Even in the Middle East, Starbucks is king

Yes, I am at this very moment sitting 10 — count them — 10 time zones east of Spokane. I am, to be specific, in the country of Qata r, where gas costs less than a $1 a gallon and the closest thing to a mountain are the sand dunes that sit on the nearby shore of the Persian (they call it the Arabian) Gulf.

But as a confirmed Northwesterner, I had to search out some coffee. And among the places I have so far sampled, I had to take a photo of something that is both reassuring and horrifying. Yes, the fact that Starbucks coffee has made it this far is reassuring in that, indeed, the world is growing smaller. It’s horrifying for much the same reason.

Of course, in a office on Sunday, I was served a cup of, uh, Nescafe. So I’m not about to sneer at a cup of Starbucks.