[Insert Clever Pic Here]

I was pondering a good topic for a post and decided to tell the story of how we got the motto that sits at the top of our webpage. TMAR has the pleasure to work in Africa. There is no lack of humorous situations that occur every day. I happen to be lucky enough to speak the local language. While at the printer one morning, which is also the kitchen, I overheard a very interesting conversation. Three fine gentlemen were hovering around the coffee machine. Two of which were drinking tea and the third, coffee. The conversation went something like this:

Tea drinker 1: Don’t drink coffee, it will make you deaf.

Coffee drinker: I don’t drink the coffee, I like the smell.

Tea drinker 2: You don’t want to start that lifestyle.

Coffee drinker: If I hold the coffee, people think that I am on break.

After hearing this diatribe, I immediately spread it to TMAR. Much laughter and hilarity ensued. From that conversation, however, we got our motto. End of story. But wait! There is more! As I was thinking about the post, I decided that it needed a clever picture to hide the clear lack of words (which I didn’t find). So I did some research (read… googled coffee deafness.) You’ll never guess the very first thing that I found.

That’s right. I found a forum discussing the effect of caffeine and the annoying ringing you get in your ears. From the forum, there is no actual correlation between tinnitus and caffeine, but it does make you wonder if there isn’t some validity to the above conversation. On another site, I found this sentence: “Because of decreasing renal tubular reabsorption of fluid in the kidney, there is increased sensitivity to ototoxic substances.” That sounds bad… Still even after the overheard conversation, the forum and an article called Ototocicity: Are We Poisoning Our Ears?, I think that I will keep drinking coffee. I want that kind of lifestyle.