Old News - Starbucks Logo
 

Just an interesting article I found. So only a nerd ( me ) would be interested in the evolution of the mermaid on the starbucks cup.:p


http://www.endicott-studio.com/jMA03...heMermaid.html



old naughty starbucks cup logo?
http://www.endicott-studio.com/gfx/content/merSB1.jpg
http://www.endicott-studio.com/gfx/content/merSB2.jpg

current logo
http://www.endicott-studio.com/gfx/content/merSB3.jpg

As some readers may know, Starbucks had to change their corporate logo because some consumers found the suggestive split tail of their topless siren too lurid and sexually suggestive. A simplified logo was introduced, hiding the siren's breasts under waves of hair, and that in turn was cropped and enlarged so the split in the siren's tail would no longer show. The only indication now that the female icon is a sea creature is in the wavy lines, which originally were part of the representation of the two tails. And yes, although the image is that of a split-tailed sea creature, it is a siren. More specifically, it is a double-tailed siren, a baubo siren, which The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects points out, is "a cross between a mermaid and a sheila-na-gig" and is found as a decorative motif in many European churches and cathedrals. "Her suggestive pose, like that of the sheila-na-gig, referred to female sexual mysteries in particular."

Outside my condo:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/13/19...c7e588548f.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2109/...53d8917f58.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/4...864caf05a4.jpg

I heard of it called a melusine, but a bit of Googling didn't indicate the split tail as a distinguishing feature, just a possibility.

Split tail? Meaning a mermaid with a crotch?
I can see that would be a desirable step up.

oooh nice! thanks for the photos!

I've heard melusine before too! ahh * googling*

yes Bruce...

she cured Demeter's depression with a lift of her skirts.

Thought it was fishy, did they?? My, some people would get a nasty nosebleed if ever they mounted above the gutter...

As an amateur herald, I'm familiar with the melusine also -- as a two-tailed mermaid, and generally in that position. Said to be more popular in Continental heraldry than English.

The sort of thing you google up with "Melusine heraldic"

Yes, and ironically it's the christians or other kinds of prudes who take the high ground who naturally assume the gutter.

I think the original Starbucks outside of Pike Street Market still has the original logo.

Now we're seeing a revival, with a bit of modification: a few more locks of hair combed down over the boobage.

and i will say that their focus on the product has done some good. their new "every day blend" does not taste like piss. i think it's pike's peak or something.

Pike Place Roast

Tink treated me to a large (yes, I am a luddite who insists on ordering large and not venti. I have been "corrected" by some barristas... it is annoying and comical) Gold Coast this morning. It was very tasty. The Pike Place Roast is good too.

Here's a picture of the cup:

Arg! I got yelled at by a barista at the Barnes and Noble coffee shop once for saying Venti instead of large! I never know what to call the sizes when I order coffee.

Really? They do that? See, I'd be all like "you know what Barista lady? You serve coffee. You are a cofffffeeeeee serrrrrverrrrrrr. I want a large, and I want it now. I don't care if you call it Satan, just serve me my damn coffee and shut up." ;)

No, I'd never really do that (I've worked in similiar industry and if anything am overly nice) but I find it hilarious there is so much pretention in the world of chain coffee shops. :morncoff:

I've always kind of figured the idea behind calling it "Venti" was that it was tall like a smokestack and therefore well up into the wind.

The book Punching In, which has a chapter on working in Starbuck's, doesn't shed light on this. It does talk a lot about how much coffee-drawing stuff you learn with them.

I would imagine the sheer number of pretentious "Double-soy-hazlenut-latte, peon...huh" people served would constitute a little bit of "shut-the-fuck-up-and-call-it-large!" attitude. But I can't be sure.

pretension and cup sizes
 

I suspect but am to lazy to find out fer sure that venti is Italian for 20, as in twenty ounce cups.