My BK has people in it that totally know my order, but they wait to make sure each time. They also say hello and sometimes ask how I am, but no names. Same at my Baskin Robbins.

oh, ita, thanks for the Project help. I had a thought about something to try last night. I might work on that today.

And, really, I'd just find a Coffee Bean instead.

I like CB's mochas, and some of their pastry case stuff, much better, but I prefer the Tazo Earl Grey. Actually, I prefer the Stash Earl Grey, which is why I drink at home most of the time, but when ordering a tea from a coffee place, I go to Starbucks.

Some more cheerful news: GOP growing increasingly angry, frightened by Bush's missteps

WASHINGTON - President Bush, once the seemingly invincible vanguard of a new Republican majority, could be endangering his party's hold on power as the GOP heads into this year's midterm congressional elections.

A series of political missteps has raised questions about the Bush administration's candor, competence and credibility and left the White House off-balance, off-message and unable to command either the nation's policy agenda or its politics the way the president did during his first term.

...

When conservatives challenged the ports deal, for example, Bush threatened to veto any legislation blocking it, then all but accused his critics of racism for opposing an Arab company.

"I've been helpful out here on the campaign trail, backing the president on eavesdropping, defending them on Iraq and Social Security, and then you have this thrown on your lap without any consideration," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. "Then the threat of a veto, that really took my breath away."

"I didn't think his choice of words there was really good," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. "And I thought his veto threat was untimely and inappropriate."

"It certainly is the perfect storm of aggravating or provoking congressional egos and the president getting his back up and saying the least diplomatic thing he could have said," said Michael Franc, a former Republican aide in Congress who's now a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research center in Washington.

I still haven't watched the Bush briefing video... my blood pressure is already high enough, really, and I'm already willing to believe that Brown was forced to take the fall for all his upper management.

The port deal is almost comical. Especially the veto threat and then finding out that Bush didn't even know about the deal until it was in the news.

I hate the right wingers who are pulling out the racism card. I mean seriously if this was a Democratic administration allowing a government that has had known ties to Al-Qaeda to take over operations of ports, would they be okay with the deal?

Isn't one of Bush's cronies a major investor in that particular Dubai company? I don't know if I read that somewhere or if I just assume it to be the case.

I do just use small, medium, and large. Can't be arsed to remember their words for it, and I have no patience to try

This is so me. I've never been corrected and I always get the right order. But I rarely go to a starbucks.

I have my neighborhood places where they know me and are friendly (coffee shop, bars, restaurants) but nowhere they anticipate my order. I don't think. Even though, for example, at the coffee shop I only ever get coffee with room for cream in the mornings.

The ultimate irony in my view is that GWB & co. are the ones fomenting racism and yet they are shocked and surprised when some have this reaction to the port issue.

I have no opinion about the Dubai port deal except that I don't trust one thing that GWB and his administration does. So if they think this is a good idea, for non-specific reasons, I don't think it is a good idea.

This is interesting and scary:

March 2, 2006 | Republicans representative of their permanent establishment have recently and quietly sent emissaries to President Bush, like diplomats to a foreign ruler isolated in his forbidden city, to probe whether he could be persuaded to become politically flexible. These ambassadors were not connected to the elder Bush or his closest associate, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, who was purged last year from the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and scorned by the current president. Scowcroft privately tells friends who ask whether he could somehow help that Bush would never turn to him for advice. So, in one case, a Republican wise man, a prominent lawyer in Washington who had served in the Reagan White House, sought no appointments or favors and was thought to be unthreatening to Bush, gained an audience with him. In a gentle tone, he explained that many presidents had difficult second terms, but that by adapting their approaches they ended successfully, as President Reagan had. Bush instantly replied with a vehement blast. He would not change. He would stay the course. He would not follow the polls. The Republican wise man tried again. Oh, no, he didn't mean anything about polls. But Bush fortified his wall of self-defensiveness and let fly with another heated riposte that he would not change.

[link]

The whole article is interesting....

You haven't been corrected when you do that? I always get corrected.

Are you sure they're correcting you and not just passing your order on to the barista? Because no matter how the customer phrases it, it really is important for the cashier to translate the order into Starbucksese for the barista in order to make sure you get the drink you want.

(This is probably not the case if you're just ordering tea, but I was harrassed endlessly by customers who thought I was being snotty when I'd rephrase their drink orders. And I *really* didn't have time to explain that, no, I don't care how you order it, but when I tell the barista what to make, I have to use the standardized language or it will take five times as long.)