kindness of strangers
coffee name
On the markets I ordered a cup of coffee under canvas, under trees. The fig trees in Brisbane are extraordinarily broad and they spread lumpy dragon roots as well as branches. “What name shall I put that under?” he wanted to know, and I said, “Toby.” The man looked me over thoughtfully. His eyes were bright and shrewd, his face seamed and gnomish. “Toby,” he said, almost spelling it out, as he wrote it down letter by letter. “That’s my coffee name,” I confided. He let out a shout of laughter. “That’s a good one!” “Uh, thanks,” I said. He said, “See, I’m retiring, and today is my last day.” “Oh, well!” I said, brightening. “In that case, congratulations on a working life well spent, I have no doubt. Here, let me shake your hand.” I stuck out my hand and we shook. He explained, “It’s just that it’s so great for something completely new and fresh to happen on the last day. I was not expecting that.” “My name’s hard to spell,” I told him, “it’s Cathoel, and I don’t like being called Cath. So if you had hollered out ‘coffee for Cath!’ that would have pissed me off.” He was laughing again. “Thanks, Cathoel. I’m so glad you showed up on my very last day.”
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Ha! My wife’s name is Jerusha, she has a ‘coffee name’ too :)
Jerusha! That is beautiful. What’s her coffee name, Michael? I’m curious now.
Usually just “J”
Nice! Hard to misspell, too.
You’d think but still gets a range of things from Jay to Jane or a noncommittal jayyyy-ish sound that betrays the servers uncertainty :)
People don’t listen.
I have honey with my coffee & always order with extreme articulation. Oftentimes when it doesn’t turn up I think maybe they just assumed I was being unctuously matey.
So true
Good story! – but I was hoping for more about coffee :- /
(Was there something you could fit in your pocket? hint, hint : )
Oh my god, I let down my favourite coffee hound! Sorry, Curt. Well, the coffee was wonderful and grown and roasted in Montville. They made it super hot.
Toby, or not Toby? That is the question. Whether it’s humbler to call thyself Cathoel, full knowing the name will evoke the orthographic quandary, or to go with the coffee name, with its mnemonic clarity, its ease of use in transactional situations where even a number would do, but where the edge of familiarity is preferred, aye, there’s the question, answered by the hitherto nameless server’s enthusiasm for repartee in the game of delivery to such a one as you, whose name came forward on a magical tongue or two, on his retirement day. Nobler, humbler, we’re happier where humor brought is humor shared and taken home. Cheers, you!
The “orthographic quandary”! Thank you, James. I love this comment and it makes me for some reason unknown as a buffalo want to say over and over again, like a Muppet: mnemonic. Mnemonic. Mnemonic. Mnemonica.
PS I have a back-up facebook page after mine was quarantined mysteriously one time which is under the name Monica Temp. Cos that was my temporary moniker.
I love that picture, honey!
Toby is such a cute coffee name for you!
That’s tops Tobes. Toby, I mean. I’ve got a coffee name too – “Marilyn”. I do it because, it’s fun, and interesting, to imagine life as a Marilyn, and there’s that moment where “Marilyn” gets called to pick up her order and the Ego is annihilated. Oh and as I’ve spent most of the last ten years as a bleach blonde I do get the odd guffaw behind the counter – also a giggle from mine. :)
My coffee name is ‘Flann’, after the writer Flann O’Brien. It tends to confuse.
David if you “shortened” it to “Flann O” at least Aussie baristas could read it as “Flanno” and they might get a grip on it with less difficulty…
my daughter has a ‘coffee name’ too
You may have heard of (or just imagine) the ‘I am Spartacus!’ coffee shop prank.
I used to say ‘you choose’…
Spartacles? Are those the shiny fragments ladies sew into their dresses? Or, no, more of a scientific term. I am nodding.
In the Ridley Scott film, Spartacus is called out of a crowd – and each gladiator steps forward and claims “I am Spartacus!” – or so I believe – the movie didn’t really grab me.
Oh. Spartacuss. (That’s a blasphemous Hollywood term for disappointing films).
I bet most thoughtful folk are glad when you turn up Oelly ☺️