Wichita, we have a problem. Fortunately, I have a solution
"Come hither," beckons that steam. Image found here.
(Updated below the fold with musical proof of what I speak.)
From Yahoo!.com, via A California Girl in Kansas (thanks, Bobby--about whom, by the way, you local folks need to know, if you don't already) comes a list of the 10-Best and -Worst U.S. Cities for Dating. The best? Austin (duh!). Second-worst? The Peerless Princess of the Prairie, and here's why, in part:Latte, Anyone?: Wichita (overall No. 79) and Greensboro (overall No. 75) are among those cities that are home to the least number of coffee shops per capita, leaving few good places for young people to converge and trade stories after a fun night out.
Now: It's true that Wichita tends to rank high on lists of best cities to raise a family and livability in general, but I would hope there's no correlation between our dearth of coffeeshops and our overall pleasantness as a place to live. That would be not only Just. Weird., but more than a little sad, good coffee, like beer, being proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Hey . . . hmmm. God? Coffee? Happiness? The possibility of finding one's future mate?
Paging Ariel . . .
My long-time bloggy friend Ariel is not only a devoted man of God, he also has a serious coffee jones--in his current post, in fact, he laments the fact that he doesn't presently have the means to roast his own beans. It also so happens that he is in the early stages of establishing a church in the arts district of Kansas City. He has my moral support in this, and I wish I could send him a little financial support as well.
But, Ariel: Wichita's need is at least as large as KC's, which (I know, I know) happens to rank #1 on the 10-Worst Dating list but, apparently, does not lack for coffeeshops. So, while I do wish you well over there in KC, just know that the single folks of Wichita are not sufficiently caffeinated, un-hooked-up, AND unchurched. They--we all--could use you here.
UPDATE: Bring me java, bring me joy:
4 comments:
Wow, KC, MO heads the list...good thing I'm married. I looked for the rationale behind the #1 spot, but didn't see it. I'm sure the lack of a real downtown culture up until the last couple years (we're making progress now) has something to do with it.
Wichita sounds like a very needy city. We'll keep it in mind. ;)
Well, we've got lingerie shops. I'm so proud.
Hmmm. Certain midwestern dating rituals seem to depend upon a lack of publicly available good coffee or espresso. Nothing like that invitation "back to my place, where I have a great coffee maker/ espresso machine," better than what you'd get in the diner up the street, for sure. More seriously, it seems to me that urban expectations are bumping up against that ingrained sense of neighborliness, where if you want to talk, you invite someone in or onto the porch and serve up the homemade stuff.
Nice observation, Cordelia (and thanks for dropping by this particular porch). I think that's true: due to our more compartmentalized ways of living now--our lack of a porch culture, at least 'round these parts (houses in Wichita barely have porches, much less a communal life that revolves around them)--we feel our social entrees require outside assists . . . and feel thwarted when those assists are in short supply.
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