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Whether the drink in your cup tastes more or less bitter, more or less creamy, is not so important in the end. It is what the whole experience does to your spirits and your sense of self that really counts...So the product - the taste, the colour, aroma of the coffee - matters, but arguably everything else matters a bit more. This was the possiblity that [CEO] Howard [Schultz] saw...
Howard saw an experience that could connect with people's lives at an emotional level. Starbucks tapped into the ritual around coffee and the community conversational relationship aspect of a third space
Evelyn Rodriguez asks: Is not blogosphere a sort of non-geographic third space too?
-A story of Starbucks - is told in a book called My Sister is a Barista

1894841069 Even my ISBN cannot help itself when it comes to the final double digit position. However, folks more positions 69 and other positions will appear in the new 13-digit ISBN which I have approved and plans are underway to transition to the new number industry-wide, world-wide by January 1, 2007 Lucky 13: ISBN’s Second Coming ; Speaking of positions and numbers, Media Dragon will post, flesh willing, the evil double entry 2 - 666 [scary!]
Neal Stephenson answers questions on Slashdot about his new book The System of the World, according to Bookslut

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: They Speak, but Why Listen?
With all due respect to the Naipaul view, it seems to me that the novel--or the writing of fiction--is in robust health. More people do it than ever did before, and while quantity is never a reliable measure of quality--especially when it comes to words, or yarn--telling stories is still a human passion.
• Vunku Varadarajan on why the novel isn't dead--and neither is the urge to be an oracle [As someone who has gotten some serious hell for shooting my marketing mouth off online, I admire the Bestselling author and biographer for Celine Dion Quirky Book Promotion: "Call Them All" Grassroots Contest... Will Librarians Heed the Calls? ]
• · Books are like companies. Their first and best function are as Idea Amplifiers, not commerce mechanisms. It's this utter belief in humanity and human potential that excites us. We humans want to believe in our own species. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature Spread pollen and start conversations with all sorts of people. No different than blogging; [Take a nice, sensitive Bohemian male, drop him in Sydney, and in weeks he’s a sexist pig. His apartment’s a sty, he smokes unfiltered grass, drinks his Winston Hills spirits straight; Women Gain Power In Aussie TV ]
• · · Umberto Eco: What is aesthetically ideal in art? A Picasso, a Mondrian - or a Morava River? Our age enjoys an orgy of tolerance, and polytheism of beauty ; [Want to act like you've read Cold River and The Da Vinci Code when you really haven't? Or maybe you just want to spoil the ending for everyone you see carrying it around? Go to The Book Spoiler and start ruining endings; eBooks Web-based textbooks give students' backs a break and and encourages them to learn]
• · · · Imagine a revolution that ought to change all, but in the end leaves everything as it is, giving us easy comfort and normalcy. It’s The Da Vinci Code and Cold River
• · · · · Graham Green et al Great writers who want their memories honored but don’t like comparison can get bad writers for their biographies; ; [Rank and Vile Guiding Political Revelations Reviewed circa 1930s ]
• · · · · · Great works of art can stand the heat of spamming criticism It’s the almost great ones that, alas, caramelize under the fire of relentless discussion