[at_a_remove]

This is a little embarrassing to admit, but my favored Starbucks was very much a third place. It had a fireplace with shelves to either side. I got some old books and made a little library out of it. Even got some Starbucks-green metal bookends. Books for the kiddies. It looked cozy and nice. The manager loved it.

Then COVID hit and everyone was bafflingly weird about transmission via surfaces (that was the WHO's stubborn take on it then) and whoosh, all of it gone.