From the forum at Urban Diner, a Vancouver-based online magazine for food and restaurant lovers around British Columbia. By Publisher Paul Kamon:
“We enter a little coffeehouse with a friend of mine and give our order. While we’re approaching our table two people come in and they go to the counter – ‘Five coffees, please. Two of them for us and three suspended’
They pay for their order, take the two and leave. I ask my friend:
‘What are those ‘suspended’ coffees ?’‘Wait for it and you will see’
Some more people enter. Two girls ask for one coffee each, pay and go. The next order was for seven coffees and it was made by three lawyers – three for them and four ‘suspended’. While I still wonder what’s the deal with those ‘suspended’ coffees I enjoy the sunny weather and the beautiful view towards the square in front of the café. Suddenly a man dressed in shabby clothes who looks like a beggar comes in through the door and kindly asks ‘Do you have a suspended coffee ?’
It’s simple – people pay in advance for a coffee meant for someone who can not afford a warm beverage. The tradition with the suspended coffees started in Naples, but it has spread all over the world and in some places you can order not only a suspended coffee, but also a sandwich or a whole meal.”
Categories: Smile
in-sights.ca 
Great anecdote (and lesson) to start my day off .. !! Thanks ..
By the way, if you haven't seen it, the TED presentation
by Allan Savory really knocked me out ..
How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI&feature=player_embedded
For every lunatic we have in Ottawa, presenting ignorance
there are biologists like Allan presenting real world knowledge
I'll think about your article.. as I'm in the mood for coffee now ..
and will visit Urban Diner as well …
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That's a very cool concept, Norm — which wouldn't just have to apply to coffee shops.
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Thanks for that link diamondwalker. I have shared it on FB – not that I have many friends to see it. Amazing presentation.
The Love Cafe in Sidney apparently does suspended coffee but that is the only one I could find with Google locally.
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What a fantastic concept. Thanks for posting this Norm, it's nice to have you back.
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Back when a toll was twenty-five cents to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, we would often give the tollbooth attendant an extra quarter to pay for the car behind us. Not quite the same, but it either charmed people or really messed with their heads. I almost like the idea of suspended coffee, but I surely would like it better if we worked up a society that allowed everyone to have the wherewithal to pay his/her own freight.
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Allan Savory: How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change
Fascinating. It contains a most sincere recantation of scientific error. Humans would be better off, in ever segment of life, if men and women could admit error and change direction.
I'm embedding it in a link here at Northern Insight.
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“Humans would be better off, in every segment of life, if men and women could admit error and change direction.”
A great message for May 14!
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