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Pretty fancy!

Those are for grads who were held back a year.

I took a couple classes from him at Swannanoa -- he sure knows that "Water Is Wide" arrangement, I tell ya, and seems content to replay it and replay it for the entire class time.

Just to liven things up, I always wanted to raise my hand and ask, "What kind of hair conditioner do you use?"

The reason I ask is that a shop just opened in Little Canada, a cheese curd's throw from the Culver's that sustains me, called Qamaria Yemeni Coffee. I went over there to check it out this evening and it had a line out the door and was jam-packed inside, too. I'll check it out some morning, looks fantastic. Samosas! Chocolate Baklava! Pistachio Lattes, Pistachio Cheesecake, who knows, maybe Pistachio Lip Balm!
Excerpt from WTTW, Chicago:


Trace the origins of coffee as a beverage down to the root, past Chemexes and pumpkin spice lattes, Maxwell House and Sanka, Viennese cafes and Dutch Indonesian plantations and Turkish coffeehouses, and you’ll eventually find yourself in the vicinity of the Red Sea. The coffee plant is native to the Ethiopian highlands, but historical evidence suggests that it was only once it was brought across the Bab el Mandeb strait by Somali merchants to Yemen that a beverage similar to the one we know today was prepared. The first known mention of roasting coffee beans, brewing them, and drinking them is from the 15th century in Yemen, which soon began cultivating the plants itself and exporting their beans.

The English word “coffee” follows the beverage’s route from Yemen to the rest of the world: The Arabic “qahwa” became the Turkish “kahve” before reaching Italy as “caffè” and the Dutch, who were the first to import large quantities of coffee, as “koffie.” “Mocha” comes from the Yemeni port of Mokha, where ships departed with loads of coffee beans.

After centuries of coffee from other parts of the globe being predominant, Yemeni coffee is now spreading throughout the United States, offering Americans a chance to taste coffee from its likely birthplace. In the Bay Area, Charlotte, the suburbs of Chicago, Houston, Columbus, Ohio, and elsewhere, Yemeni coffee shops have opened in the past couple years to serve unique coffee blends; qishr, which falls between tea and coffee; spiced Adeni tea with evaporated milk; and Yemeni pastries such as flaky-layered, honey-soaked sabya and pull-apart, cheese-filled honeycomb bread.

“What excites me the most is having people try this coffee and they’re like, ‘Woah, we’ve never tasted coffee like this!’” says Hatem Al-Eidaroos, the co-founder of Qamaria Coffee, which opened a cafe at 9970 S. Ridgeland Ave. in the southwestern suburb of Chicago Ridge earlier this year. It joins the Yemeni coffee shop Qahwah House, which opened a location at 406 E. Roosevelt Rd. in the western suburb of Lombard last year before adding another at 5238 W. Touhy Ave. in the northwestern suburb of Skokie this year. Even longer-standing Yemeni restaurants such as Sheeba Mandi House in North Park have begun advertising Adeni chai and honeycomb pastries

Both Qamaria and Qahwah were started in Dearborn, Mich., a Middle Eastern enclave outside of Detroit that is home to the largest Muslim population in the U.S. per capita. Other Yemeni chains such as Haraz Coffee House are also from Dearborn; whereas coffee was first brought to Yemen by Somali merchants, it is now spread through the U.S. by Arabs from Dearborn. (Eater has a list of thirteen notable Arabic coffee shops in Dearborn alone.)

Qamaria opened its first cafe in early 2021; it now has 12 franchised locations and 18 more on the way, including one in Naperville. Qahwah House has locations in Michigan, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Ohio.

I'm feeling pretty sheepish about this posting now -- I wrote what I did early this morning as a catharsis of sorts, as the 40th birthday hit me (and Elena) harder than we expected. During the rest of the time -- for the most part -- we've settled in with our "since" lives.

I wasn't looking for sympathy or anything at all, really -- I was just compelled to write, and you bozos are the only friends I have ...

OK, well, maybe there are a FEW others!

< Gerhard >

Do this grumpy ol' editor a favor? Take the "e" from "De" and move it to the middle of "Cour," please?

Lovely place, Coeur d'Alene.

ANYhoo, it's a gorgeous spring day, just like that one 40 years ago, and I am gonna make the most of it!

Appreciate the hugs, tribe. As I hasten to mention on these milestone dates, I am far from the only bereaved parent on this forum, so hearts out to you all.