This past weekend was my dad’s birthday. He’s really into coffee and he uses this standard coffee pot, but I was recently in this Brooklyn electronic shop called 1 Stop Camera, doing some shopping for myself – I needed a new lens for my camera – when I stumbled upon an elite gourmet single- cup home- brewing system.

With this thing, you insert a coffee canister, make sure there’s water, set your cup underneath it and the machine brews it. Now my dad likes his coffee strong, and I discovered that there’s even a setting for that – you just program the size of the cup, and the machine brews it accordingly!

So I had them wrap it up and I brought it home with me. Later, when we gave presents to Dad, he saw mine and I couldn’t help but notice a flush of excitement pass over his face, just from the size of the thing. But when he unwrapped it, he was disappointed. “I already have a coffee maker, he said.” “But Dad,” I replied, “this thing is no ordinary coffee maker.” He often tells me that I could sell a slaughterhouse to a cow, but persisting, I told him to try it. And whaddaya know, the old man brewed himself a cup on the small setting, and hey! Mikey likes it. So now I’ve got his blessing on whatever I buy him, especially when it’s from my favorite discount camera store, because this coffee maker’s a keeper.