Starbucks Sirens evolve

LIAM LICKS AND LIKES THE NEW SIREN STARBUCKS LOGO

Having a place to sit

sip a latte

read the NY Times

blackberry (as a verb) 

network in person

 kindle (all ways) 

recharge physically and technically (outlets all over)

people watch 

 are all part of the Starbucks experience

I have previously written about my problems with seating because of my desire to sit alone.  Well readers,  my attitude has been changing and I have come full circle.  

Started out I wanted to just run in, get my latte and leave.  Then I sat at times with my Times.  Then the troubles began.  Folks needed to sit. There were only a few tables.   Strangers would say "Do you mind if I share the table?"  As they were on their way down to the chair.  I was steamed like my latte.

I then hit upon a solution.  Cover the table with all my devices, papers, bag, latte and make sure only one chair was at my table-the one in which I was sitting.  Worked beautifully.  From my Queenly roost,  I felt power, with that an ebbing of boundaries and fear.  I began chatting to other regulars. I liked it. I felt like the neighborhood Starbucks Siren.  I began to look forward to my daily visit.  They know my name, my drink. Next photo shows my new siren soul under the old Starbucks Siren.

STARBUCKS SIRENS

A heady experience.  The seating problem was no longer a problem.  I always got a solo seat, because of either serendipitous timing or help from other regulars. When there were no seats another regular would get up give his/hers and join another regular.  I was invited to sit with others. Then it came full circle just 2 weeks ago.  I actually sat with a stranger. I initiated it, in the very way I had once loathed.  "Do you mind me sitting here?" as I was on my way down to the seat.  To be clear, the person had not purchased any Starbucks item and had no right to sit (unwritten Starbucks culture law) 

My new attitude coalesced with a Starbucks renovation at my New Hyde Park Store. This update left only two tables with six seats.  My evolution had come just in time. The new configuration would make it very dicey to snare a seat.

My new Siren self was ready. One day this week, I actually invited an older woman to sit at my table.   Another day I sat with two regulars.  Have I yet been able to ask a stranger with a Starbucks purchase if I may join? No.  Maybe next week.I have gone from someone wanting to be anonymous, to enjoying the camaraderie, to joining others at their tables.

As my evolution was occurring, change was brewing within the Starbucks Company. Starbucks is celebrating their 40th year,  Back to basics.
ttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13coffee.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=starbucks&st=cse  

LIAM WITH THE OLD SIREN LOGO

And  has a new logo. The  Siren has been released from her circled bondage.
This one minute video shows and tells about her evolution.    She has been inside a circle for many years and sealed with a text. Now no text. She is her own person. Stands alone..

Time magazine states a company has truly become international when it needs no text to identify it.http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2056730,00.html  Such as Nike. Just the swoosh.

I have become comfortable siting among people and sharing, setting limits when I want. I am freed from my worries and in a way from my own imposed circle of isolation.

JUST A LICK

Liam loves the new Siren.

Woof, Woof

Becoming Charlotte Brontë

Well, who are you? (Who are you? who, who, who, who?)

I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

'Cause I really wanna know (Who are you, who, who, who, who?)

The Who

LIAM JOSEPH MCNIFF-NIKOL-HE KNOWS WHO HE IS

We recently finished a book in our "Page Turners" Book  Club at Hillside Library. Its title Becoming Jane Eyre.  A story of the writing Brontë family.  In case you don't know them or need a refresher, the writing Brontë sisters, are Charlotte, Emily and Anne.  Two older sisters died at 11 and 10 before they could make a mark.   And there-was a drunken brother who had to be retrieved from pubs rather consistently. Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre was published in 1847.
The author Sheila Kohler imagines a tale of Charlotte writing Jane Eyre
.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/books/review/Benfey-t.html
We see how Charlotte imbues Jane with  her own qualities, sorrows, and dreams.  Many of Jane Eyre's famous characters are very similar to the real people in Charlotte's own life- a short one-1816-1858, but still longer than all of her five siblings.  A current movie, one of many made over the years has just been released. So Jane/Charlotte is out in public again. See review if you like
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/movies/jane-eyre-starring-mia-wasikowska-review.html
And is Jane, Charlotte herself? This Becoming Jane Eyre novel is not huge, passionate and illuminating, but has merit for the questions it poses about the autobiographical nature of Jane Eyre.   I liked the novel not so much for its content as for the imaginings released in me-this family of women writers in a man's publishing world in the mid 1840's. March after all is women's history month.
Apparently, Patrick Brontë was not born with that surname.  He wanted to marry up and believed to do so he would have to hide his ancestry.   He changed his Irish last name from Prunty to Brontë.  He was ashamed of his Irishness and fearful that his heritage would hold him back. So Patrick Prunty became Patrick Brontë, married Maria Branwell- a marriage that came with a dowry and a position.

