Published June 07, 2006.Can I Kick It? A Caffeine Habit in Jeopardy.

It has come to my attention that the one fair-trade, non-chain coffee establishment within close walking distance of one of this city's more prominent institutions of post-secondary education has suffered the managerial decision to outlaw music falling outside the realm of top-forty radio. The once enjoyably eclectic employee-chosen tunes have been shunned all the way back to lonely household stereos.

Workplace morale studies aside, this musical expurgation is discernibly managerial, as not one of these coffee-slinging youth, in my estimation, would choose the bland, Simple Plan-ridden rubbish now being piped mindlessly through their employer's speakers. This sonorously reprehensible situation, however, prompts barista laudation; they press on still--in espresso and approachability--grinning and bearing it. I'd like A Tribe Called Quest with my $4.00 double caramel latte, thank you.

Someone Has Arranged Notes Incongruently