"Only To be Understood by English Majors -- Only to be Appreciated by Losers"

For those of you who have been on the edge of your seats since last April, unclench: UT and those assholes at the Perry-Castaneda Library have no taste. The Espresso Yourself Contest has been decided and the name of the new coffee shop, which will be somewhere in that big concrete building, will be called Prufrock's.

Are we bitter? Yes, almost always. Especially because we could have used that $1000 prize.

If you're like us, and didn't "get" the reference, The Daily Texan reported, the name of the coffee shop is taken from a TS Elliot poem. Don't judge us.

But did they even consider the sound of the word, "Prufrock's"? It sounds like a part of an asinine British phrase that Eliza Doolittle was forced to repeat to herself again and again.

We really enjoyed the responses you gave us for your takes on a literary-sounding coffe shop name. So we invite you once again to participate in a slightly different version. Come up with a phrase to slander the new coffee shop using it's new moniker. We like, "Prufrock'in sucks!" Please be as base as possible.

Some of our favorite entries after the jump...

*Title quote borrowed from former Austinist and Austinite, John Sheehan, who was an English major.

One Hundred Beans of Coffeetude
Nineteen Eighty Pour
Dostoyev's Tea and Coffee Shop
F. Scott Fitzcoffee
Uncle Tom's Cafe
Much Ado About Java
Sophie's Chai
Ethan Scone
Me Drink Coffee One Day
Jeffrey Eugenabean

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Katie Spence in News, Other on July 11, 2005 2:44 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Jolie Sanders

Ah, yes. I remember the "coffee spoons" thing now. Not the kind of thing that makes you want to drink coffee, that poem.

Justin

Jooley Ann, I think you'd be surprised by the ave age of the staff

Jooley_Ann

Hmmmm, can't agree with y'all on this one. Love "Prufrock's", love the coffee spoons line as well as these:

I grow old … I grow old …

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

Maybe you sweet kiddos at Austinist are just a tad young to appreciate the fear of approaching middle age? I mean that in the nicest way....

Herman

Mark Hammer -- comment about Starbuck wasn't direct to you, it was about the blog entry. Also: Leaves of Grass, my ass!

Guy Smiley

The connection between coffee and the poem is my favorite line:

"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons"

Though I'm no lover of poetry, that line often resounds (loudly) in my mind while making my morning coffee. More so when I'm hungover.

victoria

I work at PCL, and trust me, it is NOT our fault! The Texan assholes are the ones who picked that name. We think they suck.

abc

I hear the mermaids singing. I do not think they sing for me. Something like that. I love that poem, but I agree, it isn't the best name. They could have come up with something way cooler. And perhaps given a nod to a Texan, not a Missourian.

Jolie Sanders

C'mon now, no one makes it through sophomore seminar without having to read that poem. I had to read it in my senior year of HS.

I just don't really get the connection between the poem and coffee. I mean, there is some kind of tea party going on, but it doesn't seem altogether pleasant. Hell, I don't even get the relationship between Starbuck and coffee, either. I think they're both equally inappropriate names.

JL

i love pufrock, but not as much as i love pufplant.

Mark Hammer

no, i don't see prufrock ad being a foil to starbuck from MD.

oh well.

i still say Body Electric

Herman

So you're not getting how Eliot's "Prufrock" could be a foil, literarily speaking, to Melville's "Starbuck?"

Mark Hammer

Of course, i think uncle Walt Whitman deserved the nod with "Body Electric"

I SING the Body electric;

The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;

They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,

And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul.

Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves;

And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?

And if the body does not do as much as the Soul?

And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?