There was a family-owned coffee shop by my college campus, where I started in 1995. It had been there for years and was a campus fixture, especially as it was across the street from the sciences library and computer center. I learned my coffee hauteur from there. They had a ton of different brews and prepared the coffee well. They made lattes, cappucinos, etc without forcing you to use a stupid marketing-based pseudo-vocabulary. Plus, their Tuscan tuna sandwich and their lentil soup was just to die for.

During my junior year, Starbucks opened up a branch half a block away. The local shop continued to hold out for a few years, but eventually the younger classes of incoming kids, who knew Starbucks as the reliable, predictable purveyor of mediocre coffee and as a place to see and be seen tipped the balance. The local shop is gone.

Don't tell me Starbucks made the world safe for good coffee.

Yes, that was Ocean. What gave it away? The SciLi reference? The lentil soup? All of the above?

I loved Ocean. I was neither a Euro nor a grad student, and never had issues with the service. I routinely ordered my sandwich and coffee and plopped myself down at an outside table, and my food was delivered with alacrity and a smile. Then again, I've been told I have an amazing ability to make friends with assholes, so perhaps I was unique in the level of service I received from Ocean. ;)

He once famously evicted the money-lenders from the temple. Now it seems the money-lenders have taken over the temple. I pray that this election season finally destroys the pernicious alliance of the God-for-profit McJesusites with the Republican Party.

So did Mays intentionally snub Josh Hamilton? Is there some backstory there?

I'm glad this isn't actually one of Guinness's "brilliant" ads. It definitely looks to me like the woman is being... to use a euphemism, "fingercuffed". But I agree with the comment above that this doesn't really seem like a Guinness ad. The bottle being featured may as well be a Corona bottle.

Tracy, I'm sure it took a lot of guts and soul-searching to write this article. I thank you for sharing it, because I did find that I learned something from it. I'm a male denizen (didn't want to describe myself as a "male member") of the hook-up generation and am not unfamiliar with the concepts and situations you've described. My own life, without saying too much, has had many... casual, yet respectful, dalliances. So I'm certainly not judging you or sneering at you for your experiences.

But I have to say... I'm pretty sure I've read, in Broadsheet and other venues, some pointed critiques about the self-confessional method of female journalism/exposure -- the very mode that the Jezebel bloggers and Emily Gould employed -- and I feel like you've written yourself into that same position. It's obviously tricky territory to navigate. I don't know where the line is. Where honest exploration of personal themes drifts into oversharing and commodification of a young woman's sexual life. The two are probably inseparable in the world we live in, and that's sad.

The issues involved are probably a little over my head. We all tend to get a little oversharey at times, especially online. I've deleted a few sentences as I've written this letter. So I think you should be careful what you're sharing and be sure about why you're sharing.

McCain's never had that much depth to him. Come on. The guy was something like 894th out of 899 in his class at Annapolis. Crashed multiple jets. Had a reputation as a troublemaker and a slacker. Getting shot down and tortured put the gloss of nobility on him, which he's been happy to exploit, all the while pretending he's too humble to make an issue of his life story. His whole political career is one long case of apophasis. "I'm not going to mention my experience in a POW camp to further my own ambitions..." He divorced his first wife and married a much younger, wealthy woman whose money and connections could provide a launching point for his political career.

Sure, he seemed more independent in 2000, but his response in the next election cycle to the Bushwhacking he received is instructive: he caved immediately to Bush's co-opting, sold out his friend Kerry, and provided political cover to Bush for his failed war policies during that Presidential election cycle.

McCain's fallen from where he was in 2000, but he hasn't fallen as far as it seems at first blush.

Novak hit a pedestrian. The bicyclist you refer to is the lawyer who saw the crime, chased after his car, and wouldn't let him flee the scene.

That's it, the Quagmires & Plutocrats crowd has gone and made it personal.

I bought a flat-screen TV in June, after the stimulus checks and my tax refund came in. Even spent more than I'd planned to, because there was a great deal on a fancier model. I don't regret it.

On the night of rousing speeches from Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama, why is your front page article about a few dozen bitter PUMAs who are all probably McCain plants anyway?

But no Joan, ignore the weird editorial decision you've made here, and continue to piously moan in your own columns about how un-civil Obama supporters are and what a bunch of misogynistic schmucks we are for being offended that you chose to cover the PUMA dog and pony sideshow instead of the Democratic convention.