by Civil Servant » Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:02 pm
Hi I'm back. This OATMEAL thing is wrong and sad and hilarious on so many levels. First, yeah, it's cheap as hell and easy to make at home. If I want oatmeal, as I often do in the fall and winter, I will make it on my stovetop for a net cost of pennies and net time investment of under 10 minutes including washing the pot and bowl afterwards. But what if I want some kind of pastry thing? I have to buy whatever I don't have on hand, and prepare and make a whole batch of them (which I am especially disinclined to do if all I want is one), then wait while the pastries bake. Such a hassle. This is why when I want pastry, I go to the coffee shop. And I thought that Starbucks' whole schtick was this "third place" idea, an little oasis between work and home where the atmosphere encourages a bit of harmless self-indulgence. How does oatmeal go with that? Oatmeal connotes ascetism and self-discipline compared to pastry, which qualities don't even stack up well against commerce, against going to a Starbucks in the first place. Argh. End of rant.