The Useless Critic 2.0

So I have been thinking about this for a while this week, esp. since I went on a quest to find a great coffee shop in Phoenix earlier this year. It was ultimately a fruitless quest that led me right back to Tempe where I started. At my best, at least I'm not working out of BOSA Donuts (that much) anymore. (Although I do love Bosa, and when the women who work there tell me "You actually look nice today!") I haven't really explored Gilbert or Chandler because I've had no compelling reason to. Phoenix is a city, and I like cities. Tempe is where I live. Naturally most of my experiences are in these two locations. So I hope this is useful to you all. Please note that my opinions on these businesses is simply my opinion, and I hope my personal anecdotes are more charming to you than annoying. Starting where I started and in order by location: King Coffee (Tempe) - When I first went here, I sat outside on the small sidewalk space with some very loud college ...

This guest post comes from Tom Giles, a former classmate of mine. A Holiday Observation where I buy breakfast at.  I am fifty one years old and I work at a convenience store.  When someone(invariably)  asks me to list what I’m thankful for during the holiday season my first thought is I am thankful that I am afraid of prison life, because if I were not my backyard would be filled with shallow graves containing people who ask questions like that.  I used to be thankful for a feast and time with my family, until I figured out that I do not like turkey that much, or my accidents-of-birth siblings at all. Christmas always sucked, too.  As a child it never lived up to the expectations, I was a true believer, so good I was led by television Christmas specials to believe that I deserved a veritable cornucopia of gifts.  The deluge of toys never materialized. When my own children were very small, there was a short time that they were content with the toy...