The two most important liquids in the life of any old school journalist are coffee and booze. In that order. The particular form of each is a personal choice and some are choosier than others. But there’s no doubt about the basics.
Sure, there are news men and women who don’t hang out in
bars or down a gallon of caffeine a day. And it’s getting easier to find
them. But the old school is the old school, and it has nothing to do with
age.
There’s a maxim in the business. You find a newsroom
that’s not in easy staggering distance of a good saloon and you find a newsroom
that’s churning out gibberish. (There are critics who say ALL newsrooms
churn out gibberish. But they’re just jealous.)
At the Associated Press, it was Charlie O’s. At NBC
they installed a company extension at Hurley’s on 6th Avenue to call staffers
needed back at 30 Rock. There was nothing worthy at Bloomberg when it was
on tony Park Avenue and not much more at not-so-tony Lexington, and that may
account for what came off those presses or into that air.
Of the two, it’s coffee that’s the more important. The
lifeblood of the news. And some of it was bad blood, but it didn’t
matter.
Now comes the era of the latte and the espresso and the K-cup.
And this is a laughingstock in the business. That stuff’s not
coffee. It’s coffee-esque, maybe. Coffee-ish? But it’s not coffee.
Country club - bridge club nonsense.
And this brings us to what we brew first thing in the
morning. The array of coffee makers at the kitchen store or the
department store is both overwhelming and confusing. Timers, built-in
grinders, fancy looking machinery the operation of which requires an
engineering degree. And what comes out of most of them isn’t worth the effort.
When your old machine breaks down, and it inevitably will,
replace it with a simple brewer with an on-off switch and no bells or whistles,
timers, strength estimators or “on” texts to your cellphone. It costs
around 20 bucks, there’s nothing to figure out. it cleans up easily if you’re
inclined to cleaning it, which most are not. And it makes a decent cup --
which means if you like your brew so dark you can’t see the bottom of the spoon
through it, no problem.
Hint: don’t buy the extended warranty. Hint:
stay away from the fancy name brand coffees. There’s no real difference
between Tim Horton’s in the can at 93 cents an ounce and plain old Maxwell
house at 28 cents.
As for saloons... Before you start a new job, look for
the joint that has only three or four beers on tap, not 25. And if you
see those little measuring stoppers on the tops of the bottles of hard stuff,
walk out and find somewhere else to swill.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re
welcome to them. ®
Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com
© WR 2021
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