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Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

reuters.com

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Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#101

Post by mytailorisrich »

lm28469 wrote: post #96
mytailorisrich wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> now that we ourselves have become a resource to extract. This has nothing to do with what you quoted. Smartphones and their effects are orthogonal to your point. Before smartphones if you were at home you were alone, isolated, and bored, so you went out and met your friends. With smartphones you are always connected to your friends or others and it seems that it reduces the psychological need to meet in person (it'…

That's overly simplistic, people don't go out because they slack 24/7 in front of a screen, not because they're connecting with their friends through their smartphones. From my limited experience 70+ years old spend the whole day in front of youtube/facebook/alternative tv channels mostly watching infotainment that's at best brainrot and very often full blown conspiracy theories / propaganda. Boomers are even worse t…

The simplistic and beside the point claim is that this is all "we ourselves have become a resource to extract". This is both not new and not key, and more of a political rant.

Before smartphone there was TV and cable TV. Young people spent time in front of the TV but TV is passive and does not allow you to connect with others.

Old people spent their time in front of the TV, before that they spent time by the radio, etc.

The youngest boomers are in their 60s now (and people in their 70s are boomers) so not sure if your really mean "boomers"...

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#102

Post by sph »

phorkyas82 wrote: post #80
sph wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And he would've been right. Any new advancement in technology brings societal change, and it is possible to reach a point of diminishing return, where the bad sides outweigh the positives. I wish we could, as a society, have a serious conversation about this effect without resorting to name calling ("Luddist nonsense") and straw men ("but what about penicillin?")

Second that. I see that as a failure of society or democracy as a whole - that we are no longer able to have that broad, public conversation and act accordingly. Why should every "innovation" be shoved down our throats, if we don't want to?

I would place this blame on academia. They're the ones that are supposed to think difficult questions, and drive change. I guess today any serious discussion would just get lost in the ocean that is the Internet. Only echo chambers get reinforced.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#103

Post by sph »

spiritplumber wrote: post #79

This is very near my hometown (Nebbiuno; I am from Verbania). Lots of very old people here. The world's oldest lady used to be from Verbania, she died at 117. Northern Italy is less loud than southern Italy but it has a quiet beauty.

There's dozens of us from that neck of the woods! (I'm 30 km away from Lago Maggiore)

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#104

Post by forinti »

amarant wrote: post #28
komali2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I don't quite understand what this means, can you help?

Russia seems poised to invade Europe in the near future. If they do, and succeed, Rome could become part of the new Soviet Union(which Putin has explicitly said he wants to bring back) Once that happens, it's likely to lead to poverty. At least that's what happened in the last USSR

Let's entertain that idea. Suppose they did invade most of Europe.

How would they keep everyone under control? You won't find that many people eager to participate in satellite regimes or new social experiments, like you had in post-WWII.

I don't think Russia will even consider invading western Ukraine. They'll keep the Russian speaking part which they can easily govern.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#105

Post by lm28469 »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #101
lm28469 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's overly simplistic, people don't go out because they slack 24/7 in front of a screen, not because they're connecting with their friends through their smartphones. From my limited experience 70+ years old spend the whole day in front of youtube/facebook/alternative tv channels mostly watching infotainment that's at best brainrot and very often full blown conspiracy theories / propaganda. Boomers are even worse t…

The simplistic and beside the point claim is that this is all " we ourselves have become a resource to extract ". This is both not new and not key, and more of a political rant. Before smartphone there was TV and cable TV. Young people spent time in front of the TV but TV is passive and does not allow you to connect with others. Old people spent their time in front of the TV, before that they spent time by the radio,…

Yes, and they read books before radio was a thing, what's your point ?

Books are exactly the same as tiktok brainrot ? That's obviously not true

That tiktok is "active" hence it's objectively better than TV ? Why ? And through what mechanism ?

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#106

Post by sgerenser »

sho_hn wrote: post #36
tokioyoyo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a feeling that most people imagine this. But this doesn’t sound like on the ground reality for me? Here in Tokyo, most people I’ve seen just grab brewed coffee or the usual espresso drinks and go on with their lives. When I lives in Toronto/Vancouver, that’s what I experienced over there as well. Used to frequent one down the street as it was the cheapest brewed available coffee, and the regulars would always…

I've never seen this either. I'm just interpreting what I think OP meant. I used to live in Seoul, and new special food or drink items definitely would cause fad waves and would appear on Instagram feeds (Seoul is notorious for this), but I doubt it was the major parts of Starbucks' business.

The sweet latte-based drinks are a huge part of Starbuck’s business. They make far more money on these things (and frappucinos and iced lattes, etc.) than coffee or espresso. But it’s mostly just selling them to people who like the taste (and don’t really care for plain coffee at all). The people posing for instagram are a small minority.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#107

Post by nalnq »

bojan wrote: post #84
nalnq wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the pensions in Italy are anything like in Spain, she’s making more money off it than young people are making working. Plus she’s probably defrauding the pension system by both collecting her pension and working.

Is it defrauding it if you contributed to it all your working life?

Yes. You can’t work and collect a pension.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#108

Post by TurkishPoptart »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #32
Incipient wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like there are definitely two types of people that are after coffee - the morning commute people that need caffeine, and just want it fast. They'd not notice a machine doing it for them (and a lot of them would have a machine at home!) The other group is like you and I, where we like engaging with the community. I suppose three - the Starbucks crew that do it for 'likes'.

The Italian morning caffè ritual is already extremely fast: the barista works at the speed of light and the coffee you get is pretty standard, but in exchange you get a moment to rub shoulders "al banco" with others like you about to go into work, or elders just getting out of the house, a mother taking her kid to school, a policeman taking a break. You say hi to the same few people you've been seeing at the establis…

I used to love this, until a latte started to cost $8. Now it's a luxury, and we can make this at home with a Nespresso for about ~$1 per drink.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#109

Post by Copenjin »

bojan wrote: post #81
Copenjin wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Invade with what? Refugees running away from a poor and failing country? Man...

Russia is neither poor nor failing, and saying that is underestimating the real actual danger they present. Russia has vast natural resources and enough buyers for those resources even if the EU manages to completely stop (at significant cost). Their industry turned to wartime mode, resulting in the fact that they now have more armored vehicles than in February 2022. Will they actually physically reach Italy? Probabl…

It's both poor, failing and with a population affected by chronic depression. But for that reason (desperation) they should not be underestimated and should have been handled in a way less gentle way.

> Russia has vast natural resources and enough buyers

Not saying that it's not what has kept them standing until now, but the buyers make the price in this case. So who knows what the price could become in the future.

> Will they try to buy it out and bring a (even more) fascist autocratic regime there? Probably yes.

Are you still talking about Russia with their monopoly currency? "Try" as in one probability over one billion to succeed and be disposed of a few days later. This ability to influence foreign countries effectively and not in clownish ways is a nice story for kids.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#110

Post by Copenjin »

spiritplumber wrote: post #78
Copenjin wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it's a fragile kleptocracy basically reduce to 0 any possibility of a normal future. Puppet state at best, if someone is willing to take them. I expect they already planned what to do with the returning soldiers, not that they will like it or accept gracefully what's in store for them.

China will buy Siberia. No shots fired.

I would not be surprised.
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