Furniture Feature: Coffee Edition

With Dr. Bob in his office this morning, I knew I was in for a good story for this week's furniture feature.

Dr. Bob came out of his office, looked around and said, "Do you want to know the story behind our coffee grinder?"

I nodded. Of course I wanted to hear the story.

Dr. Bob went on to explain that we got this grinder as a donation from a former Coe student. This Bunn grinder was first used to help grind down animal food.

Say what?

I know, when I first heard, I was a little terrified. The coffee beans that I drink are being put through a grinder first used for animal food? But never fear, Dr. Bob continued his story.

The Coe alum had originally wanted to donate it to the Chemistry department. At the time, the Chemistry department was apparently "hooked on the Writing Center coffee" and instead, passed it onto us.

Before any coffee beans were roasted, it went through an intense cleaning and sanitizing process. Dr. Bob cleaned it all, removing all past grinding experiences, except for the motor. It was difficult (no surprise there) so Dr. Bob walked down the street to Davis Auto. He asked the owner if he could use the air compressor to clean the motor. The owner agreed and apparently a large dust of past grinding flew into the air.

The cleaning process complete, the grinder was deemed safe for use and since then, has found a home in the Writing Center grinding coffee on a daily basis. One of the first things you learn as a new consultant is how to make coffee and how to yell our equivalent of golf's "fore!'

"GRINDING!"

Also, we got a pretty sweet deal. This coffee grinder usually goes for about $850 nowadays. Wow.

And there you have it. See you next week!

The Bloggers Are Back!

Hello readers!

We're back. The school year has begun, the coffee beans are being roasted, and those writers are finally coming in for some conferences for their first papers of the semester. The WC has welcomed back familiar centaurs and many newbies have joined the crew. It's Dr. Bob's last year (woah!) and so we're helping him go out with a BAM.

So we're the blog team. Our goal this semester is at least weekly posts and a new major changes to the layout of the blog. Check back for pages going across the top of the blog, directing you to even more information. We'll update the links and make sure you're informed with all the exciting things happening in the WC. Finally, you'll have a chance to get to meet us, our bloggers, and other fellow consultants.

Get ready for an awesome year!

- The Blogsters

Weird Things in the Writing Center

For those of you who have never visited Coe, or who haven't seen our new area, I decided to got take pictures of what I think are some of the weirder things in our Writing Center.

First off, cardboard cut-outs:

Abraham Lincoln's head fell down

We seem to accumulate cardboard cut-outs of various people. Don't ask me why; they just seem to appear in the WC on a given day.

Also, giant stuffed animals:

And busts of composers:

I think this used to be Beethoven, but now its a nightmare...

But the highlight of the Writing Center is definitely our expansive mug collection, which seems to have grown quite a bit in our new space:

My two favorites are the toilet shaped one and the owl shaped one:

You can't go wrong with owls.



As always, yours truly,
Julia

2011

Hey folks! It's 2011 here in the Coe Writing Center (and everywhere else, too).

Here's some good news for you:

The WC was recently awarded a monetary gift from the Diversity Discussion and Study Group of the Transamerica Life Insurance Company for our dedication and input on articles in a book they've created. This money will help us finance future off-campus staff trips.

CONGRATULATION CONSULTANTS! I knew you could do it.

In other news, the bakers are baking what smells to be delicious chocolate-chip-oatmeal-and-honey cookies. (There are also WCmade rice krispies too.) So feel free to stop by for warmth, a good chat about academics and writing, coffee/cocoa/tea and treats. (Side note: what do you think about having a bake sale?)

And don't forget about taking a peek into the Speaking Center to see what they're up to.

- Taylor

the winter cometh

Folks, maybe you haven't noticed, but it's getting cold outside! I even see snow in our near future! What does this have to do with the Coe Writing Center, you ask?

The answer: THE WRITING CENTER PARKA.


(Me. In the parka...)

