How does a coffee shop dispute among a barista and a non-celeb patron end up on the front page of the metro section of the Washington Post? Easy – when the patron is a blogger.
Jeff Simmermon, a New Yorker goes into a local coffee shop - Murky Coffee in Arlington. Simmermon orders a triple espresso over ice and is told that it is against the store’s policy to serve iced espresso. He then requests a triple espresso and a cup of ice. Grudgingly the barista accommodates him, but not without rebuke; Simmermon defends his right to enjoy his beverage any way that he so chooses.
An hour later, Simmermon is still there waiting on his girlfriend to meet him. Despite his reluctance to spend another penny at Murky Coffee, he has to stick around to wait for his girlfriend longer than he had hoped, and needs another cup of coffee. He requests the strongest iced beverage that’s within the store’s policy. The barista offers him four shots of Americano, easy on the water. Simmermon enjoyed his iced Americano, but leaves a $1 tip with an offensive message on it (f*** you and your precious coffee policy).
He goes back to NY and discusses the experience on his blog entitled And I am Not Lying for Real (www.andiamnotlying.com). To help illustrate his narration, he posts a video clip from a scene of “Five Easy Pieces” with Jack Nicholson, where Nicholson’s character gets into similar squabble with a waitress over his breakfast. There is also a replica of the dollar bill that he left the barista. Summermon even went as far as to say that he won’t return to the coffee shop unless he has matches and a can of kerosene. And I am Not Lying received 100,000 hits that day. Visitors chimed in with comments, mostly in defense of the blogger’s right to have it his way, even when he’s not at Burger King. Others of course defended the barista’s dedication to doing his job by upholding store policy.
And don’t think for one second that Nicholas Cho, the owner of Murky Coffee was going to sit silently on his coffee pot. He blasted back at Simmermon on his company’s Website, www.murkycoffee.com – defending his store’s policies and his barista. Cho encouraged guests to either order something that Murky Coffee serves, or buy their coffee somewhere else. Cho also indicated that he will punch Simmermon in his (d***) if he ever shows his face in his shop again. The Murky Coffee Website received 15,000 hits that day, a far cry from its usual 200.
WOW! Once the coffee cooled, each blogger expressed their regrets about the situation. Simmermon told the Washington Post that he’s not proud of his behavior and that “these things take on a life of their own.” Cho stated that “you have to fight blog with blog…that’s the price you pay when you throw your words out there.”
I think each of these coffee connoisseurs make good points with these statements. It’s so much easier to forget something ever happened when thousands of people were not exposed to the incident. Certainly these two guys could delete their blog entries, but the Post story will remain in the archives. To me words carry much more weight when they are printed/published versus verbally spoken. We are more thoughtful about what we are saying via written communications. I think there’s much to be desired in terms of tack and responsibility in what people publish online.
Joe Heim, the author of the Washington Post article that took the blog war to another level, Espresso, Extra Bitter, says that by blogging about his ordeal, Simmermon “did what comes naturally to literate victims of perceived everyday injustices in the 21st century.”
Hmmm. Has new media really become so prevalent that everyone with the ability to read and write are venting their frustrations online? I don’t think so. I think some bloggers have too much spare time, some want to show how clever they are, some just want to stir the pot on various issues, and some have to blog for their graduate school program. ;-) I’m not suggesting that all bloggers fit into one of these four categories – so no offense to anyone.
Another thought I would like to share is whether or not Americans are becoming more opinionated. Has the ability to give our ideas a broader audience than our circle of family and friends and connect with like-minded strangers made us more apt to let the world know what we are thinking? Or, do we simply feel more secure in expressing our opinions – no matter how negative or offensive, from behind the safety of our computer monitors? I think that latter, which is the danger of the Internet – not so much as in matters of opinion, but in situations such a cyberbullying, where people could really be hurt.
That’s that. Now back to my homemade espresso that’s sitting here getting cold, made just the way I like it: two shots, some half and half, brown sugar, and regular ‘ol white sugar. What’s in your cup?
Click here to read Espresso, Extra Bitter: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/16/AR2008071602018.html?referrer=emailarticle
See, I’m literate and was still unsuccessful at making that an embedded hyperlink! ☺
Thursday, July 24, 2008
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