Weekend musings

There's a scene in the pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which Xander refers to Sunnydale as a "one-Starbucks town," which I think is a great description for post-suburban life in these United States.

My hometown (pop. 30,000) has never lacked for coffee shops, but I was still a bit stunned when I rounded a downtown corner during a visit this past spring and blurted out to my friend the TV Goddess, "They got a Starbucks!"

I shouldn't have been that surprised, given the various multinational retail outlets that have popped up in recent years, but there was a time when having a Starbucks was a barometer for how hip your town was. (Yes, that era has come and gone, but things filter down to my hometown at a measured pace.)

Anyway, I was just getting used to the idea of the city having one Starbucks when I learned there will be a second one in January, and heard rumors the plan is to have four (!) in the not-too-distant future. But having formerly lived in a city where there were 73 Starbucks within a 5-mile radius, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

I promise I'm going somewhere with this, but having just looked at the clock, there's somewhere I need to be.

But it's just work, so I'm pretty sure I'll get tired of that and get back to this in a bit.