On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:58:47 -0400, Peter Hendra
wrote:

Peter, you made many good points, but unfortunately
also early on made the typical "generalization" mistake of those who
may find your points debatable. I am sympathetic to much of what you
said, but find the following highly offensive:

"A friendly policeman with whom I was having coffee - real
coffee - Cuban, not that brown dishwater that poses as coffee that
Americans seem to prefer..."

Of course, that set the tone
The nerve. The cajones. The impudence to suggest I don't
know my coffee! If you were to visit me you would find a choice
of about 15 different coffees, though none Cuban.
Of course I drink more coffee than Frenchmen drink wine or Germans
beer, and if it were all Cuban my blood pressure would be seriously
elevated at all times.
When they were drafting men into the fight in Viet Nam a young fellow
in Miami asked around for a way out. He found that others had been
washed out of the induction physical by merely drinking a quart of
Cuban coffee just prior to the exam, thusly elevating their blood
pressure. He did as suggested, with no success.
He faced death in combat many times in 'Nam, and it turned his
hair prematurely gray. He also suffered beri beri and other ailments,
but it was his good fortune to make it alive to his release after 2
years of hell, whereupon he had his discharge physical.
The doc checked his blood pressure three separate times, shaking his
head at each result.
The vet said, "What's wrong, doc?"
And the doc said, with some exasperation,
"How in the HELL did they let you in the Army with such low blood
pressure!?
Sometimes wrong solutions are applied to the wrong problem.

--Vic