How Green Is My Mountain?

A long time ago, in a classroom far, far away, I would read an essay by Douglas Kraft 1  entitled "The Trances I Call Myself" 2  to my Great Books class. We did a lot of out loud reading in that class--so that we could stop and chat along the way--but usually the reading rotated. With this article I did all of it, presenting it to them as An Annotated Lecture. I would also start the class by saying that it was an optional thing, and if they didn't have to listen they didn't have to; they could do other homework, they could read, they could have a mimed conversation, they could even sleep as long as they didn't snore. This always delighted them, and immediately half or more of them would get to the serious business of not paying attention. The remaining folk would move to the front desks and I would start reading. And we'd stop to chat. And invariably someone who had chosen NOT to take part would raise his or her hand, and I'd ask them if they wanted to join us, and they usually did. And by the end of the class quite a few of the initial abstainers would have moved into the group. It was a beautiful thing.

I can't seem to find that article right now . . . though I'm sure that there is a copy of it somewhere in this house . . . but I remember a passage near the beginning wherein Mr. / Reverend Kraft talked about how a college class once tried an experiment on its professor wherein if he was on the left hand side of the classroom they would act bored, but if he was on the right hand side of the classroom they would act interested and enthusiastic. It didn't take long for the professor to be glued to the right hand side of the room. And he never consciously realized what was going on.

Kind of scary, ennit?

I was Krogering yesterday and was looking for some whole bean coffee. I really love the Starbucks Pike's Place stuff, and it was to be had, but (1) I thought a little exploration might be nice and (2) the Pike's Place was a couple of bucks more expensive than some of the other brands. I'd also just recently happened upon a coffee from Maine, and for some reason I thought that might be a thing to try. And this led to that, and then I saw something called Green Mountain Coffee . . .

. . . and that seemed like a thing to try. And it was right beside a Maine coffee . . . which I didn't buy because it wasn't whole bean    . . . so it was pretty much the same thing as buying Maine coffee, right? So I bought it. Made a pot this morning. It was quite good. And a buck or two cheaper than the Starbucks stuff.

I sat down and read my 15 minutes of A History of Philosophy with my first cup. Poured another and started to watch Morning Joe. And when they went to commercial, I saw this:

Now, I watch Morning Joe pretty much every day for at least a few minutes, so I'm thinking that I probably have seen this commercial more than a few times. But I didn't remember seeing it. 

Hmmmm.

Did I just get nailed to the right hand side of my classroom?

Who's in charge here, anyway?

1 . . . who seems to go by Doug, but I am 97% sure that the essay was signed Douglas . . . + a middle initial or two that I can't seem to come up with . . . unless it was C. B., which just sprang into my mind)

2 I think. It might have been entitled "Trances We Choose to Live," though. Definitely one of those, though. Probably.