Cunning use of "Macrobiotic"

Allow me to recount for you a scenario at the Starbucks in the MIT Stata Center.

The woman in front of me orders a toasted bagel. Then she sends it back to have it toasted again -- "I like it really dark." As it's going through the Starbucks Bagel Toaster (tm), half of the bagel catches fire. The worker notices, snuffs the flames, and prepares to throw away the resulting carbonized mass. The woman says, "How does it look? Oh, I'll take that." At this, the woman behind me chirps in, "That can't be any good for you." I add, "Well, it's just carbon." The man two places back contributes, "Carbon can't hurt you, it's inert." I then turn to the woman behind me and say, "Yeah -- that's what they give you if you digest something toxic: carbon powder -- like purified charcoal."

I know a don't win any debate awards for that one, but the story continues.

While we, the waiting customers kbitz and discuss the effects of carbon on the digestive system, the worker has toasted another bagel, and this second bagel has also caught on fire. The first woman, tired of waiting, just takes the less burned halves of the two bagels and prepares to leave Starbucks @ Stata. Of course, the woman behind me has to add, "I just can't see how eating something like that can be good from a macrobiotic perspective." To which the man two heads back replies in an irritated fashion, "Nothing from Starbucks can be considered healthy from a macrobiotic perspective. Just look at it."

By then I had my coffee, so I left. I love it here.