25¢ coffee.

With my chicken-fried steak for breakfast. What is it about the chicken fried steak that attracts me like a spider to the moths near the porch light? Is it the combination of salt and fat that Michael Pollan says we have all become addicted to?

Or is it the pizza-like infinite variation in country gravy? It’s never actually bad, but sometimes it’s spectacularly good. Or at least an interesting local variation. American breakfast is American breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, omelets. There’s a wide variety of combinations, but basically they are all variations on a theme. I’m not sure what to do with the fact that most of them are bad for you.

Cody turned out to be a fun town, and the meeting I attended was flawlessly orchestrated. I’m thinking that libraries and conferences only have so many variations also. All the librarians complain of slow-moving administrations, irrational belt-tightening measures, and a misunderstanding of our various specialties. But we also brag of generous donors, engaged readers, and pride in our collections. I struggle to reconcile this contradiction as well. It is so easy to fall into complaint mode, but it is also easy to share accomplishments.

It was a pretty good 25¢ cup of coffee.