Monday, December 3, 2018

No One Told Thee Life Wouldst Be This Way

In case you had the idea that coffee-houses originated in 1990s Seattle, or 1950s New York, or somewhere else in our supernally hip modern era, check out this article at Building History, which notes that Sir Henry Blount, traveling through Turkey in 1634, found that the Turkish folks would sometimes spend "two or three hours in cauphe-houses, which, in Turkey, abound more than inns and alehouses with us."

No word on whether he found one that housed a group of six young adults who seemed to have a surprising amount of time during the day to lounge about one of those establishments instead of going to work.

3 comments:

fillyjonk said...

I always associated it with 1700s England.

"'Friends,' but with Boswell and Johnson...."

(I'd watch that)

Friar said...

"The One With Iambic Pentameter." You may have a deeper understanding & knowledge of history than the average pop culture consumer, however.

fillyjonk said...

You are perhaps right; I spent too many years in school. And that's also why so many conventional sitcoms tend to disappoint me.