Before Lent

Irish Coffee at Failte's

[Photo By: KPA]

Happy Valentine's

Here is a post from 2014:

#valentineheartthrob



No I'm not on twitter. But my yahoo mail has a red Valentine's heart on the top corner, and it throbs!

I thought it was cute.

But all cuteness aside, a day of lighthearted celebration of love is a good thing. The problem is when people take it so seriously that it means everything (or nothing). Red hearts all over the place are a nice burst of color, in this dark depths of winter, and after the festivities of Christmas and New Year, it brings a holiday mood into February. Our next holiday is Easter, and that is as late as March or April.

I was recently watching You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan (as Kathleen Kelly) and Tom Hanks (as Joe Fox). Kathleen sends herself a dozen red roses for Valentine's. She says to Joe that she does it for the possibility of love.

That is how we should all live: for the possibility of love, for the possibility of goodness, for the possibility of beauty, for the possibility of summer.

So many possibility, it gives us quite a busy schedule!

Here is a simple menu:

- Plate of sweet potato fries
- Glass of Cabernet Sauvignon Vista Point from California

Wine description from the menu:

Intense blackberry and currant, a smooth easy drinking wine for any occasion.

I don't know why the wine is described as "intense" but it is more flavorful than intense.

Here's one moresite (pdf) with this brief description of the wine: "pleasant, semi-dry, smooth."

My evaluation is that the wine's fruity notes makes it a great match with the sweet potatoes.

Happy (belated) Valentine's to all!

Frakturs, Fotografs, Farmicia, Francois, Flames and Fighting Songs

Here is the packed schedule I had in Philadelphia and New York. Visit these places, if you can...

I already posted on my visit to the Longwood Gardens (but further down in this post, I post a photograph which was on view from the Spring Blooms competition).

The New York Public Library
Exhibition: Over Here: WWI and the Fight for the American Mind





Let's All Be Americans Now
Lyrics and words by Irwin Berlin

[Verse 1]
Peace has always been our pray'r,
Now there's trouble in the air,
War is talked of ev'rywhere,
Still in God we trust;

Now that war's declared,
We'll show we're prepared,
And if fight we must.
It's up to you! What will you do?

[Chorus]
England or France may have your sympathy, over the sea,
But you'll agree That, now is the time, To fall in line,
You swore that you would so be true to your vow,
Let's all be Americans now. now.

[Verse 2]
Lincoln, Grant and Washington,
They were peaceful men, each one,
Still they took the sword and gun,
When real trouble came;
And I feel somehow, they are wond'ring now,
If we'll do the same.

[Repeat Chorus]

All this in the New York Public Library.

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Longwood Gardens
Photographic Exhibition: Spring Blooms
From the Delaware Photographic Society's annual Wilmington International Exhibition of Photography


Ellis Underkoffer

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Philadelphia Museum of Art
Exhibition: Drawn with Spirit: Pennsylvania German Fraktur from the Joan and Victor Johnson Collection


Pennsylvania German
Birth and Baptismal Certificate for Johannes Gass
1790-1800
Pen, ink and watercolor
12 3/4 x 15 1/2
Philadelphia Museum of Art

I got this postcard from the museum's shop. I couldn't find the exact piece on line, so what you see is my photograph (I don't have a scanner) of the postcard.

From what I can find out, the designer of this piece is known as Christian Beschler, the "Sussel Unicorn artist" according to this piece.

In 2007, Dr. Don Yoder identified the words gemacht von CB (made by CB) on two newly discovered "Sussel-Unicorn" taufscheine (birth and baptismal certificates).3 These initials belonged to the schoolmaster Christian Beschler,
[...]
His taufscheine are characterized by a bright orange or orange and yellow central rectangular area that contains the text adorned with compass stars and geometric designs. Whimsical unicorns and birds with manes eating berries, lions with faces, angels, hearts, half circles, compass stars, and pots of flowers fill the colorful documents. There seems to be an obsession to fill all available space. His religious text and drawing share these motifs.

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Farmicia
Food and Tonics

15 S. 3rd Street
(Between Market and Chestnut Streets)
Philadelphia



Here is the menu, but the lentil salad, with baked goat cheese, greens and sherry dressing is more than just a salad!

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The Red Flame Diner

67 West 44th St
New York, NY 10036



Good diner food for a fair price. Here's the menu.

