Making coffee in the morning without actually having drank any coffee is hard, am I right?
This cartoon from The New Yorker sums me up perfectly! We have tried all methods of brewing but always seem to gravitate back to the easy automatic drip coffee maker. It is even easier when I prep the day before so in the morning, I can just grind and go.
Working in the UP at http://contrastcoffeeco.com gave me an appreciation for great coffee (you can order their coffee online and trust me, it is some of the best you will ever taste.) And while I appreciate the purity and quality of the slow-brewed pour over, I am much more into instant gratification.
We used to have a Nespresso milk frother and steamer. When it finally died, we didn’t replace it (though I bet we will eventually). Instead, I bought a cheap frothing wand that mostly works though doesn’t warm the milk.
It is sort of the poor man’s latte maker. But it’ll do!
If you are of a certain age, that might remind you of the 1970’s show, The Electric Company (btw – Rita Moreno is a international treasure!!)
But in this installment of Customer Service 101, I want to address the use of using “guys” to address a group of people when working in customer service. It’s been a common and perhaps overused term that is often used as a pronoun whether the group is male, female or both. In fact, the the Oxford Dictionary defines “guys” as “people of either sex” which can further cloud the issue.
In the forefront of the argument against “guys” is, of course, the gender labels and potential offense you can cause by addressing someone incorrectly. And I am not even talking about the feminist argument that it is sexist and marginalizes women by saying it which, of course, is very much an strong and valid argument.
For my purpose, I think it is just too damn casual to be used in many work environments. Many, but not all.
BBC Woman’s Hour host Jane Garvey had a humorous take on the subject:
Back when I owned the wine shop, I was one of the largest retailers of wines in my region. Many of my distributors knew the way to my heart was through my bloodstream and I was often given VIP perks. On one occasion, Paul and I along with the owners of 3 of our areas finest restaurants, we taken up by a ridiculous Hummer Limo to Chicago and treated to a gourmet lunch and wine tasting with some of the finest wineries in the country.
It was on the drive up that the discussion of “guys” came up. An owner of a long-time, high end restaurant in the Quad Cities said they don’t allow employees to say “Hi Guys!” to their customers and upon repeated offenses of doing so, employees could be fired.
I had never thought that much about it until that point but I did understand his point. Saying that to a table of diners comes across as too casual and too familiar. It lacks a certain professionalism that is important to many restaurants and businesses. Plus, as I said earlier, it can be offensive.
In an effort to stop the “guys” business, I offer up some alternatives:
folks (I understand this one is polarizing!)
team
everybody, everyone
y’all (if you live somewhere that people actually say y’all)
friends
replace it with nothing at all
It is a pretty difficult habit to break but being more mindful can certainly help. After all, language matters!
It’s crazy how things from the deep past can boomerang back into your present. For me, it’s the hobby of miniatures painting. WAY back in the mid-70s, I was just starting to get into what I’ll call “deep gaming” – war-games and miniatures battle rule sets.
In those days, you could build and paint an army of warriors in 28mm scale. The miniatures were molded out of some sort of lead/pot-metal base, and you’d often have to use epoxy to glue them together. I remember my dad helping me with some Greek hoplite warriors – you had to glue on the shields, one of their arms and their spear. It was the first time I’d ever worked with epoxy and it was amazing to me how you’d mix two chemicals together to get this goopy, viscous glue that could stick anything together (those were the days before cyanoacrylate super glues).
I tried my hand at painting those little guys, and yowza, was I terrible at it! But in my defense, that was back in 1974, and I was just eleven years old. I still have one of those original hoplites – I have no idea how I haven’t lost him over the last 45+ years.
Fast forward a few years into high school and a number of my friends and I get semi-serious about miniatures painting. All the paints were oil-based enamels and ninja-skills with a 000 brush were essential.
My first-ever paint job from 1974, plus two high-school era minis
So fast forward to late last year and I started to become interested in miniatures again – maybe it was unpacking my old D&D rule books after we moved or the fact that the hobby is getting pretty mainstream with YouTube channels and stores out there selling miniatures (we’ve got one up in Lincoln City).
I was also looking for a “creativity-lite” sort of hobby – something that would let me gently flex my creative muscles but would also be relaxing and peaceful – a calming activity after a crazy week of work. I bought myself a starter paint kit, some brushes and a few miniatures and resolved to give it a try. Within moments, I was hooked!
So things have changed over the years. Now, the miniatures are plastic (some limited run ones are 3D printed) and WAY more detailed. Now, hobbyists use the term “nice sculpt” to compliment the design of the miniature. Paints are now acrylic and come in a zillion colors (they are different from normal acrylic art paints in that their pigments are mixed much finer so they can work on a super-small scale). And “back in the day,” washes and advanced techniques were beyond us as high schoolers. Now, with YouTube tutorials and some creative problem solving there are a number of techniques that make the little dudes look awesome – SO much better than what we did in high school.
These days, I can’t see as well as I once did, so I use an LED-lit magnifying glass on a gooseneck. What is still essential is a steady hand, and I’ve found myself growing steadier and steadier over the weeks I’ve been painting. And it still amazes me that a human being has enough fine motor control to paint an eye and an iris on a little 28mm face!
So now it’s my go-to weekend hobby. On Saturday, I’ll lay down a few base costs on a miniature and then do the washes, dry brushing and detail work on Sunday. What fun! I feel like a kid again!
