Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love, showed itself to be a cauldron of intolerance last week. And not just the barista or the store manager who called the cops because a couple of visitors had the audacity of hoping they could use the bathroom before they ordered anything to drink. Somewhere along the line, someone realized that the "optics" of the situation were tenuous and tenebrous at best.
But because Philadelphia's Finest, once they did show up (in bicycle helmets, no less) refused to take "never mind" for an answer. Someone heard the word "trespass," and we know what that means: "You, out!"
In a better world, the senior police officer at the scene would have had a quiet sit-down with the senior Mermaid at the scene, along the lines of "Ma'am, it's your candy store, and we'll cuff 'em if that's what you want, but frankly, we've got better things to do than play Paul Blart, Mall Cop."
But that didn't happen, did it? The Philly police chief didn't help things by staying he stood by his officers. The CEO of Starbucks, who just barely survived a pummeling at the company's annual meeting by environmentalists, is now going to close every company-owned store in the US for "racial bias education day" to ensure this sort of thing never happens again. Good luck.
The real challenge comes from California, where do-gooders are again shooting themselves in the foot The latest is a so-called Prop 65 warning, which requires businesses to provide patrons with a "clear and reasonable warning" about materials or ingredients that may affect their health.
Acrylamide, identified as a cancer-causing chemical that is a byproduct of the coffee-roasting process, is one of more than 900 toxic substances that fall under proposition 65.
California's Council for Education and Research on Toxics argued in a 2010 lawsuit that coffee producers should notify consumers that the "known carcinogen" acrylamide is produced during the coffee roasting process.
Couple of weeks ago, a judge ruled ,yup, gotta do that.
Not so fast, said the Mermaid, along with industry colleagues Caribou Coffee, Folgers, Keurig Green Mountain, and Gold Peak Tea & Coffee (owned by Coca-Cola). Their attorneys argued the very contrary, that a different set of studies show "coffee consumption does not increase the risk of any chronic disease and is independently associated with a decreased risk of several major chronic diseases." [Italics mine.]
Ya mean, coffee is actually good for you?
The coffee industry's leading association of producers holds its annual conference in Seattle this week. We'll be there.
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