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Plaza Hotel's Food Hall:
Francois Payard Patisserie







The Passion fruit (with a light chocolate) macaron, for $2.50, will take you down a few blocks.

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I didn't make it to the Morgan, the Cloisters, Macy's or Bergdorf Goodman. But, so far, it looks like New York will stand for a while.

Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Soup With a Companion

[Photo By: KPA]
Cow from "The Pasture"
Toronto Dominion Centre
Foe Fafard
1985

I had this calm and pleasant companion as I sat in the TD Centre in downtown Toronto, as I warmed up with a Tim Horton's Cream of Broccoli soup on that sunny but very cold day. The soup was delicious ("A lush soup made with broccoli florets combined in a velvety cream base"), and the companion quietly, and politely, solicited this photograph.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Christine's Christmas Cheer with Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cups

Christine Tizzard, of CBC's Best Recipes Ever has a 1/2 hour daily slot to show us her culinary skills. And she is very good.



Below is the video of her showing us how to make a Christmas-themed, chocolate-covered cherry cups. Tizzard also writes for Canadian Living magazine.



I have posted the complete recipe below.

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Portion size: 30 pieces

Ingredients
10 oz (283 g) 70% dark chocolate, chopped
6 oz (170 g) milk chocolate, chopped
1 pkg (200 g) marzipan1/2 cup (125 mL) glacé cherries
Garnish:10 glacé cherries, cut in thirds

Preparation

In heatproof bowl over saucepan of hot (not boiling) water, melt together half each of the dark and milk chocolates until smooth. Pour by about 1 tsp into 1-3/4-inch (4.5 cm) wide candy cups. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in food processor, pulse marzipan with cherries until smooth paste forms. Roll by fully rounded 1 tsp into balls. Gently press balls into candy cups, flattening tops almost but not all the way to edge.

In heatproof bowl over saucepan of hot (not boiling) water, melt together remaining dark and milk chocolates; pour by 1 tsp over filling to cover, smoothing tops. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Garnish: Top each chocolate with 1 cherry piece. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. (Make-ahead: Layer between waxed paper in airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 week.)

The ever-practical Canadian Living Magazine also has nutrient information:

Nutritional Information Per Piece:
Calories - 131
Protien - 2g
total fat - 8g
Saturated fat - 4g
Carbohydrate - 15g
Dietary fibre - 2g
Sugar - 12g
Cholesterol - 2mg
Sodium - 8mg
Potassium - 123mg

% RDI:
Calcium - 2
Iron - 9
Folate - 1

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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A Chocolate Moment

[Photo By: KPA]

The Ferrero Rocher chocolate company is holding a competition it titles "Beauty is in the Details."

Contestants were given a scene in the mall, which included a table set with wine glasses and chocolates, and they were to take a picture of that scene, and submit it to a twitter site.

I happened to be there at the exact moment! Apparently they were there for only a couple of hours, after which they dismantled and left!

The competition guidelines are:

Do you see beauty in the details around you?

Find, capture and share your

#Ferreromoment

on Instagram and/or Twitter

For a chance to win 1 of 250

Ferroro Rocher Holiday Prizes

My "#Ferreromoment" is above, which I took a couple of days ago.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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A bit of Irish Christmas

A bit of Irish Christmas
[Photo By: KPA]

The Failte Irish Pub has decorated the whole restaurant Christmas decorations, with a full tree at the front.

I took the above photo yesterday afternoon.

I have taken other photos of the place, and posted them here.

I've also posted on Failte, and Larry Auter, here. In that post, I write about Larry's complimenting my writing style, which is the best I've had, since many people tell me to "tone things down."

Here's what I wrote:

[Larry] wrote to me in an email in mid-January (2013): "There is something appealing about your semi flow-of-associations writing. Not everything needs to be big and important. What you provide is a feeling of your life, of yourself."

I hope, as in true accounts of the personal, that this also reflects on the bigger picture of the life around me. I think Larry felt that too.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Happy Thanksgiving

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
Freedom From Want
1943
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Sweet Potato Bisque: Courtesy of Tim Horton

The kind staff at Tim Hortons sent me the recipe for their Sweet Potato Bisque, which I blogged about here.

Sweet Potato Bisque
Sweet potatoes
Water
Apples
Carrots
Cream
Modified corn starch
Brown sugar
Potato flakes
Butter
Canola or soybean oil
Salt
Black Pepper
Curry powder
Cinnamon
Garlic powder
Onion powder

The dircections were not included, but I think we can figure that out.

