Cost of coffee? Up nearly 21 percent. Cost of screws from Taiwan, America’s No. 1 supplier?
Just ask the Taiwanese, who make screws for everything from bathroom cabinets to data-center fans.
Margins are thin and getting thinner, as is the herd of manufacturers, thanks to The Pestilence’s 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, plus competition from mainland China on product and the homegrown computer-chip industry for workers and government support.
Kent Chen of Sheh Fung Screws Company told The New York Times that his orders are down 20 percent compared to this time last year.
“Everything is in pause mode. A lot of our customers said, ‘We’ll see,’ but then we didn’t receive many orders.”
Oh, he got his orders, all right. Same as the rest of us.
“Assume the position!”
We are so screwed. Ain’t enough coffee in the world for this bullshit. Especially at these prices.
Mad Blog Media 
At your age, are you still trying to get a screw from Taiwan?
Remember the Nixon years? “Don’t change dicks in the middle of a screw: Vote for Nixon in ’72!”
Ah, yes. That was my first election, as I turned 18 that January.
You guys need some professional help. Can I come with you?
Meanwhile, I think we will see more robusto and less arabica in our morning cup.
Don’t know who the writer was years ago but he did a fascinating running clock on what would happen if “poof” there was no coffee. I remember at the 48 hour mark all vehicle traffic would snarl and halt as the fistfights (today they would be gun battles) would break out across the world. At 72 hours, the entire human world would cease functioning and those that boasted about never being caffeine addicted would be beaten and left for dead. At 96 hours, every caffeinated tea and beverage would be fought over with murder and looting rampant. At the end of the week, Russia and the U.S. would nuke each other as they believed rumors that their mortal enemy had hoarded all the coffee/tea.
When I read this many years ago I could picture myself getting shot by a grandma while trying to heist her Earl Gray. Only to die at the hospital door as there were no docs left to patch me up since they were too busy fighting over the amphetamine stock in the dispensary .
He shoots, he scores!
Dire Portents of the End Times, to be sure. The Black Elixir of Life is the only addiction left to me. Well, that, and the buying of bicycles to no particular purpose. And the distribution of snark.
“The Black Elixir of Life” is golden. I’m so going to steal that.
Herb, how was the Lake Superior kayaking? Did you do any fishing?
Got up there a week too late to get any good weather. Did some paddling in the Les Chenoix area one nice day and then hiked Grand Island on a rainy day. Also paddled the Au Train River in the rain. Had some truly horrible beer at East Channel brewery in Munising. We were stunned at how bad they were. So it was a long drive for us but we did get in 45 miles of biking in between raindrops. As Bogart (Charlie) said in The African Queen “well we can’t have everything can we?”
My man Hal says it’s raining again up in CrustyTucky. Jeez, you’d think Yahweh would wring that place out and hang it up to dry somewhere. If it snows the way it’s been raining they’re gonna have to rename the place Donner County.
Man, I love that first cup of coffee in the morning. Almost as much as the second. Occasionally I think about having a third, but then I’d be rocketing around the house like a turpentined cat, a simile that Miss Mia Sopaipilla does not appreciate.
Loosely based on a true story:
https://www.civilwarmed.org/coffee-and-comradery-in-the-civil-war-the-confederates/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-coffee-helped-the-union-caffeinate-their-way-victory-civil-war-180984502/
I could live to be 200 but doubt my brain would ever combine cats and turpentine in a sentence. Must be an old saying from somewhere but it’s the first for me.
That one’s so old I can’t remember where I collected it. It has its roots in animal torment, which is why Miss Mia objects. Here’s a joke I found online for purposes of illustration:
Johnny was sitting on the steps with a container of turpentine, shaking it up and watching the bubbles, when a priest came along and asked him what he had.
“What I have,” said Johnny, “is the most powerful liquid in the world. It’s turpentine.”
“Oh, no, my son,” the priest said, “Holy water is the most powerful liquid in the world. If you take just a little of this holy water and rub it on a pregnant woman’s tummy, she will pass a healthy baby.”
“Heck, that’s nothing,” said Johnny. “You take some of this turpentine, rub it on a cat’s butt and he’ll pass a motorcycle.”
Lately I feel like I hate everything about this planet except my job and watching my kids’ sports.
I read this right after going to Costco, where every third customer was getting a new Keurig. Or, Kure-rigged. Cuz they’re rigged to die after 18 months, and it’s easier to go back to Costco than to switch to French press.
I’m not the sharpest mathematician in the woodshed, but still, Ray Charles could see that there’s no way all these people my age are newlyweds outfitting their new homes and buying their first Mr Coffee. They are 99 44/100ths replacements and mostly upgrades.
We are so screwed. Imprisoned by the shackles of fake convenience and turbocharged consumerism.
The Keurigs and their various imitators seem to be the javamaker of choice in Hilton properties these days. And to think I’m old enough to remember when Hilton meant luxury. Shoot, they don’t even have robes worth stealing anymore.