May chitchat

[Ikoiko]

Virginia, that sounds distressing. I had an old friend who’s divorce went through when he was in a coma in the hospital and he died shortly afterwards. Bad timing in both our cases.

Agate, never had a Dunkin’ donut and you lived in Boston? There are about two Dunkin’ Donuts stores on every corner.

Edit: spelling

[flatcap]

agate,

Sadly, we have no Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme stores in this area. They think you make donuts from potatoes around here.

I've been to Dunkin' Donuts before, but not for decades. I always liked their donuts and was surprised to find when I got here that most people had never even heard of Dunkin' Donuts.

I live in WA state, where people think that coffee was invented just for them, possibly in Seattle itself. Evidently, no one ever bothered to tell them that if you need a good donut and can't get one, then coffee is the least of your worries.

I didn't think of the bot problem. I imagine they're everywhere when it comes to forums such as this one.

[agate]

Ikoiko, I've been in a Dunkin' Donuts a couple of times, and that was in MA, but never had a donut for some reason. Just dropped in for a soft drink as I recall, very briefly, but it seemed to be the kind of place where people did just drop in briefly.

flatcap, didn't Starbucks coffee start in Seattle? I seem to remember that but might remember wrong. So in a way Seattleites probably do think they invented coffee. I used to live in Tacoma (known not-so-affectionately as "the armpit of Seattle," I think) and sometimes got news of Seattle. In fact, the only local TV news to speak of was from Seattle.

[flatcap]

I moved to Seattle from New Mexico in 1989. Right away, coffee everywhere. I had a friend who acted as a guide, and he got me a ticket on the espresso train ASAP. We went to coffee several times, but never to a Starbucks.

So, I looked it up just now and you are right: Starbucks got their start in Seattle. Apparently, that was in 1971. When they went nationwide, I don't know. I didn't read that far into it.

I also looked up espresso to be sure of one thing: that espresso was originally found in Italy. Turns out that is correct as well. I remember seeing espresso in Italian restaurants on the east coast a long time before 1971. It was usually served with dessert.

When I was in Seattle, I was informed that the city south of downtown was to be avoided. I don't recall hearing similar invectives concerning Tacoma, but that was probably because, in the crowd I was running with, the subject never came up.

A few years ago, I looked at moving back to Seattle because UW has a clinic there specializing in MS. My other thought was that I would be living in a vibrant, multicultural area.

Turns out I couldn't afford living there, so it was moot. Along the way, I also found the city had gone far downhill since 1989. Now, I doubt I would move there even if I could afford to.

To see just how bad things are in Seattle these days, there is a 1-hour video posted on YouTube by a local area news outlet. Note the title.

Seattle is Dying | A KOMO News Documentary
Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

[agate]

Espresso was known in Chicago back in the 1960s but it was a specialty thing that you might not know about it unless you paid attention to trends in gourmet dining. I had heard of it, maybe even sampled it, but it was new to most people then, I think.

I'm going to watch the video about Seattle very soon. The first of the month tends to be entirely too busy around here but I'm now intending to watch two videos from here, and I definitely will get around to it.

I remember KOMO-TV well.