Bon Appetit!
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Soup Time

Tim Hortons Soups

Seinfeld's the Soup Nazi understood the deliciousness of soup, and how hard it is to get it right.

Well, the fast food Tim Hortons (which is more a Wendy's than a Macdonalds) has added a new selection to their soup roster: Sweet potato and spices bisque.

I'm trying to find the recipe, although I'm pretty sure the spices are a combination of paprika and cardamom, which adds to the sweetness of the sweet potato. Anything stronger, like chili peppers or curry, would drown the delicate sweet potato. Someone knows how to make soup here. Perhaps Tim's does have a soup Nazi, who will NOT divulge, at any cost, the exact (secret) ingredients of his creation.

The menu describes the soup as: "A savoury, velvety bisque with pureed sweet potatoes, spices and a touch of cream."

For a "cup of soup" which is just perfect for a very quick snack in this cold weather, it costs $3.15, with a roll. A combo is a larger "bowl" and includes coffee and chips or a donut.



Well, the Timmie's crowd is much nicer than Seinfeld's soup chef, and probably couldn't tell me what's in the bisque, with their "chef" most likely a committee somewhere at head office.

Laura Wood at the Thinking Housewife has posted what sounds like a delicious soup, which she made especially for her son and his guest.

Here is her post, An Autumn Soup, and the recipe for the soup, Curried Parsnip and Apple Soup.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Round Tables

Waiting On The Algonquin
[Photo By: KPA]

There are many lovely photos of the Algonquin Hotel in New York, including this one from the hotel's website, where there is action in the flutter of the flags.

But, how many can say they managed to get this staff carrying (where is he going?) a package (looks like delivery), just outside the hotel, with his reflection in the door of the hotel? And I do manage to get some motion in the flags too.

I went in to ask about the menu, and about the history of the Round Table, and where the group sat. The receptionist did show me the table, and told me that there was some kind of guided tour. I asked to see the menu.

Well, from the dinner menu in the restaurant, a shrimp cocktail costs $20, and "parmesan crusted chicken breast" is $36. But, a Pre-theater Dinner (three course) costs $35, which is reasonable enough.

Or one could have a drink and snacks at the Lounge, as the recpetionist suggested, where "home made Algonquin potato chips with old fashioned onion dip" is $9, and the Hemingway cocktail is $21. The bar has graciously written the drinks' ingredients on the menu, where the Hemingway includes: stolichnaya, fresh grapefruit and simple syrup, with a sugar rim on the glass. Matilda the Cat has her own cocktail as the Matilda, which at $21 contains: tangerine vodka, cointreau, fresh lemon & orange juices and korbel brut. Champagne and sweet liqueurs for this cat. The menu assures us that their "cocktails are made with depth, complexity and a dexterous hand."

But what is stolichnaya? I suppose it is Hemingway's communist connection which graced this vodka in the cocktail:

As in Europe, in the 1920s and 1930s numerous American intellectuals sympathized or joined the Communist Party in the United States as young activists. Columnist Max Lerner included the term in his 1936 article for The Nation called "Mr. Roosevelt and His Fellow Travelers." Future HUAC chief investigator J. B. Matthews would use the term in the title of his last book, Odyssey of a Fellow Traveler (1938). Other famous writers who traveled included Ernest Hemingway, and Theodore Dreiser. [Source]

I would have thought the acerbic Dorothy Parker would have been a better candidate after whom to name a cocktail.

I managed to see the mural of the Round Table group on the far wall of the Algonquin Restaurant, which would have been the room where they met.




A Vicious Circle
2002
Illustration by Natalie Ascencios
[Source: NPR]

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Identifying members of the Round Table
[Source]

1. Dorothy Parker writer and literary and drama critic

2. Robert Benchley humorist and writer, managing editor at Vanity Fair and drama critic for Life and The New Yorker.

3. Matildais the Algonquin’s steadfast cat

4. Franklin Pierce Adams, best known for his column, “Conning Tower,” which appeared in three New York newspapers, The World, The Herald Tribune and the New York Post.

