Few stores have genuine quaintness, quaintness is an elusive gem, sought after by struggling middle aged small business women everywhere, almost as if it took precedent over any actual business concern. They look up to the Hallmark store as a mentor imitating it’s tiny porcelain bears and potpourri fumigation but nay, for true quaintness escapes them all, for you cannot make quaintness, but it must come to you, as the product of the secret quaint inside every person. When you step into Brady’s Coffee it is immediately obvious that Mr. Brady has much more quaint than he knows what to do with. While soft Celtic hymns play in the background I notice several old men taking turns harassing each other with stories of farm equipment and shouting nonsensical but unmistakably friendly greetings to the friends of theirs just arriving for the day.
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Lining the walls of the store are large glass jars filled with a variety of different coffees and teas. Above the jars hangs local art work, a lot of it belonging to one of the elderly regulars sitting at the table, ready to tell you which he likes best. Ordering coffee is a lot more like having a short conversation about coffee and then getting what you had just been talking about.
Also, while ordering I suggest trying to get a glimpse of the Lego castles sitting on the shelves in the back, an extremely innovative move by Brady in raising his stores level of quaintness in a subtle but appropriately masculine way. Brady’s coffee shop in Tyler epitomizes the idea of the local business. It has a loyal following and an atmosphere that’s something different than the sudo hipster and soccer mom seen you’ll find at Starbucks. Brady is doing what he loves in a way that he loves it, with surroundings that describe very well his own personality. But why settle on the surroundings when his actual personality is there waiting to serve you coffee.
There’s a New Speaker in Town
January 5th, 2011In an awkward and unusual departure with tradition, outgoing speaker Nancy Pelosi gave a long- winded passive aggressive defense of the last congress.
In fact when the new speaker finally took the podium his speech time ended up being shorter than his predecessor’s. It wasn’t all sour grapes.
Representative Pelosi graciously welcomed and praised her successor, and the new House speaker, in turn thanked her for her service. But he also wasted no time promising that the new house would govern according to the will of the American people.
He promised to do his part to cut federal spending, reduce the deficit, shrink the size and scope of government and to work to moderate its agenda. He also promised to enforce house rules, but maintain an open and verifiable process.
While the speaker’s party rose to its feet and cheered at number of points, the opposition largely remained seated, hinting at things to come. I hope and pray the new congress can indeed change the course of an increasingly liberal an obtrusive government.
Next week we should catch an early glimpse of how this congress will function as a bill for repeal of the President’s health care law comes up for a vote. Hopefully all this new hope and change will amount to more than just a casting change!
Tags: Aggressive Defense, Congress, Federal Spending, Glimpse, Health Care Law, House Of Representatives, House Speaker, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, New Hope, Opposition, Podium, Predecessor, Representative Pelosi, Scope, Sour Grapes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Of The House, Speaker Of The House Of Representatives, Speech Time, State Of Ohio, the speaker of the house, Tradition, Tyler Texas
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