Tonight I was at my local serious coffee doing a bit of reading. I am sitting in one of four comfy leather chairs (there are two sets of two, plus lots of regular tables and chairs) and there is one girl in one of the other sets, and that's it. Just the two of us. Then a middle aged woman comes in, gets her drink, and asks to sit in the comfy chair next to me. I say okay. I personally would ask someone that if there was no where else to sit, but otherwise I would have sat at a normal table. But whatever. I spend the next twenty minutes listening to her drink, pick candies out of little plastic bag, chew the candies, and cough. In this time I get about three pages read due my extreme irritation, especially with the russling of the plastic bag and the audiable chewing. So I get up, and move to another table.
So I ask you - was what I did okay? I felt really bad, because I didn't want her to be offended, but I could not concentrate. What should I have said? Anything? Is there anything one can say? I tried to stick it out, but it didn't get less annoying, and once she switched from the newspaper to her book, I realized she was in for the long haul. So yeah, any thoughts?
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6 comments:
oooh interesting.
i have this debate a lot with myself - i usually come the conclusion that i think about things more then i do, and they probably won't notice and/or care.
it really comes down to whether you want to do what's best for you, or if you want to look polite.
ususally, i want to look polite, but that's probably the wrong choice.. so i think you did the right thing!! :)
also - she should have asked, the fact that she didnt makes me extra certain that you did the right thing.
plus i think i also always try to be as quiet as i can be in a coffee shop, but very few other people do this - im not sure if its strange that i do, does anyone else have thoughts on this?
Well...
Coming from somebody who is a pansy with stuff like this, I am impressed that you did move. I don't think what you did was wrong. You were trying to do something and you couldn't concentrate. You have to do what's best for you. I would like to think I would have moved but we all know that I probably wouldn't have just incase she came to confront me on it. I too try to be as quite as possible if it is already quiet in there. Not that I ever get the chance to sit in a coffee shop. Oh that would be so dreamy just to sit in a comfy chair and have a nice cup of joe. Sorry I'll come back from day dreaming. I wouldn't worry about what you did. You'll probably never see her again.
And now for something completely different. Does anyone know where the term "Joe" for coffee comes from? This is not a test because I don't know either. Yes Kirsten, there are somethings I don't know.
From http://www.idiomsite.com/cupofjoe.htm
Cup Of Joe
According to the June 2004 issue of Sea magazine (volume 96, no. 6, page
22): When Josephus Daniels became secretary of the Navy in 1913, he
prohibited alcohol aboard all U.S. Navy vessels - making coffee the
strongest drink that could be served on board. For that reason, sailors
started referring to a mug of strong coffee as "a cup of Joe".
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1300410
Something to do with the Military?
In 1914, the secretary of the US Navy, Admiral Josephus 'Joe' Daniels abolished the officers' wine mess. From that time on the strongest (and apparently therefore the drink of choice) on board navy ships was coffee. It was dubbed 'a cup of Joe' after the secretary.
'A cup of Joe' also refers to the GIs' favourite drink. During World War II the US defence workers were supplied with as much coffee as they wanted. Coffee was a source of warmth and comfort for battle-weary troups.
The slang was popular enough to be included in the Reserve Officer's Manual of 1931.
A variation on this theme has it that Joe refers to the average Joe, thus making 'a cup of Joe' the average drink of the average man.
Martinson's Coffee
There was a New York company named Martinson's Coffee (Andy Warhol liked to paint the cans) owned by a man named Joe Martinson. The neighbourhood of the company would be saturated by the aroma of roasting coffee, and coffee therefore became known as 'a cup of Joe'.
It sounds lovely, the thought of waking every morning to the smell of newly-roasted coffee beans, but actually it's not. Take a trip through a town with a company that roasts coffee - for example Karlstad in Sweden - and you'll understand. If the neighbourhood said anything they likely said 'a smell of Joe' and meant it in a negative way.
How drunk do you have to be to mispronounce Java?
'Joe' is a derivation of 'Java'. Java itself became a popular American nickname for coffee in the 19th Century when the island of Java in Indonesia was a major source of the world's coffee.
Old Black Joe
Yet another theory connects 'a cup of Joe' to the song 'Old Black Joe', written by Stephen Collins Foster (author of 'Oh! Susannah' and 'Camptown Races') in 1860. Of course, if you read the lyrics you'll find they have nothing to do with coffee:
Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,
Gone from the earth to a better land I know,
I hear their gentle voices calling Old Black Joe.
I'm coming, I'm coming, for my head is bending low,
I hear their gentle voices calling Old Black Joe.
Why do I weep, when my heart should feel no pain,
Why do I sigh that my friends come not again?
Grieving for forms now departed long ago.
I hear their gentle voices calling Old Black Joe.
Where are the hearts once so happy and so free?
The children so dear that I held upon my knee?
Gone to the shore where my soul has longed to go,
I hear their gentle voices calling Old Black Joe.
So Which Is Correct?
The most prevalent theory of the origin of 'a cup of Joe' is the one that concerns Josephus Daniels. It's the one you'll hear on the History Channel (if you're in North America) and is the one you'll find in columns exploring the origins of words and phrases. It's widely repeated on the Internet (often word by word as if people were copying and pasting).
I don't normally dis my own sister on the internet (well I try not to) but that was a very Papa comment... aka really long and something that I really didn't have the energy to read. I also have been awake for a really really long time, so that might have something to do.
Sorry. I still love you, in all of your researchy goodness.
i just copied and pasted...so it really didn't take any effort at all. so, dis accepted, but know that i didn't really put much into that long bit of text other than googling "origin of cup of joe"
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