5. Robert Sherwood, playwright, drama editor of Vanity Fair, and wrote movie reviews for Life.

6. Harpo Marx, part of the Marx Brothers team

7. Alexander Woollcott, essayist and literary and drama critic, wrote for the New York Times, McCalls, The Saturday Evening Post, and Vanity Fair, had a weekly radio show, “Town Crier" in New York City.

8. Harold Ross, created The New Yorker magazine in 1925, Round Tablers Benchley, Parker and Woollcott contributed regularly

9. George S. Kaufman, playwright who wrote several Broadway hits, and collaborated on many works with fellow Round Tabler Marc Connelly

10. Heywood Broun, drama critic and sports writer for the New York Herald Tribune, wrote the column “Seems to Me” for 20 years covering New York nightlife

11. Marc Connelly, playwright, journalist for The Morning Telegraph

12. Edna Ferber, novelist and playwright

And next time I might be able to meet the Hotel's current, VIP: Matilda the cat.



I wrote on the Alonguin here, On Round Tables.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Starting Out in the Evening

View from Toast, on 105th
This scene reminds me of one of my favorite New York movies,
Starting Out in the Evening
[Photo By: KPA]


Building across the street from Toast
Showing the dusk glow on its facade
(The building is visible in the above photo)
[Photo By: KPA]


The "X" marks the spot where I was sitting (for the couple of evenings I went during the rain.)
The third time, it was a lovely mild evening, and I sat in the patio.
[Photo from Toast's website]

Although I started out very early in the mornings during my stay in New York, the end of the day was equally special.

I took the above photo at late dusk (around 8:30 pm) at Toast on 105th street on Broadway. It had just rained, a thundershower to be exact. The street was empty except for the occasional yellow cab, and it was fast getting dark. My camera just about can take photos in the dark. But opening up the aperture to let in more light also affects motion, so some of the photograph looks blurred, especially the rustling leaves. But I also got those neat effects of streaming light.

I think the photo picks up the mood perfectly of the quiet evening. I was sitting by an open french window inside the restaurant since the patio seats were still wet. But I got the best of both interior and exterior, with a breeze coming through, and an unobstructed view of the street in front.

I had a delicious smoked salmon appetizer (House Smoked Salmon with capers & herb mayo, from Toast's menu. I usually don't like capers, but I didn't leave anything behind, finishing off the capers first so as not to detract from the mild and sweet smoked salmon), with a French rose. The wait staff knows me, and kindly accommodates my sometimes demanding requests.

Here is how Toast's menu describes the wine:

Bieler Pere et Fils 2011, France
It’s that time again! Ripe fruit with strawberry & a tingly dry finish. This classic Provence style always shines. Now in its 9th strong vintage - and by far our top-selling rosé every season! Ahh...Rosé.

After the Rain
[Photo By: KPA]

The lights floating on the trees are reflections of the restaurant's lights on the window, behind which I took the photograph on the wet evening when the french window was still closed (they opened it up a little later, at my request).
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Posted BY: Kidist P. Asrat
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Neat, Precise, Inventive: Canada's Culinary Expert

Christine Tizzard's Best Recipes Ever

If you want to know who is the new Martha Stewart (of cooking at least), here she is:

Christine Tizzard, who has a daily 1/2 hour show on the CBC's Best Recipes Ever.

She is neat, precise, efficient, and creative. These are hard traits to combine. Her daily shows are posted on the CBC's Best Recipes Ever site, if you want to watch her in action.

She talks about her family, talks her way (a little too much, I have to say) through the food preparations, and gives us recipes on a daily basis. And lots of tips. She also has a weekly column in Canadian Living magazine.

Like Martha Stewart, she started her media career as a beauty pageant contestant. She's also acted in a couple of films. But, she realized her potential and went to George Brown College, the local Toronto college, to study culinary arts (cooking), and came out with a new vocation.

The Canadian media tries to glamorize her. This article says she's married to a "rock star." But, I've never heard of him. It's better to call him a musician. And for her to stick to her cooking, which looks like the more lucrative option.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Wine and Society

Dionysos: God of wine
Marble head and torso
Roman copy after Praxitelean work of the 4th Century B.C.

