Seattlest: Tall, Grande, Venti: I Came, I Saw, I Made the Same Observation as Thousands of Other Lazy Comedians

jeremyrichards

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:27:15 -0800

It actually dates back to Shakespeare's lost folio of "Cardenio": ALONSO: I prithee, sir, to mark the countenance of brew. BARISTA: The shadow of what's tall is yet cast short, For in our commerce, names belie their shape And taunt thy parched inquires with more steam Than substance, harvested from humble beans And churned into elixir for thy tongue, For what of late is venti, ventilate Thy troubled humours, galloping apace Or swimming forth, a mermaid bare and swift Ere modesty hath corseted her grace. ALONSO: Five ducats! 'Tis more costly than I wish! (Exit Alonso, followed by a bear, followed by an eagle, followed by a walking fish.)

James Callan

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:05:12 -0800

Ooh, good find. "1995 is calling" indeed.

sciencevsromance

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:19:56 -0800

Once you realize that Starbucks offers an 8 oz. size (short), all of the harping about the nonsensical naming of the 12 oz. tall is made all the more nonsensical. I don't have the patience to sort through all of the articles about Starbucks mentioning their sizing, but the intricacies of ordering were press fodder as early as 1995. Here's Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, who attended a training and mused on the cup-managing lingo at Starbucks in a 29 January column: "Ten years from now we will either look back and laugh at the fetishists who thought it was cool to say `skinny' for skim milk and `no-fun' for decaf at the coffee bar-as we now laugh at, say, non-truckers who called each other `good buddy' on citizens band radio-or else Starbuck-speak will have become so ingrained that talk of tall lattes and single-estate varietals will sound as ordinary as do references today to megabytes, frozen yogurt, front-wheel drive and pesto." (SUNDAY MAGAZINE, Chicago Tribune: Jan 29, 1995. pg. 12)