Category: Fourre-tout

The holiday season is upon us and every merchant in town will try his best to outsmart the competition. Innovation has always been the key to success, and to upstage rivals one needs to come up with something new and exciting. To achieve that goal, some people don’t hesitate to cross boundaries.

This morning I went to my regular watering hole for a cup of java. I first noticed the new paper cups and yes, they looked different. Not great, but somewhat festive.

I ordered a café latte and carried it outside, to the terrace. After taking a sip of my beverage, I suddenly noticed the creamy design at the surface of the liquid. It looked a little unusual; different but somewhat familiar.

I don’t know if it is my smutty imagination, but upon looking at the design, a rather risqué image popped into my mind. My first reaction was “no they would not do that” but then I started wondering.

“Baristas” all over the world have become creative and have started to decorate their beverages with flowery little designs. So, why wouldn’t a saucy wench spice up the holidays with her own erotic version of that practice?

Pioneers, women in particular, have always struggled to break through. They have been at the forefront of the sexual revolution and have made great strides forward.

“We like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what’s on the other side.” Jeff Bezos

Femen activists especially have gone to battle bare-chested to make their point. So why wouldn’t a woman introduce a contemporary design in her line of work?

In the 1800s a woman dared to show a bare ankle and almost caused a riot. Today we have miniskirts and nobody blinks an eye!

Women are often gutsier than men and willing to take bigger risks. If you look at the Oscars’ Red Carpet, you certainly noticed that some women are practically nude under the flimsiest outfits ever seen. Is anybody howling their disapproval?

So, even if I am wrong, here is a great idea to get tongues wagging and increase sales. This innovative coffee design could go mainstream and take the country by storm.

Happy holidays coffee aficionados!

Alain

PS: A good sense of humor is a prerequisite to read that blog 

Thanksgiving, that remarkable day again.. That interval when we overeat, overdrink… and have to unfasten our belt a notch or two to make it through the day.

Well, this is not exactly true. Many people tend to forget that Thanksgiving is the day of “giving thanks” to all and everybody who gave us what we enjoy that day. It is the time to be grateful for our most precious assets, namely Peace, Freedom, Health, Family, and Friends. Peace always comes first. Without it nothing is possible. Peace is the true mother of happiness. Freedom is a close second. Peace without freedom is a charade. Without freedom, there can be no peace, only a truce before the next inevitable conflict. Then, it is difficult to manage without health. Health is the fuel that drives your machine. Your body needs to run smoothly to allow you to accomplish your goals. Family. It is sometimes a mixed blessing, but still a blessing. Siblings (if you could choose them) can be a godsend. Truly blessed are the families that have a harmonious relationship. Friends, the cherries to adorn your cake. Take everything I have but let me keep my friends; they are more precious than gold. Some people have lost everything in the recent forest fires, but that can be remedied. Losing all your friends would be a much worse alternative.

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust

So, Thanksgiving is not really the day of “abbondanza” that some people imagine.  It is one of those days when you ought to spend acts of kindness without counting. When you feel grateful for everything that the three  Fates (Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos) allowed you to accomplish. This day, don’t take, give.

“It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” ― Albert Einstein

Happy “giving”to all.

Alain

“Give me your tired, your poor, you huddled masses yearning to be free…”

 I am afraid that this is just a fading dream. Lady Liberty is tired and about to drop her torch. Her welcoming job has lost its allure and is turning into a high-pressure exercise.

A very large caravan of transients is presently trekking towards our southern border, bent on entering the United States peacefully or by force. These new pilgrims are looking for a better life in the US but are facing a harsh reality. The Promised Land of their dreams was just a mirage.

Nobody can enter the US (or any other country for that matter) without the proper papers. Especially not impoverished, uneducated masses that are bound to create a big financial burden for the host country.

What makes a difficult situation even worse is California’s present state of affairs. Large wildfires have destroyed up to 7500 homes leaving thousands of Americans homeless and jobless. These people need urgent attention and it is the responsibility of the American authorities to provide help and support.

The subsequent tab is going to be extremely heavy and this dire situation makes welcoming even a small group of migrants very improbable.

America cannot have open borders; it would set an unacceptable precedent. Impoverished hordes from every continent would rush to America to seek jobs and assistance.

Nobody likes to leave his or her native country. When you do, you become a somewhat vulnerable “foreigner”. If jobs were readily available at home, Central America denizens would gladly stay put and avoid the harshness and uncertainty of this long pilgrimage.

Immigration problems should be tackled at their roots, in their countries of origin. I am no expert in that matter, but I think that it might be cheaper for the United States to inject a few billions in foreign economies than to tackle the problem on its soil.

I seldom see eye to eye with POTUS, but ultimately I think that a wall might have to be built. It worked for the Chinese, the Incas, for Hadrian, for the Israelis… it might work for the US.

Alain