His appearance matches descriptions in classical literature:

"A magical enchanter..., his bond hair smelling of perfume
his cheeks flushed with charms of Aphrodite in his eyes"
Euripedes, Bacchae 192-194

[The above description is from the information plaque beneath the sculpture at the Royal Ontario Musuem, in Toronto]
[Photo by Kidist P. Asrat]

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It looks like I've beaten the great Camille Paglia to the punch regarding oenology matters. I'm sure Paglia has written about wine before, but I haven't read her exclusive treatise on the beverage. Here is how I associated wine, culture and society in a couple of posts I did last year: Nectar for a Goddess and The God of Wine. In a third post, Dionysus' Fury, I discuss the lost culture of wine where Dionysus raises his fury through me at the ignorance of culture-bereft waitresses. Also in The God of Wine, I discuss the wine and the Eucharist.

I also write about beer, a beverage assumed to be less sophisticated than wine, but I raise its status to The Nectar for the Gods.

Below are some excerpts from Paglia's April 23, 2014 Time Magazine article: The Drinking Age is Past its Prime.

- On the refined cultures of France and Germany, who teach their children how to drink beer and wine, where Paglia associates "learning how to drink" with "growing up":

Learning how to drink responsibly is a basic lesson in growing up - as it is in wine-drinking France or in Germany, with its family-oriented beer gardens and festivals. Wine was built into my own Italian-American upbringing, where children were given sips of my grandfather’s homemade wine. This civilized practice descends from antiquity.

- On the "truth" that wine was associated with in ancient Greece and Rome, which is a precursor to the truth of the Eucharist in Christianity:

...wine was identified with the life force in Greece and Rome: In vino veritas (In wine, truth).. Wine as a sacred symbol of unity and regeneration remains in the Christian Communion service. Virginia Woolf wrote that wine with a fine meal lights a “subtle and subterranean glow, which is the rich yellow flame of rational intercourse.”

- About Dionysus:

Exhilaration, ecstasy and communal vision are the gifts of Dionysus, god of wine.

The article has the usual gems of Paglian Wisdom, but then we also get the erratic jumps of ideas and beliefs that make her works readable and entertaining, i.e. not to be taken seriously all of the time.

E.g.:

As a libertarian, I support the decriminalization of marijuana, but there are many problems with pot. From my observation, pot may be great for jazz musicians and Beat poets, but it saps energy and willpower and can produce physiological feminization in men.

Yes, Camille. And how about the pot-head on the road, in pursuit of that Kerouacian line of poetry?

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Rembrandt's Esther

The Jewish holiday of Purim ended last week. It commemorates:

...the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire where a plot had been formed to destroy them...

According to the Book of Esther, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus...planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by Mordecai and his cousin and adopted daughter Esther who had risen to become Queen of Persia. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing [more here].

Rembrandt painted a series of paintings depicting Esther. Below are what I think it is a complete list:


Haman and Ahasuerus at the banquet with Esther


Haman Prepares to Honour Mordecai


Haman Begging Esther for Mercy


Esther is Introduced to Ahasuerus


Esther before Ahasuerus


Esther with the Decree of Destruction


Esther Preparing to Intercede with Assuerus

More paintings of Esther by various artists can be found: here, here, here and here.

A special holiday cake called hamentashen is served for this holiday. I mention my first encounter with hamentashen in my post Kidist's Best of New York City (Best Hotel Bakery Item: The Hamentashen at the Plaza Hotel (apricot filling), which I discuss more here.



I'm not sure how the greeting goes, but I will just say: Happy Purim!
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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#valentineheartthrob

No I'm not on twitter. But my yahoo mail has a red Valentine's heart on the top corner, and it throbs!

I thought it was cute.

But all cuteness aside, a day of lighthearted celebration of love is a good thing. The problem is when people take it so seriously that it means everything (or nothing). Red hearts all over the place are a nice burst of color, in this dark depths of winter, and after the festivities of Christmas and New Year, it brings a holiday mood into February. Our next holiday is Easter, and that is as late as March or April.

I was recently watching You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan (as Kathleen Kelly) and Tom Hanks (as Joe Fox). Kathleen sends herself a dozen red roses for Valentine's. She says to Joe that she does it for the possibility of love.

That is how we should all live: for the possibility of love, for the possibility of goodness, for the possibility of beauty, for the possibility of summer.

So many possibility, it gives us quite a busy schedule!

Here is a simple menu:

- Plate of sweet potato fries
- Glass of Cabernet Sauvignon Vista Point from California

Wine description from the menu:

Intense blackberry and currant, a smooth easy drinking wine for any occasion.

