I posted a writing exercise on evidentiary. I'll come back to antifreeze later today with more notes and a short piece about a scary moment at the cafe yesterday. Right now, I have to run out and do some more research & writing.
Oh, and you must read Michael Totten's defense of coffeeshops. I would never drink lattes (too sweet, too expensive), but I do slap down $1.00-$1.50 most days for a hot cup of coffee or tea, plus one refill. Ever since I was thirteen and started hanging out at the local Happy Chef in Cedar Rapids (there were no coffeeshops in my hometown back then - only chain restaurants with coffee counters), I have lugged my notebooks, books, and napkin notes out to public spaces to write. (I always wrote, even as a kid. But at Happy Chef, I discovered I really loved writing in cafes.) I can write at home, but the flow is never quite the same. And all that alone time can be isolating. At least out in public, I can people-watch, stare out the window at passing pedestrians and cars, and listen in on conversations. Only out in public do I really enter into the process. So yeah, what he said.