& the most upstanding character in Moby Dick

My step-mother, or maybe my father, once said, “People disdain Starbucks as commercial imperialism, but as for me, I love Starbucks. I know exactly what I’m getting. There’s no guesswork, no chance of disappointment.”

I must agree. It’s a little pricey, but this morning for example, after I got up at 5.30 to get to the airport for an 8 o’clock flight that didn’t take off, and to find there was no ersatz plane, and to suffer other disgruntled customers who were disappointed by choosing Air Berlin, whose flights are obviously fraught with risk and undependable, unlike a Latte Macchiato (tall), it was comforting to find a Starbucks in Terminal 1. That bursting logo of the regal mermaid with two tails - it flashes like a flare to the shipwrecked: “Here’s your stuff!” 

The server asked my name, which he rendered as “Sera” on my cup. And I thought, yes, this hour will be like a routine evening, a non-working hour, just the same old/same old without the iffiness of risk.