Ode to Macaroni

This is my Ode to Macaroni,
with some ham and cheese for a guard,
you're a protein and a carb...
-Wooten
--
Both of the authors of this blog LOVE Macaroni and cheese. My personal favorite is fried macaroni and cheese balls from the Cheesecake Factory. I love them! (TJI Friday's have recently started to serve them, as well as Jack in the Box.) I wish I had the other words to Wooten's ode...but I think he made it quite clear that Macaroni and Cheese is the best food on the whole earth. Anyway you make it. Although in mine...please hold the meat!!!

Ode to Starbucks

Ode to Starbucks

I. Tall

O great logo of green and white, hated by many and loved by more,
First destination of early mornings, and harbinger of latest nights,
You are loved and hated not for your quality
(admittedly better than average) but for the ubiquity of your name.
Once you resided in malls, in airports, but now you swallow them whole:
Smaller shops tremble in fear of your popular mass-production
While longtime patrons resign themselves to your inevitable takeover.
Your odd vocabulary has permanently infixed itself in our tongues;
Your name has come to replace "coffee" as the label for our addiction.

(And so-- O Starbucks-- I have observed it!
From nothingness you rise.)

II. Grande

O great symbol, the world loves and hates you for what you represent.
Some throw stones or write angry editorials;
Others drink happily, surrounded by the constant hum of propaganda.

One bright summer morning in a small English town,
I wake to see a crowd shouting obscenities outside your window;
"Down with American capitalism," the placards say.
I walk through the line, deliberate and determined:
"For capitalism and America," I say, "Make it a venti."

Nevertheless, America is more than Starbucks uber alles;
It is freedom and choice and opportunity for all.
I pray that we do not one day lose this freedom
Under an oppressive banner of green and white.

It is true that we as a nation cannot break our addiction
To these wonderful beans, nor do we desire to do so.
We wish only some choice in where, and how, our bodies are mistreated.

(And yet-- O Starbucks-- I have foreseen it!
The rise of empire and the fall of man.)

III. Venti

O Starbucks, I cannot bring myself to love or hate you.
You are a force like the weather, your presence overwhelms.
Sometimes I seek the reassurance of your constant-chic decor;
Tonight I try to flee from your rich and omnipresent aroma.

I run for miles into the night, thinking myself wild and free-willed,
But when I stop to rest, I find myself leaning against your window.
I am surrounded: there is no escape.
I float with the tide, I follow the crowd:
I walk up to the counter and order a mocha,
Handing the cashier five dollars and my soul.

(And so-- O Starbucks-- I have lived it!
To nothingness we return.)

- Author Unknown

Ode To Erica's Computer Issues...

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, and the bus is interrupted at a very last resort,

and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,

then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,

and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,

and your data is corrupted cause the index doesn't hash,

then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash!

If the label on the cable on the table at your house,

says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,

but your packets want to tunnel to another protocol,

that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall......

And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,

so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse;

then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,

'cuz sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang.

When the copy on your floppy's getting sloppy in the disk,

and the macro code instructions is causing unnecessary risk,

then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM,

and then quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom!

Well, that certainly clears things up for me. How about you?

-Author Unknown (I should have added this last night when I posted ;)