The greatest artifact

There are some parts of my new job that I don't love, but overall I'm having a great time. The core awesomeness has to do with the fact that I am helping out with the exhibits at the new museum--meaning that I get to see and handle all of MOHAI's top stuff. When people apply to volunteer or work at a museum, this is the kind of work they imagine doing. I am basically living the museum dream.

On wednesdays I go to these long "staging" meeting where we get out all the artifacts that have been pulled for a specific case, and a team of designers and historians debate about what will fit, look good, and best tell the story. This week, we looked at the original Starbucks sign that the museum owns (from pre-logo days!). It was a sandwich board sign that stood outside the original store, and reads "Starbucks is OPEN / coffee tea spices." When we opened it up one of the designers got really excited, declaring it the coolest thing he saw that day. What he said next was definitely the funniest thing I heard all day, and pretty accurately sums up the rise of the coffee giant. He was talking about the perfect simplicity of the fact it said "Starbucks is Open" --a line that might as well be their mission statement.

"I mean," he said, "It is like 'STARBUCKS IS OPEN...get ready motherfuckers.'"