I don't know why the wine is described as "intense" but it is more flavorful than intense.

Here's one more site (pdf) with this brief description of the wine: "pleasant, semi-dry, smooth."

My evaluation is that the wine's fruity notes makes it a great match with the sweet potatoes.

Happy (belated) Valentine's to all!




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Fighting for My Perfume and Coffee in Multi-Culti Canada

Indian wedding in Toronto

I went to the Max Azria store in the mall here in Mississauga, and found a bottle of Bon Chic. I asked the shop assistant what were its notes. This Indian shop assistant clearly didn't know, but stalled for time waiting for another assistant to finish with a customer. While waiting, I asked her about the bottle sizes, since there was a tiny one in a gift package. Again, she didn't know.

So I just took matters in my own hands, and took out the small bottle to see the contents underneath. No information there. So I turned the box upside down, and found what I needed. The bottle was the same size as the bottle on sale at Sephora.

I put the small bottle on the stand, not bothering to replace it in the box, and left the store.

The Mississauga Mall, that is being renovated with a plethora of high-end stores, is filled with such Indian and Chinese shop assistants, who have very little idea about the fashion, perfume and style the stores are selling. I think they are hired to "represent" the large influx of Chinese and Indians in the city, in the past couple of decades. Now, rather than being "new" immigrants, they are merely immigrants. They have infiltrated many institutions in the city, including important, governmental ones, and these leaders have much say about how their "people" are represented in the city.

I do see a large number of Indians and Chinese walking the mall's hallways. But, I don't think they are the real shoppers. From the various news and magazine articles I could find on the mall, many of the patrons are from nearby towns, of mostly wealthy white residents. The mall was refurbished and renovated to attract such high-end clientele.

The only reason I talked to this BCBG representative was because she was standing so close to the merchandise, I thought she might have found a way to give me the information I wanted. Usually, I bypass these multi-culti attendants, or I look for a white attendant. If the white attendant doesn't have all the information, she usually has something useful to say.

Non-whites in Canada are changing the culture if only by not preserving it (destroying it and replacing it with their own cultures is a well-documented phenomenon).

A non-white shop assistant who has no clue about BCBG, and doesn't understand the volume measurements of a perfume bottle, and cannot tell the difference between Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette, simply has a slot that has opened up for her, and her group, to press in further and replace our culture with her own culture and cultural items.

This new wave of immigrants looks like it's well-integrated, without any accent, and with all the superficial adaptations, but the serious things like their ancestral culture are never forgotten. Chinese look like they've adapted well, with the women easily marrying white men. But, the home life of these white-men-marrying Chinese women will always be infused with their cultural background.

And now coffee.

I like Starbucks coffee, and will find it where ever I am, rather than buy something else. Right beside the bus depot (which takes me periodically to Toronto) is a small Starbucks. I went early one morning and asked for Pike. The coffee machines (both!) were empty, and I said I would wait (two seconds, as the sales girl told me). I waited for abut five minutes, which was fine. When the coffee was ready, it was so weak, I would have been better off going to some fast-food chain to get a cup. The "coffee maker" was an Indian women with a strong accent. She couldn't even make a Starbucks coffee (measure the water? what a concept!). I was going to get the manager to deal with this, but I had no time. I took a mental note of the woman, to report her later on.

These non-white immigrants, (first, second and even third, so clearly all generations of these immigrants) have come to an established, cultivated, civilized place, with an enviable culture. A good cup of coffee is easy to find, and beautiful perfumes are being continuously created. They showed up to take advantage of all this, but at the same time instilling their past (and abandoned) culture into the mix. Theirs is winning. And we are suffering because of that. How long before they destroy everything and we are left with replicas of the places they left behind?

It may be too late, but I will fight for my perfumes and my coffee.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Share Joy with a Starbucks Holiday Coffee

The gradual move away from Christmas is subtle and clever.

Starbucks has a new "holiday" logo out, which seems to be celebrating Christmas. But it doesn't quite do that.

The main, written message of the logo, instead of saying "share the joy" of Christ's birth, simply tells us to "share joy." What could this joy mean? One million things. Something different for each person. The unified joy that we are to feel around the Christmas season has splintered into the joy each of us feels for whatever reason.

That is one way Starbucks is shifting us away from Christams.

Another way it is relaying its message of a Christmas Holiday without Christmas is through the design of its products, which either distort Christmas symbols, or leave them out all together.

