Greetings, my fellow port swillers!
Whenever the Middle Gel starts griping about how tired she is, which is fairly often, I recommend that she take up drinking coffee (as I did when I got to high school myself). She replies that she never will, and then goes on to start throwing facts and figures about caffeine addiction and misallocation of take-home income at me, arguing that I, in fact, ought to stop drinking it.
Riiiiiiiight……[Insert Bill Bixby, “Mr. McGee, don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry” line here.]
I usually end the debate by adopting a James Earl Jones voice and saying, “Come to the Dark Side. It is your destiny!”
We went through all this again this morning while waiting for school to open, so I decided that it was high time to dig out “Die Katze läßt das Mausen nicht” from J.S. Bach’s “Coffee Cantata”, BWV 211. What I say is, if it was good enough for ol’ Johann Sebastian, it’s good enough for a young whippersnapper who ought to be doing her homework instead of cruising Dad’s blog.
Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht,
Cats do not leave mice alone,
die Jungfern bleiben Coffeeschwestern.
and maidens remain coffee addicts.
Die Mutter liebt den Coffeebrauch,
The mother loves this coffee custom,
die Großmama trank solchen auch,
the grandmother did the same,
wer will nun auf die Töchter lästern!
who can then blame the daughter!
The Port Stands At Your Elbow 
6 comments
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January 23, 2015 at 2:23 pm
rbj1
Made it through college without have touched the stuff. Then got a job as a childcare worker, working 2 pm until midnight (4 days a week, so I always had 3 day weekends) and that was it.
Now if I don’t have a morning cup, it’s only because I’m sick.
January 23, 2015 at 3:15 pm
quiltbabe
Just in case, have her thyroid checked. It’s commonly overlooked, and one of the primary symptoms of low thyroid function is fatigue (believe me, I’m very familiar with it).
I started drinking coffee because my grandfather fed it to us. His typical, lower-class Sicilian breakfast was a bowl of torn up bread with hot coffee (and milk and sugar) poured over it. One of the first snacks I remember having is a slice of bread dunked in heavily creamed and sugared coffee. I didn’t have a chance…and wouldn’t try to give it up now.
January 23, 2015 at 3:33 pm
Vicki
Poo, Son started drinking coffee regularly in fifth grade. By now he’s in the rotation for setting up the coffee for the next morning. I blame my mother, who gave him heavily milk and sugared coffee in his sippy cups.
January 23, 2015 at 4:40 pm
Robbo
Vic, your mom rocks.
January 23, 2015 at 4:41 pm
captainned
Don’t forget that to most of the sub-40 crowd, coffee means a coffee-flavored sugar bomb from Starbucks et al, in which case I agree.
Me, I’m a black coffee drinker. Bring your own mug and ’round here it’s under $1.50 at most convenience stores.
January 24, 2015 at 9:19 am
Robbo
Well, I’ll defend milk or cream. I try to cut my first cup o’ the day with them when I can, and the truth is that I’d guzzle triple venti lattes all day everyday if they weren’t five bucks a throw. But all that other junk? Yech. Mrs. R and the Eldest like those things and whenever they get them I try to work the word “heretic” into my speech.