Getting cold just means getting warm in the Writing Center. Come drink coffee, tea or cocoa. Cuddle up with your papers and a consultant AND get work done! And, if you have the guts, try on the parka! (If you try on the parka, take a picture and send it to me. It may appear here!)

- Taylor E.

mis-estimated

Well, it seems that I mis-estimated the amount of time it would take to have dinner with the visiting poet, Philip Schultz, so I missed the meeting. Luckily, I found a replacement to take down the minutes. Unluckily, it turns out that the person I asked was also attending the dinner. So, Clarissa helpfully summarized the meeting for me:

-We are informed, once again, not to make two pots of caffeinated coffee at the same time. Use the WC Roast first, then move on to "the klatch." This sounds like a disease.
-Sign up for conferences and interviews with Sam, the UI guy writing his thesis on the CWC
-A form was filled out. Maybe ask Bob about this.
-Orgies were mentioned. Again. Something about the gangly people ratio?
-Next fall the retreat is in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Some people may be visiting Clarissa's family.

Okay.

Chock Full O'Minutes

Oh, it was a content-rich meeting.

Bob handed out tickets to see Jared Diamond speak on Tuesday night. For those not in the know (ie: me until a few days ago), he’s a professor of geography and physiology and UCLA and won the Pulitzer for Guns, Germs and Steel, “a short history about everyone for the last 13,000 years.” Should be interesting at the very least.

It seems that the Peterson recycling system is now “sort of going.” It gets picked up Thursday morning and Tuesday afternoon.

There have recently been complaints about the quality of the WC non-home-roasted coffee (the stuff we get from the freezer, which are cheap beans from Sam’s Club). Some of the complaints may have come from me. We are now getting them from Coffee Klatch, a company in California – the blend is “Bourbon Supremo.” Ezra says the new coffee is actually pretty good.

In honor of this, we will, for the first time ever, be introducing three (3) coffee pots. Whoa. Prices have also gone up to 80 cents per cup. Bob reminds us that because these fancy beans are twice as expensive as the old variety, we might try to be reasonably conservative in our use.

An interesting thing: A student at the University of Iowa is doing his doctoral dissertation specifically on conferencing at the Coe Writing Center. His focus will be on what happens after the conference ends. You’ll be getting questionnaires in your mailbox, which you can fill out if you want.

Willie took one of my five remaining Lucky Charms marshmallows, but makes up for the theft with another interesting fact: she says that both Lucky Charms and Cap’n’Crunch cereals are illegal in the E.U. because they contain some sort of sinister substance. Well.

You can now win prizes. Prizes! There are many varieties of prizes being given out, to both consultants and writers, and the trick to winning them is…do a lot of conferences. Prizes are bookstore gift certificates and dinner coupons to the Lighthouse Inn, which is supposedly the oldest restaurant in CR, and the place where Al Capone ate when he was in town. Bob says they make the best ribs he’s ever eaten. It’s my birthday next week: anyone want to take me out for dinner?

Um, there’s a new remote for the non-functioning tv. You can use it to watch DVDs if you can decode the elaborate system of button-pressing involved in operating the remote. Ask Melissa for more details.

Then we came to the main portion of the evening. You read that right. We haven’t even gotten to the main part of the meeting: the Study Abroad Panel. Here’s a brief(ish) rundown of the conversation:

Willie: Sweden. Classes about movies. Her town is called “Dragon City” because it burnt down three times. Mountains. Baltic Sea. Baltic Sea! She has sweet boots on. Went Xtreme camping with Germans in a forest. Ate noodles by a lake. Jumped in a melted glacier. “That was so cool.” Literally. Ha.

Katie: Pune, India. Class in film. Sensing a trend here. Rode an elephant. Had some girl power time.

Malyssa: San Jose, Costa Rica. Read a great list which will be posted here soon. Took $2 out of the ATM on her first day because she’s not used to being a millionaire. Was drugged by her host mom.

