Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void

Original photo by yipengge/ iStock

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. In 2020, the average American coffee drinker downed more than three cups per day, and Americans overall drank 517 million daily cups. First introduced to America in the mid-17th century, coffee grew in popularity after the Boston Tea Party of 1773, which encouraged patriots to swap over-taxed tea for coffee. In the time since, soldiers have relied on coffee to boost morale overseas, children of U.S. Presidents have founded their own coffee houses, and American coffee brands have expanded across the globe. Can’t get enough coffee? Discover six amazing facts you might not know about this beloved morning beverage.

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Coffee Beans Aren’t Actually Beans

It turns out that the name you’re familiar with for those tiny pods that are ground and brewed for a fresh cup of joe is a misnomer. Coffee “beans” are actually the seeds found within coffee cherries, a reddish fruit harvested from coffee trees. Farmers remove the skin and flesh from the cherry, leaving only the seed inside to be washed and roasted.

Coffee farming is a major time investment: On average, a tree takes three or four years to produce its first crop of cherries. In most of the Coffee Belt — a band along the equator where most coffee is grown that includes the countries of Brazil, Ethiopia, and Indonesia — coffee cherries are harvested just once per year. In many countries, the cherries are picked by hand, a laborious process.

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Decaf Coffee Is Still a Tiny Bit Caffeinated

Decaf coffee has helped coffee drinkers enjoy the taste of coffee without (much of) the jolting effects of caffeine, but its creation was entirely accidental. According to legend, around 1905 German coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius received a crate of coffee beans that had been drenched with seawater. Trying to salvage the beans, the salesman roasted them anyway, discovering that cups brewed with the beans retained their taste (with a little added salt) but didn’t have any jittery side effects. Today, the process for making decaf blends remains relatively similar: Beans are soaked in water or other solvents to remove the caffeine, then washed and roasted. However, no coffee is entirely free of caffeine. It’s estimated that 97% of caffeine is removed during preparation, but a cup of decaf has as little as 2 milligrams of caffeine — compared to regular coffee’s 95 milligrams.

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Bach Wrote an Opera About Coffee

Johann Bach is remembered as one of the world’s greatest composers, known for orchestral compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos. But one of Bach’s lesser-known works is Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (“Be Still, Stop Chattering”) — a humorous ode to coffee popularly known as the Coffee Cantata. Written sometime in the 1730s, Bach’s opera makes light of fears at the time that coffee was an immoral beverage entirely unfit for consumption. In the 18th century, coffee shops in Europe were known to be boisterous places of conversation, unchaperoned meeting places for young romantics, and the birthplaces of political plots. A reported lover of coffee, Bach wrote a 10-movement piece that pokes fun at the uproar over coffee. The opera tells the story of a father attempting to persuade his daughter to give up her coffee addiction so that she might get married, but in the end, she just becomes a coffee-imbibing bride.

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The First Webcam Was Invented For a Coffee Pot

We can credit coffee-craving inventors for creating the first webcam. In the early 1990s, computer scientists working at the University of Cambridge grew tired of trekking to the office kitchen for a cup of joe only to find the carafe in need of a refill. The solution? They devised a makeshift digital monitor — a camera that uploaded three pictures per minute of the coffee maker to a shared computer network — to guarantee a fresh pot of coffee was waiting the moment their mugs emptied. By November 1993, the in-house camera footage made its internet debut, and viewers from around the globe tuned in to watch the grainy, real-time recording. The world’s first webcam generated so much excitement that computer enthusiasts even traveled to the U.K. lab to see the setup in real life. In 2003, the coffee pot sold at auction for nearly $5,000.

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Coffee Was Frequently a Staple in the Oval Office

Coffee has a long political history in the U.S. — colonists who tossed heavily-taxed tea into the Boston Harbor switched to drinking the caffeinated brew as part of their rebellion. But even after the Revolutionary War’s end, American leaders held an enduring love for the beverage. George Washington grew coffee shrubs at his Mount Vernon estate (though because of climate, they likely never produced beans), while Thomas Jefferson loved coffee so much that he estimated using a pound per day at Monticello during retirement. Similarly, Theodore Roosevelt reportedly consumed an entire gallon of coffee each day, and George H.W. Bush was known for imbibing up to 10 daily cups.

