The Mariners are the Starbucks of MLB...

I have actual baseball content brewing, but here in early February as we go crazy leaping at every scrap of baseball news (Yorman Bazardo DFA'd!! The humanity!!!! Bavasi suxx0rz!!!!1!!1!!), I thought a little, ahh, misdirection might be welcome.

I've now lived away from the Northwest for over a decade, and yet have never relinquished my identity as someone "from" Seattle. Almost uniformly, the first reaction that people have to that identity involves the word Starbucks.

Now, I have no particular antipathy for Corporate Coffee-Like Burnt Roast, but as everyone who's actually BEEN to Seattle knows, Starbucks ain't exactly the cream of the retail coffee crop. I've always thought of it as the McDonald's of coffee--a successful business that turns out fast but not particularly high quality edible products to a public that values its time and need for instant gratification above the ability to just enjoy a high quality cup of coffee.

In any case, it amused me to no end to see the Seattle Times report today that Consumer Reports has judged McDonald's coffee to be superior to Starbucks.

See? I was right all along. I'm gonna go brew some actual coffee....