This Real World math sure is tricky! In Montana and Elka's room, Montana voice-overs, "I would hate to see Elka and I [sic] walk out of this house and not be friends, after everything that's happened." Yup. Five months sitting around with nothing to do but watch snow really tends to bond people from all walks of life. Hell, look what it did for the cast of Alive. Apropos of the cameras being on, Elka sits up in bed and asks an expectant Montana, "You wanna go to Starbucks?" Montana wants to go to Starbucks. If I were feeling all antiestablishment, I wouldn't have even mentioned the name of the place, knowing this moment is just a shill for the coffee industry. But there was this whole hue and cry a few months ago when a spanking new Starbucks opened right down the block from my neighborhood coffee place in Park Slope, and even I made fun of it because it looked all brownstone-y and Cosby Show-ish, even though it was so obviously the result of dozens of marketing meetings where suited execs in Portland were all, "It should look just like a typical Brooklyn street. As genuine as possible. Like when we all went to that retreat at Disney World to see what the Eiffel Tower looked like by seeing that scale model inside the 'Taste of Paris' exhibit. The Brooklyn Starbucks needs to be just as authentic. Maybe a tree should grow there." But then I went once, under duress, and there's this really weird truism about the Starbucks experience I just can't deny, when it comes to comparing it to those cozy, non-chain local places: Starbucks makes better freakin' coffee. Goodbye, neighborhood coffee place, with its watery mocha and unclean milk/sugar counter and games of checkers and feel-good, Park Slope community-hood. I'll see you down the block, while I'm having the best damn grande iced mochacchino eight bucks can buy. You're free to join me. And you really should. Anyone who chooses not to automatically becomes property of Blockbuster Entertainment. And for class rings...it's Jostens! ["I have a mini-hate on for Starbucks today because while I enjoy the Starbucks experience, I am not a coffee drinker and, when I go, usually enjoy the Happy Planet orange juice or, failing that, a Jones Soda. But when I accompanied Glark to Starbucks today so he could get his Venti Iced Chai, there was only Happy Planet mango juice (ptui) and Jones Orange & Cream Soda. The hell? And no butterscotch scones. I was all, why am I even here? But generally I love Starbucks. The caramel frappuccino is tasty." -- Wing Chun]