Thanks a Thousand Quotes

“Here’s why I’m a fan of thanking our lucky stars every day: it helps with forgiving yourself your failures; it cuts down on celebrity worship and boosts humility; and, perhaps most important, it makes us more compassionate.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“When I force myself to utter the awkward phrase, "I am grateful," I actually start to feel a bit more grateful...It's basic cognitive behavioral therapy: Behave in a certain way, and your mind will eventually catch up with your actions.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“As her head rests on her pillow, she’ll go through the alphabet from A to Z and try to think of something to be grateful for that starts with each letter—A for her husband Andrew’s blueberry pancakes; B for bocce, her favorite game in the summer; etc.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“I’m a believer in capitalism—I think it’s the best way we’ve found so far to structure a society. But I don’t buy the laissez-faire idea. I think we need regulations. I’m in favor of a superego to control the market’s id. I’m in favor of long-range thinking to balance stockholders’ lust for immediate profits. I think we need infrastructure to help us get the pencil and coffee safely into our hands. And I think we also need high-level coordination to keep us from playing with lead-paint-coated toys, eating salmonella steaks, and baking ourselves into oblivion with overreliance on fossil fuels.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“774–781. Caravela Coffee importers for Joe Coffee, who deal with customs and logistics, including Badi Bradley, Anthony Auger, Christy Wicker, Matt Kolb, James Gibbs, Daniel Bolivar, Lorena Falla, and Alejandro Cadena.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“688–711. Shipping my coffee takes a huge number of folks, including the Hong Kong Express ship crew, which brings the coffee to the port, including officers, electricians, cooks, and engineers such as Ariel Agalla, John Ryan Consad, Generoso Caneja, Angelito Segundino, Cesar Escobal, Maurice Bajo, Christoph Heers, Günter Naborowski, Ansgar Lehmköster, Danilo Napoto, Pawel Sobolewski, Aivan Delgado, John Aumüller, Lasse Gawande, Uriel Lumanog, Juan Carlos Nirza, Jay Vee Cruz, Mac Lawrence Dadivas, Remar Locsin, Genadij Dubrow, Gabriel Yana, Rheinell Nolasco, Michael Nierra, and Yonger Chaux.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“543–546. Staff at Morgan, which makes the bodies for the trucks used in transporting coffee bags, Elton Mountz, Corby Stover, Ryan Shirk, and Frank Maldonado.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“404–407. Researchers who show coffee has health benefits, such as delaying dementia, including Neal Freedman, Francesco Panza, Harris Lieberman, and Charles Reed.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“333. Ernest Earl Lockhart, researcher who discovered people prefer coffee that’s been brewed between 194 and 205 ° F.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“A Thousand Thanks By A.J. Jacobs and Riki Markowitz”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“240–242. The folks at GrainPro bags, specialty plastic bags for shipping coffee, Jose Gomez, Joey Saligao, and Diego Lara Lavarreda.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“161–164. Staples, which makes the calculator used at Joe Coffee to figure out my coffee’s pricing and inventory, including Jason Oliver, Lewis Tse, Josh Kindberg, and Brian Katz.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“32. Ed Kaufmann’s tasting teacher, Rob Stephen. 33–35. The manufacturers of the tasting spoon used by Joe Coffee, including Stephen Wright, