![\"Tim](\"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/files\/2013\/08\/timhortons_600.jpg\")
<\/a>Tim Hortons. According to the photographer, “The one thing that unites Canadians of all backgrounds, languages and ethnicities…” Photo: Doug<\/a>, Creative Commons, some rights reserved<\/p><\/div>\n Here in Canada, it’s all about Tim’s. Named for a real hockey player, Tim Hortons<\/a> has become part and parcel of modern Canadian culture. (Dear grammar police: I don’t know what to do about\u00a0possessive\u00a0apostrophes in this post. A person’s name would need those, but the corporation seems to\u00a0eschew\u00a0them. We’ll just muddle through, shall we?)<\/p>\n Tim’s has a back story of a merger with the Wendy’s restaurant chain<\/a> that’s too complicated for the purposes of this post. But I recall a flurry of speculative excitement here when Tim’s had a public offering of shares in 2006, alongside of efforts to venture\u00a0into the large and tempting U.S. market. The thinking ran: hey, better get in now! If America takes to Timmy’s the way Canadians have, here’s a chance to get rich! (Like buying shares of Coke or Microsoft before they hit big.)<\/p>\n Well, thus far that doesn’t seem to be going very well. As recently reported by Lauren S. Murphy in Bloomberg news: ” Tim Hortons is a flop in the US<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Why? Don’t American like coffee and doughnuts? (Silly question, of course they do!) But that market was already very well-served and continues to be fully saturated. \u00a0The expansion of Tims served no pressing need abroad. (With the possible exception of a rapturous reception for the Tim Hortons that operated in\u00a0Kandahar,\u00a0Afghanistan<\/a> from 2006-2011<\/a>.) Tim Hortons may have to just steadily chug along in its birthplace, without the explosive growth or expanding profits once dreamed of.<\/p>\n Coffeehouse culture has seen a modern revival in places like Seattle, or the surge or Starbuck’s. But it’s quite old, even if Europe was a johnny-come-lately to the habit. As discussed by Fordham University and the\u00a0Internet Modern\u00a0History\u00a0Sourcebook<\/a>, this page addresses\u00a0The First English Coffee-Houses, c. 1670-1675<\/a>:<\/p>\n As you have a hodge-podge of drinks, such too is your company, for each man seems a leveler, and ranks and files himself as he lists, without regard to degrees or order; so that often you may see a silly fop and a worshipful justice, a griping rook and a grave citizen, a worthy lawyer and an errant pickpocket, a reverend non-conformist and a canting mountebank, all blended together to compose a medley of impertinence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Indeed, the effects of coffee and the atmosphere it fosters are much loved:<\/p>\n Lastly, for diversion. It is older than Aristotle, and will be true, when Hobbes is forgot, that man is a sociable creature, and delights in company. Now, whither shall a person, wearied with hard study, or the laborious turmoils of a tedious day, repair to refresh himself? Or where can young gentlemen, or shop-keepers, more innocently and advantageously spend an hour or two in the evening, than at a coffee-house? Where they shall be sure to meet company, and, by the custom of the house, not such as at other places, stingy and reserved to themselves, but free and communicative; where every man may modestly begin his story, and propose to, or answer another, as he thinks fit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I like that phrase “…man is a sociable creature, and delights in company.” Where is that taking place in your life?<\/p>\n Do you still find good conversation and a lively mix of class and political discourse at coffee shops? Or is it now more about dispensing a mild but legal drug in an efficient manner, with heads glued to smart phones and heads stuffed with earpods?<\/p>\n I suppose NCPR functions as a local dispenser of NPR brand coffee: a big, local community that talks – and listens. Just not in the same room at the same time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I never learned to like coffee, so I can’t weigh in on the java side […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[880,6975,13003,7020,10,36,13002,13004],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5724"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5793,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724\/revisions\/5793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}