You can disregard the title. That is the stuff I have to get at the store on my way home and I do not want to forget. I thought if the title was visible while I was writing I would be less likely to fail in the completion of my assigned mission. I read somewhere that older folks have lower intelligence, but more wisdom. Perhaps writing things down so you don’t forget is an example of the latter.
I admit the title sounds like the list of ingredients from one of those chef challenges – you have 20 minutes to make an appetizer that contains lemons, garlic and skim milk. Now that I have you thinking about what you might make, I will write about something that is entirely unrelated. If you have suggestions for how to combine these ingredients, I will accept recipes and forward them to my wife ’cause she must need these things for something
I really like coffee shops. My definition of a coffee shop my differ from yours – a real shop is not to be confused with those chain places with only two tables one of which is occupied by a college student listening to Green Day and working on his first novel. I am most productive in a place with lots of space, interesting characters with varying characteristics of body type and dress, and good coffee. Many mornings I drive about a dozen mile to Webster. Webster has about 650 people but it has a coffee shop that meets my requirements. Fresh Start has great coffee (Kona and Blue Mountain if you want) and the equipment to roast individual orders in 20 minutes. The menu is exotic – I could have ordered a breakfast pizza with truffled bechamel (whatever that is), eggs, and lobster. I wonder what kind of pizza you can make with lemons, garlic, and skim mile – probably easier than lobster and truffled bechamel? The music, a requirement for me, is straight from Pandora with a large monitor on the wall so I know what is playing. This place is so cool they will even warm your cup with hot water before you add the coffee. I prefer a paper cup without the preheating.
I wonder why it is writers like to write in coffee shops. Why not in a quite and isolated library carrel or an ivory tower office with the door closed? I think it is the principle of what I like to call “productive distraction”. Left to our own meager cognitive capabilities we would like focus on something we think is interesting. In a coffee shop, the minor distractions disrupt our limited creations by randomly seeding our own message from parts of our memory we had failed to consider introducing creative elements into what we produce. I apologize for the complexity of the previous sentence. My theories tend to be difficult to capture in brief form.
You should be warned – my wife says she hates when I joke around ’cause it is not obvious when I am trying to be funny and she often believes the strange things I say. Strange is obviously a very personal perspective. Who could possible combine lemons and garlic to generate anything that is edible?