silly people, the only thing you drink while flying is water.

that's usually what I drink once I'm in the plane, but a pre-flight cocktail is very soothing and sleepy making. Just one double shot though.

I have mixed feelings about Starbucks. On the bad side, I've always figured it lessens the market for old-fashioned, funky independent coffee houses, kind of like the Walmart of the coffee world, though recently I read something that suggested that's not the case--that they serve slightly different markets, and that business often improves for indepedent places once a Starbucks enters the neighborhood. And Starbucks needs to improve its product offerings--what kind of coffee house doesn't offer Italian soda, I ask you? And the one I go to every week needs to bring back those yummy cupcakes they had before Christmas, because as it stands their chocolate offerings suck.

As the above makes obvious, I'm far from a Starbucks avoider. My writers group meets weekly in one, and, you know, it's a nice place for it. Which is the main thing I like about them--they're great all-purpose public lounges/meeting spaces, and essentially free, though I'd feel guilty about using their space without buying at least a little something. And as corporate citizens go, they're pretty good, treating their employees well and all that.

I knew I'd turned into a Seattlista instead of a Philly girl in exile when I started feeling proprietary pride in Starbucks and Costco and, while I don't love Microsoft, allowing that the Gates Foundation spends its money well.

A Frieslander would get funny looks in an upscale store in Amsterdam...

Yeah. Social class is really alive and kicking in Europe. Not that it is dead in the States. The cues are just different.

THere's a gas station across the street from where I work that might have coffee.

I live on the edge of the Upper Magazine Coffee District, though. Onne block from my house, there's a PJ's, 5 blocks away is a CC's, another block down is another PJ's and if you keep going you pass Whole Foods (which has a nice coffee bar), the Luna Cafe and finally you reach Starbucks. We were pretty surprised when Starbucks moved in, I didn't think anyone would go there rather than one of the local places, but it's still open so I guess I was wrong.

The Lower Magazine Coffee District has all that plus a Rue de la Course.

I don't have a pre-boarding beverage of choice. Besides guzzling a bunch of water because flying dries me out.

I fear dehydration on planes -- too much to drink alcohol, but not enough to drink water. Also, most importantly, I need something hot to drink in those iceboxes, so milk functions as a suggestion to sleep and a hot water bottle for my insides.

The accident in the parking lot near my place turned out to not be an accident, just as I'm assuming the cop wasn't a cop but instead Hollywood magic. I was excited, deflated, excited, and then blase. It's such a rollercoaster world here in LA.

Gloomcookie, is your tag from The Breeders' song of the same name?

It is :) Don't you just love Kim Deal?

I hate flying, mostly because I'm so tall and because of the dry air. Air is kept dry on planes in order to prevent corosion of the fuselage metal. The new Boeing Dreamliner plane will have a fuselage made of composite material (carbon-fiber) so they're promising that they'll be able to keep the air at a comfortable level of humidity in the plane. I can't wait.

edit for clarity....

Don't you just love Kim Deal?

Yep. I love about everything she's been involved with. Also Tanya Donely, Kristin Hersh, etc... - 4AD records is cool!

they're promising that they'll be able to keep the air at a comfortable level of humidity

Will it also be warm? I can work with the dryness, but I hate having to dress for the plane, when I'm going from somewhere warm to somewhere else warm.

Also Tanya Donely, Kristin Hersh, etc... - 4AD records is cool!

I love Throwing Muses/Kristin Hersh.