The Coffee Chronicles
So a couple of weeks ago, in the middle of a hectic afternoon, I saw an email from a reader in our collective TPM inbox that seemed a little out of place from all the "McSame!" and "PrObama!" things we get all day.
"I sent you guys coffee," the subject line read. "Should get it by today or tomorrow."
Now we get thousands of emails a day, but depending on the time of day they're sent, or what the subject line is etc, it's a little up in the air who read them and when. Don't get me wrong, we read almost everything, but things slip through the cracks.
Anyway, I read this coffee email and shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know why this particular reader was sending us free coffee, but I'd believe it when I saw it.
About 4 days later we did our normal PO Box check and to our surprise, found four pounds of fragrant beans waiting for us. A post-it was attached that said "Keep up the good work! You guys are awesome!" I put it on our microwave in the kitchen as a little reminder and set about doing a gmail search to find our coffee angel.
His "name" was TPM Reader KC and he was the CEO of a well-known (and AMAZING!) coffee company.
I thanked KC then, and then again when he generously offered to send us a regular shipment of beans, but I don't know if it was completely understood the significant upgrade this took us to in the office.
We at TPM, would have weekly -- nay, daily -- breakdowns arguing over making coffee; running out of coffee; making someone go buy more coffee; getting people reimbursed for coffee; our coffee machine breaking; sending an intern to get a new coffee machine; someone accidentally buying the really shitty, but cheap, deli coffee that no one likes and not being able to buy new coffee until it was all used up . . . you get the idea.
So thanks to TPM Reader KC, we will now function, fully [overly] caffeinated, into Election Day.