Why do I care?  We have many Pruntys on my mother Ruth's side.  Her mother Rose was a Prunty.  Rose had six sisters, so there were many Prunty aunts as well.  Then there were two Prunty uncles who disappeared.  Seems no one cared enough to retrieve either of them from anywhere.
Ruth had always said that folks thought the  Prunty name to be English but it was not-just that many Irish had to work in England, some never returning and thus the name commonly thought to be English.  And now I have discovered that this exotic Brontë surname evolved from Prunty.
Charlotte Brontë  is becoming Charlotte Prunty.
I am also thinking about Charlotte's "fictional self" Jane Eyre.   Isn't Eyre, really like Eire, the Gaelic name for Ireland? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ire
Was Charlotte giving a shoutout to her heritage?

My mother, Ruth, was toying with naming me Charlotte. It was Carol or Charlotte for my father, Charles.  She chose Carol.  If grandmother Rose and mother Ruth had kept the Prunty surname going I could have been Charlotte Prunty.  I am well on my way to Becoming Charlotte Brontë

Am I related to the Brontë/Pruntys?  Is this LiamLicks blog, my Jane Eyre?  I downloaded Jane Eyre to my Kindle-old books are free- I want to see If I feel a psychic connection. 

This is the type of story I miss sharing with my mother.  The duality of her nature-Ruth/Ruthless always made for interesting exchanges.  Would she be Ruth and be excited and flattered to be a possible descendant of a famous female writing family? Ruth, a talented writer herself,  possessing a quirky independence, a unique worldview far ahead of her time. Or would she be Ruthless and say something like "Come on Carol, who cares about the past, all these people are dead anyway. the desolate moors, orphans, true love,  Oh please."

LIAM ON THE DESOLATE WINTER BACKYARD MOOR-LOOKING FOR JANE

Today March 24, is the one year anniversary of my mother's death.  She often reminded me that she did not want a big commemoration of her death, or a party to celebrate her life  The way she put it "Please don't do a Carol McNiff  thing when I am gone."  I think she envisioned a raucous party of toasting people spontaneously composing limericks and the like.  (Note to self-sounds like a good sendoff-put in my will)
Okay, I didn't have any public gathering.   But now that I am becoming Charlotte Brontë -what would a writer do?
I know.
Writers acknowledge, mention, prologue, footnote, dedicate
So no party, no service, but here is what I will do today-

RUTH CIRCA 1939

I dedicate this week's LiamLicks to you, Mom, on this one year anniversary of your death.  Liam sends his licks and love.

BTW, I asked Liam about being a Brontë.  He feels that he has enough names- Liam Joseph McNiff-Nikol.  So he'll stick with those four.

Woof, Woof

A Flameless Fire sign

Bruce Springsteen -Fire

I'm driving in my car, I turn on the radio

I'm pulling you close, you just say no

You say you don't like it, but girl I know you're a liar

'Cause when we kiss, 

hmmmm, Fire

LIAM IN FRONT OF HIS FIREPLACE

I love a roaring fire, candles, a lot of them. I have been a fan of the Christmas Yule log on WPIX since it was a grainy loop in the late 1960's.  I am mesmerized  by every tribal council on the reality TV show Survivor.  Torches all over.  It seems there is a crackling fireplace in every home on All My Children -yes, the soap with Erica Kane/Susan Lucci. http://abc.go.com/shows/all-my-children

Am I a retiree sitting at home watching Soaps?  No. I leave home to watch them.   I get my guilty pleasure while at the Gym watching the flat screen TVs while I work out.  I feel it is then acceptable.
No flame for us here at home.  No candles.  No fireplace.  I live with a spouse who fears the danger of an errant lick of a flame, a candle not snuffed when leaving, the pollution of a fireplace. An article recently appeared in the NYTimes about the the unhealthiness of fireplaces.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/garden/20fire.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

And then we have the cautionary warning from our firefighter brother -in-law who has said that many fires he has fought have been the result of a single candle encouraged to lash out by the wind,  fireplace embers simmering unguarded, and sparking unexpectedly, innocent votive lights illuminating a home shrine.  What is a "fire" sign to do? We have flameless candles,

SOME OF OUR FLAMELESS CANDLES

watch TV for fireplaces, fires, flaming torches. Climb into the scene.  Liam has his spot in front of the heating vent.