Jackie: Bangor, Wales. 30k town/10k university enrollment. Took a class in scriptwriting. What? Involved with BBC-Wales. Drove through World’s End. Got knocked to the ground by some beastly wind on a Welsh mountain.

Nathan: Ghana. His university had 75-90,000 students enrolled. Took classes in theater. What is this? Drummed, danced, traveled. Went to Burkina Faso. “Mali-wood” movies. Rode a camel, slept with goats. Bob says, “That sounds very kinky.”

Kevin: Sweden. Lived in a cottage in the woods. Shovelled many “metres” of snow. Got robbed in Spain. Hung out with nice English-speaking Dutch people who had a car. Sweden sounds exciting.

And that, my friends, is it.

mecca

New thing I've been doing which is agreeable:
Eating lunch from Brewed Awakenings (usually soup - the soup is great) in the Writing Center.

And, yeah, that was a really, shamefully shameless plug.


I've been spending less and less time in the Writing Center. My freshman year, if I wasn't eating, sleeping, or in class, I was here. But since then, I find myself only frequenting Peterson 145 when I work, or need a conference, or have to pull an all-nighter to write a paper I've put off for too long.

But I've been making an effort to be here more often, outside of my working hours. And I'm remembering why I spent so much time here in the first place.

On almost every bit of Writing Center propaganda we produce, there's the phrase coined by WC alum Laura Farmer -- "The Writing Center: the Mecca of random conversations." I've become immune to this statement - it's just something to say to pique interest, a good space filler. But I've been reminded, lately, of how true this statement is. People discuss everything here. I'd give examples, but they probably wouldn't reflect how bizarre and varied the truth actually is.

So I think I'm going to continue this upward trend. I'd forgotten that, when I'm away, I miss being here. It's good remembering.

A cuppa coffee

My relationship with coffee is an intense one. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but hear me out. I won’t forget the first time I got a coffee high. In typical eager nerdyness, I had not only been elected Treasurer of Colere, but I also decided to re-organize the binder of Treasurer information into something coherent. Due to its availability of caffeine, I elected to use the WC as the staging area for this endeavor. Once I lost count of how many cups I’d imbibed, I was giddy, singing, and using the CWC hole punch with extraordinary fervor.

I know, bizarre-o.

During my semester in Nicaragua, I spent three weeks in a village whose main industry was coffee farming. Who knows how many hours I spent with my host family, picking each bean individually. The bean is embedded in the fruit of the coffee berry, meaning that after the coffee has been picked, it needs to be de-pulped. My host family used a hand-propelled depulper, which looked like a circular cheese grater that removed the outer fruit layer so that none remained on the bean.

Then the day’s harvest ferments overnight to loosen up the outer husk of the bean. The following day, all the beans are washed, and the de-pulped, de-husked beans are set out to dry. Family members will spend hours over the drying trays, picking out every bug bitten, green, or rotten bean they find. Then they sell their crop at a fraction of the price we pay, and arrives to us pre-roasted and pre-ground, contained in a tasteful WC mug.

I don't ask that anyone feel bad, guilty, whatever. What I want to be recognized is that real people have picked every individual bean, and that these beans go through a lot to arrive in our cup. One of the faults of an industrial society is that we rarely know much about the origins of our purchases. It's not like writing a paper, where the writer is painfully aware of its inception and tortuous revisions. This is more like reading a Hemingway novel.


- Johanna

a coffee making reminder

          When using the fancy new red grinder, make sure you hold the cup all the way up on it, so the grounds don't go flying all over.
          Also, when the sound of the grinder changes, getting higher pitched, hit the stop switch; it's not that great for it to run without anything to chew on.
          Before you dump the grounds into a filter, hold the cup under where the grinds come out and whack the dangling plate really hard -- I'm serious, ball up your fist and wail on that thing! Some of the more finely ground beans get caught up in the blades and gum up the machine, which is no good. So vent some frustrations on it! It's therapeutic.

  - Leta