So I had my physical the other day, complete with all that entails. The worst part for me isn't the body cavity search or the ripping out of hairs when the EKG sensors are removed, but the fact that I have to starve myself. I'm a morning person, and I usually eat breakfast by 5:30. So when I'm sitting there at 8:30 without having eaten, I'm starving and grumpy. And then they take my precious blood.

So, naturally, I walked next door to the Burger King, as it was the only place I could count on getting food in my system before falling down. The sandwich was fine for what it was, but the coffee? Holy crap, that was the worst cup of coffee I've had in years. I've gotten spoiled now that McDonalds is offering Newman's Own (and at $1 for a large), and with McD's, Dunkin, and Starbucks all on my walk to work, I'm generally guaranteed at least a decent cup of coffee. Hell, even the occasional 7-11 cup is passable.

But that cup I got at Burger King? Unbelievably awful. It's basically the same crappy coffee BK and McDs were serving years ago (although the cup claims that the beans are from Seattle's Best, which I suspect borders on libel). In fact, it might actually have been brewed years ago. I suspect that BK treats coffee the way folks in Flea Bottom treat vats of brown, letting it simmer for years and occasionally adding a stray pigeon or corpse to add some flavor.

So, yeah. I'd forgotten how bad coffee can be. In The Killing Dance, Anita Blake says, “I'd never met coffee that wasn't wonderful. It was just a matter of how wonderful it was.” I used that as my sig file for a while (back when sig files were a thing, which was back when email was a thing, but before Facebook was a thing*). I don't think I could utter that with a straight face now.

*Also back when Anita Blake books were kind of a good thing.