June 08, 2004

False start 1

fpi_coffecup.jpg I've been having a tough time getting my thoughts on Bucharest in order. A little unnerving. When that happens, I usually go for a walk.

My neighborhood in Brooklyn, like many in this city, has its contingent of beggars: the very polite woman with the large dog who waits by the subway entrance and always calls me 'sweetheart'; the bearded, tipsy guy with the odd hat (and wasn't he wearing a tam last time?) sometimes swaying drunk by noon; the stocky guy whose story has progressed over the years -- out of work, has to feed a daughter, just got work but doesn't have enough money, just got work and doesn't need money, medical problems, AIDS medications not working (he was quite alarmingly gaunt at this point) -- and now, weight back up, he just asks. Then there's Grant. I like Grant. Grant had his fifteen minutes of fame a few years back. There was even a Law and Order episode, sort of. Grant likes Aerosmith, and always asks me how I enjoyed whatever holiday has just passed. He's been in the neighborhood for years. The begging is recent.

Anyway. I'm walking past the only grocery in the neighborhood that stocks the beer of my people, and then only occasionally, dammit. That corner has a regular, a tall guy with a horsey face who knows the names of hundreds of pedestrians, makes small talk. By the evening rush, he has enough money for Chinese takeout, most nights.

So he spots me. I do stick out, even in Brooklyn. "Hey! How are you! Haven't seen you around in a while."

"Well, you know, been out of town..." Man, I feel awkward in these situations.

"Oh, where you been?"

"In Romania."

"Romania?" He looks puzzled, but just for a second. "That's where they got that Cho-chess-koo guy, right?"

"Well, they did..."

"What's it like?"

So I told him.

Posted by coyu at June 8, 2004 06:41 AM
Comments

I'm impressed that a street bum could identify a random Eastern European country from a dead start like that. Reinforces my long-held suspicion that those "Americans couldn't identify [country x] on a map" polls are based mostly on irritated people playing dumb for the pollsters.

Posted by: Mitch H. at June 8, 2004 09:27 PM

My apologies for going off-topic, but you're the most likely source I can think of for this info: What proportion of U.S. coffee drinkers use some sort of creaming agent (milk, half&half, aluminum filings, etc)? Google has been of little help, alas.

Posted by: Bernard Guerrero at June 9, 2004 06:10 PM

Mitch, after working with the (supposedly) learning disabled, I've learned not to assume anything about what people might or might know beforehand. Then I assume things anyway. But I know I'm doing it.

Bernard, that would probably be in the National Coffee Association's annual report, National Coffee Drinking Trends. See here. Check a business library for it; like most market research, it's rather pricey.

Googling around, I see that the Colombian Coffee Federation has also done a survey, and released some results to whet people's appetites:

From here:

- 34 percent of men take their coffee black while 19 percent of women do so.

- 44 percent of people take cream and sugar.

From here:

- Nearly half the people in the country take their coffee with sugar and cream, but in the northeast, that number jumps to 63%.

You might want to drop either group a line.

C.

Posted by: Carlos at June 9, 2004 07:09 PM