I had the same feeling after 6 strong coffees over 4 hours at the conference last week. Can't go a day without caffeine now, withdrawal gives me terrible headaches.

Worst time was just before an exam in 2nd year uni. No sleep for 48 hours + many, many cans of a fine, syrupy drink called Jolt = shaky hands, fast-talking and an irregular heartbeat. Good times.

I need to indulge my pet pedantic peeve.

It's "espresso" with an "s," not "expresso" with an "x." "Expresso" originated as a spelling error made by coffee shop owners who didn't know espresso from used motor oil. Yes, I know some dictionaries also list "expresso." Some dictionaries also list "ain't."

Even today, coffee houses that offer their patrons "expresso" can be almost uniformly counted on to to serve something that resembles day-old "American" coffee that's been left on the boiler rather than proper espresso. "Expresso" is like a reverse trademark -- it's a guarantee of bad quality. I never order an espresso in a place that calls it "expresso."

Thus endeth the rant for today.

Re spelling

My dear tedious cock sucking idiot, with all due love, I am well the fuck aware of the various spelling schemes for expressos and as you might image I could not give a give flying fuck as to the rather too special italianate espresso versu expresso spelling.

I spell it, even inconsistenly, however the fuck I bloody well fucking like to, becuase - (i) I want to, (ii) I have contempt for misplaced purism, (iii) peeves largely don't bloody interest me, (iv) and I like ain't and I fucking desteste namby pamby prescriptivist bleeding pissing in your fucking pants "ooh that's not fucking proper" shit head idiocy such as your pewling comment.

Or more briefly, should the text display some basic literacy and capacity in re joined up writing, it's more than slightly idiotic wanking to commment on the same.

So, in short, get a motherfucking life and don't ever fucking comment on the same here you narrow minded idiotic nerdish slimey git, you fucking moron.

Best regards,

Lounsbury, Collier. Wanker. And professional asshole, if sincere.

(Meaning that was a dumb fucking wanker of a comment you literally contemptible prescriptive idiot.)

So your bloody mi

Jolt...twice the caffeine, 4x the sugar if I recall vs typical cola.

re: carolina, a paltry consolation but next month should prove more temperate than steamy.

Mildly bemused you might be in NC if briefly as I reside there in a city known by some as "the Detroit of the South."

In fact, en route from the theater I took a wrong turn and drove by four strapping youths all wearing bright red t-shirts. I thought, "how bold of them" given that wearing their gang colors (Bloods, see Wikipedia) so brazenly would get them shaken down by the po-lice. Plus they were nice enough not to shoot up my car.

Well, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion but, had you made it through to the second paragraph before bursting all those capillaries, you’d have seen that the suggestion was that spelling espresso with an "x" is a signaling device.

When you hear someone talking about Eye-raq or Eye-ran, you wince and automatically prepare to discount whatever drooling idiocy they may be propounding. By the same token, when you see an alleged cafe offering you "expresso," it indicates that you’re likely about to be served some vile instant concoction rather than anything resembling coffee. Not all that surprising, perhaps, that an establishment unable to spell something is unlikely to be able to prepare it. Nonetheless, I’ve found it a useful observation. My aversion to "expresso" isn’t grammar fascism, it’s a rule of thumb for getting a passable. shot. I wouldn’t trust a restauranteur who offered "expresso" on the menu any more than I’d trust an investment analyst who thought EBITDA was a Spanish island.

Anyway, none of this was meant to reflect on you personally as you’re not running a restaurant.

Hey Col-

Heh. You might find this bit of cultural globalization trivia amusing:

http://softpowerbeacon.blogspot.com/2005/09/fulla-of-arabia.html

Bahraini Beach House not included.