boil was this part:

Some Islamic countries said at the time that protecting sexual orientation could lead to "the social normalization and possibly the legalization of deplorable acts" such as pedophilia and incest. The declaration was also opposed by the Vatican.

The Vatican and the Catholic Church, of course, are experts in pedophilia and how to hide it. But how the "islamic countries" could actually be so uppity about such act while keeping a straight face is beyond me. Let's not forget that taking prepubescent child bride is alive and well in Saudi Arabia, the bedrock of Islamic religion where millions of muslims go for their pilgrimage. If this is not pedophilia, then what is it?

So maybe they just don't want protection for gays and lesbians (I'd like them to pull out statistics on how many lesbians have assaulted underaged girls) simply because they don't want competition for their pedophiles!

Zz.

No Decaf After Noon

Nothing fits better into this blogs intention of life's amusing musing than this blog entry.

I was at a Target store last Saturday in Niles, Illinois (6150 W Touhy Ave. Niles). On the way into the store, I notice that they had a Starbucks, so I stopped over to get a decaf coffee (I only drink decaf coffee nowadays, even their latte). After I asked for a grande decaf coffee, I was told by the person behind the counter that they do not serve decaf coffee after 12:00 noon.

WHAAAAAT????!!!!!!

I thought I heard or understood things wrongly, so I repeated something like "You stop serving decaf coffee after Noon?". And yup, I got the confirmation. I then proceeded to say thank you and walk away.

Now, obviously this is not a common policy of Starbucks. I know for a fact that I can get decaf coffee any time I want at the Starbucks in my neighborhood. The many times I've been in many different Starbucks in the city (and across the country), there was never any thing resembling a policy of not serving decaf coffee after Noon. So it is my strong suspicion that this silly policy is only unique to this particular Starbucks.

{Aside: I also do not know if this is an actual Starbucks, or only one of those that serve Starbucks coffee and other items, but not really a full-blown Starbucks}.

Now, obviously they can make whatever policy they want, but think of the rational behind this. One would think that, of all things, you WANT to start serving decaf coffee later in the day. That's when people are trying to wind down, and especially in the early evening, if they want coffee and still be able to sleep, they'd want decaf coffee. It is in the morning that, if they don't serve decaf, it would have understandable, since almost everyone want that caffeine jolt.

My friend who was with me suggested that I ask for a decaf latte, since they have to grind the beans anyway. I said no. If they are that dumb in making such policy, then I definitely don't want to give them any of my money.

I wonder who decided to do something like this....

Zz.

A Night At The Museum

Last Friday we spent the evening at the Field Museum of Natural History here in Chicago for their annual Members Night. It was our first attendance to one of these things and it was a great, great event. It is almost like the museum's open house, where the members not only get to see all the exhibits on display, but also get to go behind the scenes into areas that are not opened to visitors. We also get to talk to many of the staff and researchers doing various work at the museum, often in their own laboratories or offices. So that made it quite worthwhile.

Anyway, here is a photo essay of the evening.

This is the museum as we walk out of the parking ramp at the museum campus.


The museum was quite packed, since it was a Friday night. They had a cash bar right in the middle of the museum, and the food establishements were also open.


We couldn't go into their Pirates special exhibits since they have distributed already all the time slots for it, but we did managed to go do their Aztec exhibits. Sorry, no pictures for that since photos were prohibited.

We then walked around look at some of the areas that we seldom get to see during our earlier visits. One of them was the North American area that showed the natural habitat of N. America, and the native american lives before the arrivals of the Europeans.






We then walked into the bowels of the museum, which is the lower level that isn't opened to the public. This is known as the "CRC", which is the collections resource center.


The area that was most fascinating to us was the oversize anthropology collections storage room. This area stores large anthropological items that, I presume, get rotated to be on display. It's too bad that we couldn't get to see a lot more of the room beyond just the front.

This is one of the sculpture found in the room.


These HUGE jars were excavated at Pompei and were though to be storage jars for olive oil. They are really quite big, as tall as an average person.


More impressive sculpture. These and the previous one are in bronze.


Nice kitty....


