This morning, I delivered self-published books to a New Seasons Market. Then I went in to shop and asked for dried cranberries, which I like in the Bob’s Red Mill hot cereal that I buy at Food Front. A staffer with a pierced nose recommended some local, sustainably-grown cranberries as being “nummy nummy.”
I walked outside with my rain hat on, because it’s about 42 and drizzly. On April 6. By the time I walk across the lot to Peets, which of course is full, no seats available, at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday, I have changed into my sunglasses.
In there, I want to order a macchiato, but they have two: a Cafe Macchiato and a Latte Macchiato. Hesitantly, I ask the dude behind the counter, whose hair looks almost exactly like Sideshow Bob … and by the way, the Simpsons was created by a Portlander. And while we’re here, Sideshow Bob’s real name is Robert Underdunk Terwilliger (a Portland street), and his Wikipedia entry is RIDICULOUSLY long. It has 70 footnotes. Do you have any doubt Portlanders sitting in coffee shops wrote it?
Okay, so the dude is explaining the two macchiatos to me, and it comes out this way. A Cafe Macchiato is two shots of espresso with some steamed milk and foam on it. This is also known, everywhere in the world except at Starbucks, as a macchiato. At Peets, there’s also a Latte Macchiato, which is a latte where one shot is poured on top of the foam, thus marking it (macchiato in Italian). So, seriously, a cafe macchiato vs. a latte macchiato is different because of when the shot is poured in.
At this point, I walk out shaking my head — it’s raining again — and considered posting something about all of this to Facebook with my iPhone. But I decided that driving to the rental office I share with another writer who works part-time and typing up a blog entry on my MacBook made more sense.
I truly live “where young people go to retire.”