100 Degrees of Perspiration

WNYC has set up a Flickr photo pool where New Yorkers can post images of the last three days of heat. Here's the slide show. A few of the photos show long lines of coffee lovers waiting for the complimentary iced coffees that Starbucks was handing out yesterday. I left school with a few students to check out the scene at our local S-bucks, but the line was snaking around the block, so we took one look and went back inside. An iced coffee is nice, and a free iced coffee is extra nice, but you only really need one when you've intentionally endured an hour of punishing sunlight and the possibility of heat stroke, waiting for it.

I guess long lines of sweaty people suit Starbucks, since they like to see their customers (myself usually included) falling all over the counter in anticipation; and in the end, it works for the customers, since everybody knows that cold drinks just taste better when you're almost dead. And I can totally understand. Every winter I deliberately try to get frostbite in a few of my toes; it just makes my hot cocoa taste that much better.