A look at the areas that we couldn't go into in the oversize area storage room. There were several bowls and other artifacts that we could only see from a distance.


There were also a few Egyptian hieroglyphs carved on stones. We didn't get a chance to ask anyone there about them because it was very crowded and the staff there were quite engaged with the visitors.



Leaving the underbelly of the Field Museum, we then went upstairs to the 3rd and 4th floors, which again are typically inaccessible to the public. We essentially got to see the labs and offices where the staff and researchers work. We spent quite a bit of time in the anthropological area and got to talk to a couple of anthropologists about human evolution. There were replicas of the skulls and bones of Australopithecus Africanus, Homo Erectus, and Homo Sapiens. We would have stayed longer but our time for the Aztec tour was about to start, so we had to scoot out of there in a hurry. These are the view of the hallway in these upper floors.



It was a very pleasant evening spent at the museum. This event alone was worth the membership. Since it was such a gorgeous evening, we drove a short distance to the Adler Planetarium and parked there to get a view of the Chicago skyline at night. I never tire looking at this. It is a gorgeous city where I live.


Zz.

The Slow Death of Diversity In Wrigleyville

We went out to dinner last night at a Moroccan restaurant in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is affectionately known as "Wrigleyville", which is in an area called Lakeview on the north side of Chicago. It is called Wrigleyville because it surrounds Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs' home field.

I truly believe that what makes going to a Cubs game more enjoyable is the neighborhood. There are plenty of sports bars, music clubs, and more importantly, eating establishments in the neighborhood. With a more welcoming and friendlier neighborhood towards visitors and tourists when compared to the neighborhood surrounding the White Sox field, baseball fans tend to linger a lot longer in the neighborhood. It is also a major attraction during weekends for people to come in, have dinner, and then hop on over to the various bars and clubs.

When we first moved into the neighborhood in 1993, there was a wealth of diversity of restaurants in the neighborhood. Off the top of my head, there were 4 Thai restaurants, 3 Ethiopian, 1 Caribbean, 3 Japanese, 1 French-Vietnamese, 1 Korean, 2 Indian, 2 noodles restaurants, etc... throughout the years, a few newer restaurants moved in such as a Moroccan, a Vietnamese, another Indian restaurant, etc.

Such diversity in food is what made this neighborhood such an eclectic mix and a major attraction to many visitors. I know that in my case, I thoroughly enjoyed going to these various ethnic restaurants and trying various new types of food. It is what made me want to stay in this area.

Sadly, during the past 5 years or so, many of these diverse restaurants have closed down for one reason or another, and most have nothing to do with the current economic crisis. Buildings are sold and the new owners want more higher-traffic establishments, or rents were raised beyond what these small ma-and-pa restaurants can afford. Whatever the case, there is a slow homogenization of the types of restaurants in Wrigleyville. Exotic ethnic restaurants are being replaced by generic pizza parlor, Americanized chinese restaurants, bars, and sandwich/hamburger joints. What made this neighborhood so unique and attractive in the first place is slowly being killed. The last of our Ethiopian restaurant has closed its doors. We went from having 3 to none in a span of just 3 years. We also lost an African restaurant last year. We have two Thai restaurants left, with one barely surviving at this point, and in an attempt to survive, had made "compromises" with its menu to appeal to the larger population.

I don't know whether there is a reason for such a trend. The eclectic mix seems to have moved out of the neighborhood and gone further north into the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago, where exciting mix of restaurants are sprouting. And whether this is a coincidence or a reason for such a trend remains to be seen, but the gay population that had a major hand in revitalization of Wrigleyville has also been moving north into the Andersonville area, especially after housing and rental prices have skyrocketed to approach that of Lincoln Park.

I'm hoping our Moroccan restaurant makes it. If last night's dinner was any indication, they might just be able to do that. The restaurant was packed to the walls, and there were plenty of people waiting for tables. Of course, it was a Saturday night, and we have been there on weekday nights when they were barely 1/4 full. I really hope they make it, not just because the food is outstanding, but the neighborhood needs them to add color to the palette. It is one of the last few remnants of the vibrant diversity and cultural spectrum in the cuisine that this neighborhood used to have.

Zz.