78 rpm

I just read that today is National Coffee Day.  (Is there a date on the calendar that is not a national something day?)

In the Boston area, coffee establishments--of which there are only about 1000--have various promotions in honor of the day. It is only 66 cents a cup at Dunkin Doughnuts. You get a cup free with a food purchase at another shop.  You become eligible for free coffee for a year at yet another.  One can apparently leave the wallet in the pocket and obtain morning fuel-- and perhaps a second and third cup.

Some possible repercussions because of the coffee shops' largesse.

Check to see if your colleagues are speaking more rapidly today.  The person who informs you of all sorts of mundane irrelevant to anyone but his life's activities, may be spewing these meaningless reports so quickly that they are, not that it matters, unintelligible.  Today, you may hear about traffic confrontations, trips to kids' soccer games, problems with water heaters, at a much faster clip

See if you notice a marked increase in the gait of your colleagues.  Is the guy who typically plods up the corridor moving as if he is late for a bus?  I just saw a colleague who regularly lumbers as if he would rather never arrive in his office move as if there was a check taped to his door.  Perhaps he took advantage of dunkin doughnuts 66 cent a cup offer.

Does it seem as if the public toilets have more traffic?  If your office is near a lavatory, can you hear flushing noises with greater frequency?  Is your office mate making even less sense than is typical? Are meeting participants who ramble getting to the point more quickly, or rambling on yet even more tangents?  Later in the afternoon are the lounges filled with slumping bodies who have crashed after a larger than normal fix?  Do you see coffee entrepreneurs laughing even harder because the product that costs them a few cents to make, and for which they charge two plus dollars, is even more clearly today, delightfully, addictive?

Let me know.