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Your Genes Might Determine How Much Coffee You Drink

If you can’t get through the day without several cups of coffee, you may have your genes to blame. A 2018 study suggests inherited traits determine how sensitive humans are to bitter foods like caffeine and quinine (found in tonic water). Researchers found that people with genes that allow them to strongly taste bitter caffeine were more likely to be heavy coffee drinkers (defined as consuming four or more cups daily). It seems counterintuitive that people more perceptive to astringent tastes would drink more coffee than those with average sensitivity — after all, bitter-detecting taste buds likely developed as the body’s response to prevent poisoning. But some scientists think that human brains have learned to bypass this warning system in favor of caffeine’s energizing properties. The downside? Constant coffee consumers are at higher risk of developing caffeine addiction.

Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin aren’t just famous figures in American history — they were also accomplished athletes. Honest Abe has been honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, while Franklin earned a spot in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Standing 6 feet, 4 inches tall, Lincoln was a formidable opponent in amateur wrestling. At age 19, he reportedly defended his stepbrother’s river barge by throwing potential hijackers overboard. In 1831, he wrestled and defeated Jack Armstrong, the leader of a local gang in New Salem, Illinois. While some reports claim the pair may have actually fought to a stalemate, the bout earned Lincoln respect and a reputation for being tough. Lincoln continued to wrestle while studying law, and legend has it that he amassed more than 300 victories during a 12-year period, losing just one time. Lincoln was honored with the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s Outstanding American award in 1992.

Franklin, meanwhile, was posthumously inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1968. During his life, he was an avid swimmer and spent time teaching and coaching the sport in Europe and America. Franklin even proposed that all schools in Philadelphia institute swimming programs. As a scientist and experimenter, the founding father is also credited as an inventor or early adopter of many swimming-related innovations, including kites for kitesurfing, hand paddles, and flippers.

Message from Gabby Gifford

Today marks eleven years since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

On this devastating day, twenty innocent children were robbed of the chance to grow up. Six teachers who were simply doing their job never made it home from work.

I wanted to take a moment today to ask you to join me in keeping the families impacted by the tragedy in your hearts. This unfathomable loss is one that we will never, ever forget.

Shortly after the tragedy, I traveled to Newtown to spend time with families grieving an unspeakable loss.

We gathered in a living room filled with parents of some of the children killed in their classrooms, as well as family members of some of the teachers who lost their lives. After talking to every family there that day, tearing up at every picture of the innocent victims who lost their lives, I remember walking to a chair in the corner, collapsing into it and saying, “Enough.”

A few short weeks later, we launched our gun safety organization, then known as Americans for Responsible Solutions. I could have never guessed that ever since that day, we would have built a coalition of millions of people—just like you—committed to our mission to save lives from gun violence.

In the eleven years since the Sandy Hook tragedy, I can tell you confidently that the work we’ve done together has changed hearts, changed minds, and changed laws. But the fight isn’t over yet. We must keep up our work to demand more from our elected officials and get commonsense gun safety legislation passed.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

 It appears that no amount of reason, common sense, or abject stupidity are enough to keep Trump supporters from falling off the cliff. They will go to their deaths like lemmings following the hapless leader that they seem to feel is all in for them. He is, of course, not one whit interested in any of them, unless one of them is a good looking woman with very loose morals, then all bets are off. 

  His interest in people is to see what he can get out of them, not what he can invest in them. He will tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear without ever troubling himself with the truth. Donald Trump is one of the great perverses of the 3 great truths, It’s only a cold sore, I’ll respect you in the morning, I won’t cum in your mouth. 

  Now the latest and greatest is that the Supreme Court is going to intervene in the Trump trial and do it his way or at least let him off the hook. It is time to replace the members of the court if this is the case. They are supposed to have some sort of integrity but are showing little at the present time. 

  The Constitution was written so that the branches of government had an oversight from one part to another so someone should have a watch on the court. The executive branch has the oversight power and hopefully these trials will happen while the current administration is still in office. We know that Trump will have no trouble giving himself the green light in all matters as he has no integrity either politaly or as a human. 

  We may joke about it being time to seek another place to live but it may be time to seriously consider moving away from the US as there will be nothing left of this nation if that moron gets back into the Presidency.

  The arguments before the Colorado Supreme Court to keep Trump blameless really should be enough to cause that lawyer to throw up. Even Jeff Davis could run for President, we have the right under the Constitution to elect by popular vote whoever, blah blah blah. Truth is we do not have that right because we have a bunch of rich bastards buying the electoral college and making sure the person they want is being put in is in. If popular vote was all that was needed then Trump would never have made it in the first place.

