Coffee House as Internet

[Mary Krimmel]

At 06:38 PM 12/29/03 +0000, you wrote

>Coffee fuelled the information exchanges of the 17th and 18th centuries

>WHERE do you go when you want to know the latest ..Today, the answer is 
>obvious: you log on to the internet. Three centuries ago, the answer was 
>just as easy: you went to a coffee-house.


Yes, if you were male. I believe that Bach's Coffee Cantata addresses the 
frustration of women at being excluded. The complaint seems to be first 
that they do not have coffee to drink, but it may also be that they are 
stuck with only the housewife-to-housewife or servant-to-servant (or the 
crossing of these lines) sources of information, mostly just social gossip. 
I think that coffee was not a home brew in England at that time. (Nor was 
tea until somewhat later.)

Of course, theoretically women weren't interested in attending scientific 
lectures, striking business deals, or chatting with like-minded people 
about literature or politics. I prefer the internet age.

Mary Krimmel