Take Pandora internet radio. I have it on my iphone and it's fantastic... Just type in an artist or a genre and it generates a 'station' full of tunes by the artist and other similar music. I typed in 'family halloween' on Wednesday so whilst we were handing out candy we could dance to 'Thriller', 'Ghostbusters' and 'Monster mash'. I often use it when driving in the car - the children's songs keep the kids amused for ages! It's all free too - you just have to listen to the occasional advert. You can even fast forward a track if you don't like it. Genius.
Americans really do love their coffee. As much as us English folk love their tea. You will rarely find a kettle in a kitchen over here and if you ask for a cup of tea you will be lucky if you get a tepid brew (made with water heated in the microwave) of something herbal. But you will always be able to get a cup of coffee.
And don't worry if you don't have a coffee maker at home, there are plenty of coffee shops to choose from... Starbucks and a local company called 'Biggby Coffee' are open from 6am until late and all have a drive-thru so you don't even have to leave the warmth of your car (unless you are like me and by the time you have repeated yourself 10 times on the speaker you might have well parked up and walked in). They have so many tasty (and sweet) seasonal varieties like Pumpkin Spice (pumpkin and gingerbread), S'mores (chocolate, marshmallow and gingerbread with graham cracker topping) and peppermint blizzard (white chocolate and mint).
They really are all over the place - we have at least 8 big brand coffee shops within a few miles of our house plus most of the local restaurants and fast food chains do take out coffee.
Just recently on Instagram I have seen a number of mentions of Starbucks' red cup.
There are lots of indicators that Christmas is on it's way and it seems the first here is the arrival of red cups at Starbucks (instead of the usual white and green ones). Celebrities and bloggers have been photographing their coffee cups and exclaiming with glee "red cups are back!".
So I believe this nation really is fuelled on a big cup of hot coffee! (And donuts... Did I tell you we also have a 24 hour drive-thru donut shop?!)
To prove my point here is a picture of a company that drives round Kalamazoo stopping at local businesses delivering freshly filtered coffee. And yes they use a converted ambulance!
Update: The slang for coffee is "Joe".
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