  Then we get to hear of the dictatorship that is coming and all that crap. Next is the effort to blur the video’s of the rioter’s at the capital so they don’t get caught when the film is released by the speaker of the house. That is criminal activity to cover criminal activity, but that is okay because Republicans are doing it. 

  The support of the Right and the Evangelical group is amazing. Somewhere the people that are supposed to be fixated with truth have hung their futures on the tail of the biggest liar they could find, how does that make sense? It has to have more to do sucking up than truth. He tells them what they want to hear and that has to be more lies cause he knows nothing about the bible but the title. His knowledge of that subject is as limited as his understanding of the Constitution.

  He is making a big thing over some no doubt fictitious General that told him he was brave for debating Ms Clinton. In his mind it probably was brave as that was the first and possibly only woman he has ever had to confront that he knew he could not make her bow to his will or dynamic personality. If it had been possible he would have paid her to concede to his point of view but this was not one of those types of debates. His remarks about who called him brave is yet another slap in the face of all those that have served and if there is in fact a real officer that said that he was probably afraid of his mother.

  His cell phone from the WH is being used to add more fuel to the fire, and we still have to worry that the Supreme Court will let him off the hook. Should that happen they all need to be removed from the court and stripped of any entitlements they may have, the corruption in the Swamp is not better for having Trump in office, far worse.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I am so very confused by the people that want to reinstall Donald the DumbAss and saying that their decision is based on the economy. In fact, I can’t comprehend how the people that insist that the Republican party is the party of fiscal responsibility and that the economy is better under GOP leadership. (Wow typing GOP Leadership was harder than I thought).

Let’s look at the numbers.

Federal budget deficits throughout Carter’s term remained at around the $70 billion level reached in 1976, but as a percentage of GDP the deficits fell from 4% when he took office to 2.5% in the 1980–81 fiscal year. Reagan left three major adverse legacies at the end of his second term. Roland Reagan the federal debt increased from 22.3 percent of GDP to 38.1 percent and, despite the record peacetime expansion, the federal deficit in Reagan’s last budget was still 2.9 percent of GDP. Under George H.W. Bush household debt grew dramatically during the period to a record level, rising from $7.4 trillion in Q1 2001 to $14.3 trillion in Q4 2008, an increase of $6.9 trillion. Measured as a percent of GDP, it rose from 70% GDP to 99% GDP. This debt addition was a driver of the housing bubble and crises that followed. Bill Clinton had budget surpluses for fiscal years 1998–2001, the only such years from 1970 to 2023. Clinton’s final four budgets were balanced budgets with surpluses, beginning with the 1997 budget. The ratio of debt held by the public to GDP, a primary measure of U.S. federal debt, fell from 47.8% in 1993 to 33.6% by 2000. President George W. Bush added $5.85 trillion to the national debt. That’s a 101% increase, putting him in fourth. Bush launched the War on Terror in response to the 9/11 attacks, which led to multi-trillion-dollar spending on the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq. Bush also dealt with the 2001 recession and the 2008 financial crisis.

The economy improved markedly under former President Barack Obama, from the start of 2009 through the end of 2016. Faced with the specter of another Great Depression in winter 2009, President Obama enacted a series of policies that helped the economy avoid that fate. The economy was growing again by the second half of 2009, and jobs followed suit by early 2010. Economic growth continued apace for the rest of President Obama’s time in office, and job growth logged its longest expansion on record by early 2017, dating back to 1939.¹ Employment opportunities improved, the unemployment rate fell, wages eventually increased, and household debt dropped sharply.

One of President Donald Trump’s lesser known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt.

The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country.

President Biden cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion during his first two years in office—the largest decline in American history. The economy has added more than 12 million jobs—more jobs in two years than any president has created in a four-year term—including 800,000 manufacturing jobs. The unemployment rate has fallen to 3.4 percent, the lowest in 54 years.

I could go on and on quoting numbers the diverge from what Fox news and the republicans want you to believe but I suppose those that want to walk into the night without a light will always do so. The republican claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility and small government but their track record does not prove that out. Now the small government party wants to tell women that they have no say in their own health care and if they get back into power, they will criminalize who you can love. (Not small government)

Sorry for boring you with numbers…