More Coffee Blues
One morning as I drank my fake coffee
I needed to go out and get a cup of real coffee
The fake coffee just did not do the trick
It tasted almost like the real thing
But just did not have that kick
And I needed it bad
I needed the real coffee buzz
I realized that I was a coffee addict
I tried to just drink decaf
But it was boring
And almost as bad as the fake coffee
That I drank
Caffeine was bad for me
I knew it
But I craved the rush
Craved the intense buzz
Craved the hyperactivity
Kept me up all day
And caused me nightmares
Sometimes for days on end
I knew I could not handle it
But like all addicts
I needed my coffee buzz
And so, I once more
Drank my drug of choice
And entered the coffee zone
As I fried my brain
With caffeine
The last legal drug
In neo-puritan America
And I smiled as I gave in
To the intoxicating smell
And flavor of my coffee
And surrender my free will
And drank my coffee
Waiting for the nightmares to come
Caffeine Junkie -- Shawn Ramos
In 1830 Joseph Smith formally organized the Church of Christ, which he later renamed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In 1831 he relocated from New York to Kirtland, Ohio, which he regarded as the eastern border of a new Zion, and received a series of new divine revelations. According to his successor Brigham Young, when the so-called Mormons "assembled together ... after breakfast, the first they did was to light their pipes, and, while smoking, talk about the great things of the kingdom, and spit all over the room, and as soon as the pipe was out of their mouths a large chew of tobacco would then be taken. Often when the Prophet entered the room to give the school instructions he would find himself in a cloud of tobacco smoke. This, and the complaints of his wife at having to clean so filthy a floor, made the Prophet think upon the matter, and he inquired of the Lord relating to the conduct of the Elders in using tobacco, and the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was the result of his inquiry." In December 1833 Smith published the "Word of Wisdom" as a broadsheet, and 2 years later it was incorporated in the 1st edition of the "Doctrine and Covenants." Compliance with it is a prerequisite for baptism, service in full-time missionary work, attendance at church schools, and entry into the church's temples, though violation of the code is not grounds for excommunication or other disciplinary action. "Hot drinks are not for the body, or belly." In 1842 Smith's older brother Hyrum, the assistant president of the church and its presiding patriarch, defined this to mean tea and coffee. In 1918, Frederick J. Pack, a professor at the University of Utah, reasoned that the ban included Coca-Cola as well beczause it contained caffeine, and in 1922 the church president Heber J. Grant counseled his followers "as a personal, individual favor to me, to let coca-cola alone.... The Lord does not want you to use any drug that creates an appetite for itself." Two years later, after meeting with a Coca-Cola Company representative, he declared "I have not the slightest desire to recommend that the people leave Coca-Cola alone if the amount [of caffeine in it] is absolutely harmless, which they claim it is." (Cocaine was still part of the product formula until 1929; it does, however, still contain ingredients from the coca leaf.)
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