What sense is there between your unenlightened eyes?

The Nose Koan

T. Sarwaat Kaffe

What difference is to be found between the rosy cheeks of February in Fargo and the well-blushed cheeks of April in Paris? Or, for that matter, the sunburnt cheeks of August on Aruba?

A Raspberry Snow Koan

Tequila Tootsie

The bigger they are the harder I fall.

Koan & The Barbarian

Elvis Rambeau

Meanwhile, above the bookshop...

Clearly, now, it was Dr Franklin's turn to pontificate.

'If one is to indulge oneself in this habit of coffee consumption, one would fare best and suffer less by partaking of the emboldened beverage in its most hideously black and pristine form.' As he would only on the least sober and most somber of occasions, Old Ben (as only we would dare call the old statesman) had slipped into a sort of neo-colonial American English with a most subtle but sincere French accent. His bifocals slipped another centimetre lower on his nose.

'Black as the devil in the deepest ocean depths. Black as the whole of Calcutta. Black as the blood of bugs and icons of ebony. Black as the ace of spades, the queen of clubs and the queen of Haileselassie and...' casting a sidelong glance at Ms T who was doing a little sidelonging of her own in M's direction, '...far blacker by far than Larix Laricina. It is my own well-informed and less-than-humble opinion that, among gentlemen of common sense and uncommon breeding, creamy and sweet should be the description of one's mistress, not one's mug of joe.'

Somewhere, miles away, a percolator gurgled in agreement at the mere mention of 'mistress'. Somewhere else, years distant, a second-shift coffee shop waitress blushed. Here, in Arrowsmith's flat, one flight above the back-alley American bookstore, the amazingly blond BB tossed a runaway lock off her cheek and cleared her throat.

'Black as a moonless midnight and hot as true unbridled lust. You got that right, Doctor Ben, but there's a still more fundamental concern to be addressed here. There is, in fact, a more primal, primary and profound matter to consider and that is this: that pregnant moment of mysterious uncertainty that exists before ground beans relinquish their essence, the plan that precedes the perk, the calm before the drip. Just as the Japanese have made a ceremony of the tea (and, yes, some early Americans - no doubt even some of Old Ben's acquaintance - made a party of it as well), I believe it has fallen to us to describe, define and delineate the attitude, altitude and aptitude required for the proper preparation of the humble beverage we call coffee.'

'I agree completely, BB,' tittered Ms T as she withdrew a small sackcloth satchel from beneath her shirt. 'I think, given the beans Maynard has brought from Guatemala (or was it Ganymede?), such an undertaking would be most well rewarded, if not historically, at least locally.'