Update: Il pleut

Okay, the weatherman didn't lie. It rained really nicely this afternoon. Hooray! Jeff H., you're off the hook. (Is it just me, or does he look amazingly like Ike on South Park?) Next, I get to be uptight about the possibility of frost or freezing tonight.

A nice, rainy afternoon. Ahhhhh. The kitties are relaxed and everything.

I have been calming myself this afternoon with hot green tea (it's a chilly rain) and by listening to one of my favorite radio broadcasts over the Web: BBC Asia's Devotional Sounds (Hindu). In the United Kingdom, it plays on Saturdays and Sundays, but you get a week after broadcast to hear each show using RealAudio.

Part of my being an erstwhile Post–New Age Metachristian* is that I do welcome and receive value from other religious traditions beyond the one I was raised in, and oftentimes Hindu teachings sound really good to me. Though the BBC Asia program is mostly music (yes, of a religious nature), it is a pleasant blend of traditional/classical singing and much more popular styles. The rhythmic and lyrical nature of the music appeals to me; in many cases the lyrics amount to chanting of a circular or repetitious nature (like Western pop styles), but the fluid melodic lines save it from becoming annoyingly repetitive.

Okay: Because you've muddled through this pointless and self-indulgent entry so far, I will reward you with the Secret of the Ages: How to make bad coffee taste okay. (Without flooding it with cream and sugar.)

Yes, this is an age-old question, particularly if you work in an office with an aged Bunn coffeemaker whose basket never gets cleaned. (Seriously: I worked in such an office for thirteen years, and that basket was never cleaned. It had fur growing in it. And I'm sure it still does.) (I would have cleaned it if I had a dishwasher, which is what it would take.)

But you know what I mean: And it's usually Folger's or something, bought in bulk, so that by the time it's half used, it's stale.

Or, you could be visiting some friends somewhere who don't drink coffee themselves, and they've got a three-year-old sack of Millstone in their cupboard. "Have all you want," they say.

The kind of coffee that gives you a headache if you even just smell it. . . . You know.

So here is the secret: Sprinkle some cinnamon over the coffee grounds before you brew the coffee. Use more cinnamon if you want to taste cinnamon, or use just a light dusting if you merely want to "take the edge off" that nasty stale-headache flavor.

People at work will ask you why the coffee always tastes so good when you brew it.

It really works. Honest. And then you'll be a true workplace hero.

Note: it may not save you from getting laid off, but it could at least get you a goodbye party if you do.

Hah.

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*Thanks! I invented that label myself. I think it's a good exercise to create one's own labels, as opposed to necessarily taking on labels that others have invented.