Here's an inspired rant in favor of Ikea ("If your life is mediocre, I promise you, Ingvar Kamprad didn't make it that way. You did.") and Starbucks:
I am also old enough to remember the swill that Americans drank and were pleased to call "coffee" before Howard Schultz swept down out of his damp PNW redoubt and clusterbombed us with franchises. It tasted like soggy cardboard, it was served in chipped diner porcelain that itself generally tasted of soap, and most importantly, with a very few exceptions, it was all you could get anywhere.
(via Kottke)
