Starbucks and the social construction of reality

Sara and I are having breakfast at Starbucks. Being a kee niaow species of curmudgeon, I’m complaining about everything from the prices to the clonish docking of people and their digital devices. Discerning impatience in her manner, I eventually desist.

“Give me a break,” she says, going on to explain that Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee; it sells a lifestyle experience, and I should dummy up about it, she’s trying to relax.

Ah, I reply. So we’re banking some sort of … Read more

Something fishy at the basis of being

Hey, and that’s just one island. The basis of the whole world is probably even weirder.

(There’s a PowerPoint selection of more surreal photos by Erik Johansson afloat in cyberspace, but I can’t seem to establish a link here. Ask me, and I’ll e-mail it to you.)Read more