Here is the Starbucks paper cup for this "holiday season":



1. What looks like a star on the left cup could just be a sparkly tree decoration shaped in a flower design.

2. The triangular star shapes in the octagons (dispersed around the cup) are too uniform, and there are two of each star ray, making a total of eight. The rays are all the same length.

The star that shines in many renditions of Christmas paintings and illustrations has four rays. And the top and bottom rays are longer, with the bottom the longest. This elongated bottom ray connects the star to the earth, to show the spot where Jesus' manger lay. This star is often called "The Star of Bethlehem."




Elihu Vedder (American, 1836–1923)
Star of Bethlehem, 1879–80
Oil on canvas: 36 3/16 x 44 3/4 in
Milwaukee Art Museum

The frantic holiday scene I’ve described is starkly in contrast to the peaceful one we find in Star of Bethlehem created by American painter Elihu Vedder in 1879-80. This painting, currently housed in Milwaukee Art Museum storage, depicts a serene moment in the muted, golden desert. Three figures on camels overlook the path before them, while three shepherd/guides ahead and three behind also survey what lies ahead. Color can be seen in the distance in the green of trees. Above them the sky contrasts what is seen below with a bright light that illuminates the sky. There is a sense of anticipation created by figures that can be seen in the clouds, standing there, backs slightly hunched as they look down upon the earth. [Source: The Milwaukee Art Museum]

Here's Rembrandt's (or what is attributed to be a pupil of his) Adoration of the Shepherds, where Jesus is bathed in what is most likely the light from the Star of Bethlehem.


Pupil of Rembrandt, 1606–1669
‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’, 1646
Oil on canvas

Painters and art of various centuries and cultures show the importance of the star as a guiding light, and especially its pointed direction toward the earth to indicate where the infant Jesus lay.

Even popular illustrations, often for cards and hanging pictures, depict the bottom ray of the star pointing downwards. In the image below, the star shows the three kings where the manger lies.



3. Back to the Starbucks cup. The illustrations on the cup are sloppy. They look like they're preliminary sketches, rather than decorations ready for display. Especially irritating is the cone-shaped decoration, which is drawn as an amorphous blob.





4. The leaf at the bottom of the smaller cup is not that of a pine tree, nor does it look like a holly, the traditional leaf for most Christmas decorations.



It is a coffee plant leaf, and the nut-like shape, a coffee bean. Starbucks' marketing strategy, is to commemorate this "holiday" season through coffee rather than through Christmas.

The Starbucks Christmas cup is all about the coffee and very little about Christmas.

5. Shapes are scattered around the cups, as though to fill in gaps. What are the spikey triangular shapes - rays from a star? And the white dots - snow flakes? Why not have sketch of snow flakes, with some of the beautiful shapes?





6. The homes we see on the package illustration could be homes on any product cover. They have no Christmas distinction: there is no Christmas tree near the homes; there are no decorations around the houses; there is no angel or star above.



Below is a promotional image from the Starbucks website, showing the homes and their surroundings. There is no Christmas tree. The odd, leafless trees are dotted with what could be lights, but it could just be any kind of graphic embellishment. The homes have what look like lights framing the roofs, but it isn't enough to indicate Christmas lights. And the diamond-shaped objects in the sky could be stars, but there is no unique, distinct Star of Bethlehem to show that this is a Christmas scene, and not just any winter scene.

And we are invited to "create wonder," as though we have supernatural powers. What kind of wonder do we create? Again, whatever strikes our fancy, creators that we are. Like the message "Share Joy," what we create, and the joy that we share, are not related to the Christmas story, but rather, our very own individual fancies.



And finally, here is the description of the Christmas Blend mixture, from the Starbucks website:

A time to create wonder. An invitation to share joy.

Three decades ago, we created something wonderful - a coffee special enough for your celebrations big and small. Christmas Blend brings bright, lively Latin American coffees together with smooth, mellow Indonesian coffees, including rare aged beans from Sumatra. The aged coffee dramatically balances the overall flavor to create luscious, sweet, spice notes. Crafting this coffee embodies the best of everything we do - sourcing, roasting, blending, exploring, perfecting and sharing. It’s one of our most cherished traditions - made for you to savor season after season.

Of course, coffee is a Third World export. But, the description above tells us that it is part of Starbucks' "sourcing" strategy.

