The more coffee they drank...
That article, in The Atlantic, led me to look up "coffee" in the OED. Among the coffee quotes, this, from Alexander Pope: "Coffee, (which makes the politician wise/And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)."
December 7, 2014
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Did the OED credit the legendary history of coffee? According to legend coffee was unknown in Europe before 1529. In that year the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent laid a siege to Vienna, which failed rather precipitously. The Turks retreated in such disorder that their camp and baggage were taken intact by the Hapsburg forces led by Charles V. Among the booty taken were bags of bitter dried berries. The Austrian soldiers tried to eat them, but got horribly sick as a result. Then a captured Turk showed them how to brew a delicious and powerful beverage from the "beans." The stimulating effect was most appreciated by monks who were required to keep long prayer vigils without sleep.
This story is of course bullshit.
With time I have abandoned the conventional vices one by one. No more drugs, no more alcohol, no more eating what I damn well please.
"At least I still have coffee," I've told myself.
Now you're telling me my six to eight cups a day isn't even a vice? It's enough to make me start smoking again.
We've retaken butter, eggs, bacon, cream, whole milk and steak back from the culture killers - like the US Navy island-hopping toward Japan in WW II. All that's left is sex, politics, education, medicine, sports and work. Then the media will be easy.
The World of Caffeine, a fun read and great documentation of how caffeine consumption was and is integral to the success of the western world.
(PS You can buy it on the Althouse Amazon portal)
I always like it when my stupid addictions are validated by someone's biased research.
Josephus Daniels substituted coffee for the daily navy ration of rum when he was Secretary of the Navy, under Wilson. That's why a cup of coffee is sometimes called a 'cup of joe'.
p.s. I've never had to prove I'm not a robot here before. What new hell is this?
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