"A 16-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee contains on average twice the amount of caffeine found in a similar cup purchased elsewhere (see The Journal of Analytical Toxicology, October 2006), sometimes approaching the amount in three NoDoz tablets. Starbucks in fact publishes the caffeine content of its brewed coffee: a venti cup has 415 milligrams." I was amused when I read this. The writer of this letter is a classmate of mine from childhood--we competed for 1st rank in class (and then we skipped grades together) until I hit puberty, and then I totally ignored school and grades. He is now a medical professor in the US. When we were in high school, we were organizing an Arabic book exhibit at IC (our high school in Beirut). I made it very clear that right-wing and fascist literature would not be permitted--I had told you I was never a liberal democrat, and this was during my Stalinist days. So he wanted to exhibit some literature of the Phalanges Party in Lebanon: I made it very clear to him that the position of the Lebanese and Palestinian Left at the time (to "isolate the Phalanges") would be strictly adhered to in my school, and that I would make sure to enforce it. He went and complained to his dad, as I subsequently learned. His father was the dentist of none other than George Habash (the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). Habash, who I had not met before, talked to me about the matter. It is a long story, do you want to know?