Anita Florence’s letter to the editor last week regarding

her “outrage” at the name of the new business that just opened in

North Bend still has me chuckling. The Bad Ass Coffee Co. has

many stores throughout Hawaii and has franchise stores in Canada

and here on the Mainland.

In Webster’s New World Dictionary the word ass is

defined first as follows: “1. Any of a genus of animals resembling

horses but having longer ears and a shorter mane, as the common

wild ass of Africa: donkeys and burros are domesticated asses: in

fables the ass is represented as obstinate and stupid. 2. A stupid or

silly person; fool.” And, yes, the second definition of ass is the

slang definition.

The sign has the name of the Bad Ass Coffee Co. above a

caricature of a sad-looking ass (donkey) carrying bags of coffee,

labeled Kona, Hawaii, on its back. In doing a quick Internet

search for the Bad Ass Coffee Co., I found the following: “So

The Story Goes … The native people of Kona, Hawaii, remember

the days of the `bad ass ones.’ The bellows of the donkeys could

be heard echoing through the mountains as they hauled the

heavy loads of coffee up and down the mountainside. In honor of

these hard-working donkeys, we name our coffee company. The

legend of the Kona nightingale lives on right here at The Bad Ass

Coffee Co.”

Many others and myself do need to thank Ms. Florence for

her letter, as it alerted many people in the Valley that the Bad Ass

Coffee Co. is here. Much less time and travel is needed to go to

the North Bend store than to Maui. (Not as much fun, though.)

David McKibben

North Bend