John Rice’s Neighborhood

Starbucks, wtf is this?

Do we really need a new piece of useless plastic in our lives?  Is there a purpose for this instrument?  It sort of resembles a swizzle stick, although the body is really too skinny to create an effective stirring motion, plus my particular coffee drink does not need to be stirred.

The top of the instrument fits perfectly into the oblong oval opening of the plastic coffee lid, which leads me to believe this was created to prevent those weird burp-like explosions of coffee that the lid can emit when the cup is full and in motion, say, when you're walking out of the store with your full drink.

Still, not necessary.  I'd really rather do without another mass-produced, specialized piece of plastic people will only use once and not recycle.

To add insult to injury, the top of the instrument depicts a little character drinking hot coffee.  I can't tell what or who this character is supposed to be - it has the face of an angry wolverine with the body of a mermaid, and bizarre tentacles coming out of its mouth/nose region (think Dr. Zoidberg from "Futurama".) By the way, the hideous character is also trademarked.