The Volokh Conspiracy
[Eugene Volokh, November 5, 2005 at 12:17pm] Trackbacks
Virginia Postrel on a Starbucks Cup!

(Better than on a milk carton, I guess.) We got some coffee from Starbucks for Ben's birthday party — yes, for the adults — and what do I see on one of the cups but a quote from Virginia Postrel: "The most successful innovations are the ones that we stop noticing almost immediately. We often don't appreciate the things we'd least like to give up." It's #55 in Starbucks' "The Way I See It" series, carefully marked "This is the author's opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks." Cool.

UPDATE: I originally attributed the quote to Virginia's The Substance of Style, but she notes in the comments that she wrote it specifically for Starbucks, so I changed the post accordingly.

Veggie_Burger (mail):
Surely that last sentence from Starbucks is disingenous. Unless the quotes are selected at random from a book of quotations like Bartlett's - not going to happen - then management is picking and chosing the ones it finds tasteful and pithy, and will likely appeal to starbuck's "with it" clientele. You won't see any quotes from Marx, unless it's Groucho. In Texas, a group of evangelicals has already started making noises about certain quotations that they believe are immoral. So, rest assured that Starbucks will get the message and "clean up" anything remotely controversial. You may get some wit and a little wisdom, but most you'll just get a cup of coffee.
11.5.2005 2:02pm
llamasex (mail) (www):
Veggie_Burger, they are already adding a quote from the Purpose Driven Life guy, because "Christians" complained about a quote talking about coming out being great or something.
11.5.2005 2:09pm
AF:
I got one about how baking might be a science, but it has to be done with love, and had to laugh when I saw it was just the author's opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks.
11.5.2005 3:44pm
Eugene Volokh (www):
It's pretty clear that Starbucks wouldn't post something that it entirely or even largely disagrees with. But if I were running the program, I'd want the flexibility to include quotes that I thought were interesting, thought-provoking, and largely sound, but that I wasn't sure I'd stand by 100%. Why get into arguments with people about whether "The most successful innovations are the ones that we stop noticing almost immediately"? (What about cars or computers? Don't we keep noticing them? Aren't they more successful than most stuff that we do stop noticing almost immediately? Who wants an argument about that?) Much better to say that this is Postrel's view, not necessarily Starbucks'.
11.5.2005 3:50pm
subpatre (mail):
Postrel may well have said "We often don't appreciate the things we'd least like to give up." but it's just a recycled old-timer's lament. Probably Mitchell best said it in her song Big Yellow Taxi:
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
till it's gone
They paved paradise
and put up a parking lot.
11.5.2005 9:08pm
Virginia Postrel (www):
The quotation isn't from The Substance of Style. It was something I wrote specifically for Starbucks.
11.5.2005 10:43pm
tefta (mail):
The previous comment which I assume was written by Ms Postrel herself is like the scene in "Annie Hall" where Marshall McLuhan appears on screen to settle an argument and Woody Allen turns to the audience and says, "Don't you wish life was like that?"

Well now it is.
11.6.2005 10:47am
treezycat (mail):
If it was written FOR Starbucks, then isn't Starbucks the author under "work for hire" principles. So the author's opinion is Starbucks opinion...
11.6.2005 2:50pm
Visitor Again:
If it was written FOR Starbucks, then isn't Starbucks the author under "work for hire" principles. So the author's opinion is Starbucks opinion...

I would think one may own an opinion--a piece of writing--for copyright purposes and yet still not share the opinion on its merits.
11.6.2005 3:03pm
Rhadamanthus (mail):
Has italics become the new way of communicating on this board? Scary.
11.6.2005 5:45pm
Rhadamanthus (mail):
Oh dammn, it was my computer- apologies to all
11.6.2005 5:46pm
treezycat (mail):
Um... It was a joke...
11.7.2005 4:39am

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