Dictionary.com defines "sourcing" as:

...the buying of components of a product from an outside supplier, often one located abroad

And Starbucks tells us how it does this "ethically":

Ethical Sourcing
We've always believed in buying and serving the best coffee possible.

And it's our goal for all of our coffee to be grown under the highest standards of quality, using ethical trading and responsible growing practices. We think it's a better cup of coffee that also helps create a better future for farmers and a more stable climate for the planet.
With the help of Conservation International, we’ve developed ethical sourcing guidelines that help us purchase coffee that is responsibly grown and ethically traded.

We’re working directly with farmers to develop responsible growing methods and investing in their communities to ensure a sustainable supply of quality coffee.

This sounds too much like the "Banana Republics" that developed through vast farmlands being allocated for big business plantations, while local farmers had to do with inferior land.

In this Starbucks produced video, Carlos Mario (no last name), who is clearly an intermediary between Starbucks (the corporation) and the local Costa Rican farmer, talks about the farmer and coffee production. This Third World company man says:

We are helping farmers, teaching them how to improve production, improve the quality, and reduce the use of pesticides. We are taking care of the environment and the pretty country that we have. Helping farmers is really good, and I feel really proud of that. I think Starbucks is working with agronomists because they know that if they don't care about the environment, they will not have good quality coffee in the future."

All Hail King Coffee!

Below is Toik Wolf, the cup's designer saying "All Hail King Coffee."

I found his quotes after I wrote my design break-down above. Wolf is saying almost to the word what I've written about the cup design. Of course, he thinks it is a Good Thing, while my analysis is a lament. This shows further that the deconstruction of Christmas is systematic and deliberate by the likes of Wolf and Starbucks, and not some random aesthetic project:

On The Design Process

Toki Wolf, Creative Director, In-store Promotions:
One of our early idea explorations was treating our core product, coffee, in its agricultural form and seeing if we could apply that in a beautiful way for the holidays. See if it can be meaningful in the holiday timeframe. So, there’s this image, a quick sketch of a coffee plant with coffee cherries coming out of the red cup. We were literally thinking, “If coffee is at the heart of what we do, can that be the foundation where the exploration comes from?” Even in that little sketch form, we thought we might be onto something. We kept going back to it, even after moving on from it and exploring different illustration style. We always went back to the drawing with the red cup below it. It was the basis of the elements that ended up on the red cups and the coffee bags for this year.

So, the idea was to take these coffee cherries and use them as a holiday element – like holly berries. The coffee flower that you see on the cups comes across, as maybe a snowflake, maybe a poinsettia. We start to see these interpretations. Even in the origin patterns, they kind of look like snow in an abstract form. They start to have a holiday feel to them. Once we realized that we could make this work visually in a way that was both authentically Starbucks and authentically holiday, we went for it, and extracted it all the way across all of our holiday elements. We started with the way it can be interpreted, creating the story around it. Going back to that original sketch, it feels like this beautiful holiday moment is coming out of the red cup, literally coming from the coffee. We ended up keeping the element in the swoop. We call it a “story swoop” or “story arch” that kind of flow around the packaging. So, you’ll see that across all of our holiday design elements, including the cups and the coffee packaging.

[...]

This holiday is the next step of the visual journey we’ve been on with the brand. Beginning with the new coffee packaging. We wanted the coffee to be at the center. We wanted it to look like the leader and to elevate above the noise in the coffee category. We wanted to create something that felt right for coffee but was unique and own-able to Starbucks. By doing so, we created this new visual vocabulary around coffee that looks traditional, and looks like it’s rooted in heritage, but yet it’s fresh and new. We haven’t done anything exactly like it - nor has there been anything like it in the category. You’re right. This holiday feels like a natural extension of that [the coffee packaging redesign]. It keeps that momentum going.

I like coffee, and I especially like Starbucks' blends. There is no doubt that its the "King of Coffee." I wish its leader would just say that they're in the business of making great coffee, and that they work in Third World countries. Let those countries make the necessary steps to help the farmers, while Starbucks provides the coffee for us through a true market and competitive manner.

And, I wish Starbucks wouldn't tell us to "Share Joy," or to "Create Wonder" if it cannot come right out with "Share the Joy of Christmas." I would rather just have a warm cup of coffee without being pulled into a false sense of the Christmas holiday. It is just coffee, after all.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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