Drinking Coffee All the Time

Anthony Shadid almost died twice before he finally died from an acute asthma attack at the age of 43 while working in Syria. In 2002, he was shot in the shoulder in Ramallah, and then in 2011, he was kidnapped in Libya and held captive with two other reporters for five days. He lived to tell about both incidents and to continue reporting, with bases in Baghdad and Beirut. 
Throughout his career, during which time he was an international journalist at AP, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, he won numerous awards—including the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (once in 2004 and then again in 2010)--- for his coverage of the Middle East. His eye was trained on the humanity of the people in the countries he covered, as much as the geopolitical facts.
Shadid’s family immigrated to Oklahoma from Lebanon before he was born.  He developed a strong Lebanese identity that he explored in a memoir-in-progress, “House of Stone.” In excerpts recently publishe…

Last week, Starbucks came out in favor of marriage equality. In their letter of support, Karen Holmes, executive vice president, Starbucks, noted Starbucks’s “lengthy history leading and supporting policies that promote equality and inclusion.”
This position is one hundred percent consistent with Starbucks’s visible commitment to diversity and inclusion---a policy that permeates every sphere of Starbucks. The people who work there, the people who consume coffee and food there, the people who sit for hours working, socializing, and sometimes just having a place to go.
Starbucks is the place to find solitude and companionship. Starbucks is where people go to write their books, find their mates, launch their new businesses, plan their divorces, celebrate their promotions and victories, and to cry with their friends.
When my marriage needs a little pick-me-up, we head to the movies and Starbucks….After all, we can do both in the 3 hours that comprises the amount of time that the baby wi…