HEAT WITH A FLAME

I have the WPIX Yule log whenever I want due to modern technology.

I can watch the reality TV show Survivor each week and wait for Tribal Council to see all the torches.  Flames waving in the tropical winds.  Torches licking the air.   Mass of united little fires.

Every house for sale on HGTV has at least one fireplace.   And twice a year we go to The Beekman Arms  (the oldest Inn in America) http://www.beekmandelamaterinn.com/and enjoy a respite in front of their fireplace which is a grand one! 

BEEKMAN ARMS LOBBY

And the Hillside Library has its own fireplace.   After Yoga or a book club meeting, I stop by and warm up amidst the rows of books and live dangerously by sinking into one of their comfy couches and am hypnotized by the flame.

HILLSIDE LIBRARY

Liam enjoying his own flameless fire, no competition from me

AAH, FIRE!

Woof, Woof

Bromance at Home

And tell me, who do you love?

Who do you love?

Who do you love?

Who do you love?

Who do you love?

1956-Ellas McDaniel by Bo Didley

LIAM WITH HIS TEDDY FRIEND-JUST PALS NO BROMANCE

Bromance seems like a new term, charmingly applied to the relationship between the male leads of the film, The King's Speech- Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

A friendship between two men defined. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromance    

Not so new, though.   In this link is a quote attributed to that philosopher, teacher, smart person -Aristotle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle%27s

In 300 B.C. he wrote:
"It is those who desire the good of their friends for the friends' sake that are most truly friends, because each loves the other for what he is, and not for any incidental quality."

So we have Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Sherlocke Holmes and Watson, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, George Clooney and every guy and Paul and Liam.  Liam and I are alone together (you get what I mean, love oxymorons) a lot of the time.  Liam is always where I am. Upstairs, downstairs, couch, chair, yard.   However, when the three of us are in the house, it becomes the pack of the two boys.

The pack of two sit on the couch

PACK OF TWO

watch sports and generally wish me gone. If I attempt to join in Liam taps Paul with his paw

LIAM'S PAW TAPPING PAUL

"That woman is here"

I understand exactly how Helena Bonham Carter felt in the filming of "The King's Speech."   She took a back seat to the Colin/Geoffrey bromance.  In a very mature and loving way, she acknowledged that their bromance enhanced the film, their collective experience as a threesome as well as ours as an audience.  The  interview on Piers Morgan's show has a clip of the two men showing obvious affection and respect

http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/01/27/firth.piers.morgan/index.html

I will take Helena's cue, and support the pack of two bromance at home.
How can I be anything but supportive of such a time honored tradition?

Liam and Paul

MUST BE THE METS-NO SMILES

Woof, Woof

Where Does Liam Sleep?

SLEEPING DOG

A question came up at dinner recently.  Where does Liam sleep?  As we looked at the questioner, Paul's brother,  we realized he was sitting in one of Liam's favorite sleeping spots.  Before he and our sister-in-law  arrived, we had converted Liam's lair back to a guest chair, by moving his bed from the chair. Add dog and the guest chair (my favorite spot also) returns to Liam's bed after the evening festivities.

DOG IN GUEST CHAIR

The beds of Liam vary according to time of day, and where his parents are.  the living room couch can be a bed , the plaid towel upper left is his perch for watching squirrels

DOG IN A BALL

DOG WITH PILLOWS AND BLANKETS

GEORGIA DAWG

as can the love seat and the den couch where I sleep, facing either way and always on or covered by his favorite blankets

or the upstairs bed where Paul sleeps

or the upstairs lounger used when I am on the computer

DOG ON UPSTAIRS BED

DOG UNDER A CROW WHEN I AM ON PC

HOT DOG IN FRONT OF HOT AIR VENT

and possibly Liam's favorite spot-in front of the hot air vent-good for a few winks especially during those luxurious moments when the first blasts of heat are shooting forth.


Woof, Woof