#622 Java the Hut

Ah Modern times. Not a day goes by some factoid doesn’t skitter across my desk like a rat on too many espressos.
I heard the other day that McDonalds is going to be carrying lattes. That’s right, the fifth horseman of the apocalypse has ridden down commercial lane. McDonalds is carrying fancy espresso drinks.
Guess they won’t be calling Starbucks the McDonalds of coffee anymore.
Seems Mickey Ds introduction of premium coffee last year was a resounding success. Finally, parents can take their whining kids in for a happy meal and a quick slide down the play area tubes, and sit back and enjoy a fine latte while they chat with friends on their cell while they do so.
Every echo-boomers dream, a cellphone, a latte, and buying the kids off with a happy meal. They didn’t make quality time like this in the 70s.
Now if only Pizza Hut would do it. They could call it Java the Hut.
And speaking of kids and how important they are, seems school education has taken a back seat to school vacation. Even though educational experts say hugely positive things about year-round school, America continues to hold on to its farm roots by kicking the kids to the curb every summer to fend for their intellectual selves.
Even while other countries surpass us in math, sciences, and technology.
Well, here’s another reason for our apparent obliviousness. It’s for commerce. Under pressure from the tourism industry, 11 states now require, that’s right, require, public school boards to start school no earlier than late August or early September.
Tourism interests say when schools open their doors in early August it discourages family vacations and reduces the student workforce in restaurants and resorts.
Wait a minute. Student workers aren’t on vacation anyway—they’re working—and they’d be going back to work at their school towns. Which would then have more part time workers at night.
And heck, with baseball season getting later and later and football earlier and earlier, I’d think the pizza delivery biz would need all that after-school help.
And who’s going to make lattes at college-town McDonalds?
America, ya gotta love it