Another bad idea: a luxury tax on that which fuels the wheels of industry around here.

Proposal brewing for Seattle "espresso tax"

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A campaign is underway to slap a tax on espresso in the city that launched America's love affair with dark, strong coffee.

But so far few caffeine addicts living in the hometown of the Starbucks Corp. and Tully's Coffee Corp. are complaining.

That's because polls say that more than two-thirds of them favor a tax that would add 10 cents to the price of each cup of espresso or espresso-based coffee to help provide better child day care for low-income families.

Guarana-based drink (high caffeine content, low tannin content) for gamers:

Drink gives gamers jolt of energy

Most energy drinks target club kids or gym rats looking for that extra burst of power so they can dance all night or pump more iron.

But BAWLS focuses on a unique market niche: computer gamers.

The high-caffeine beverage doesn't have the vitamins and minerals typically found in energy drinks and instead markets itself as a soft drink spiked with guarana, a berry grown in the Amazon rain forest. The formula has developed an almost cult-like following among computer addicts looking for a source of energy to keep them awake for gaming binges lasting 15 to 24 hours straight.

Well, we went out last weekend to do some couch-shopping. But we wound up buying a video game instead -- Baldur's Gate II. So all non-work time has been sucked up by that.

Rasperries are ripe by the pint, and the orange berries (cloudberries?) that grow through our fence are ripe as well.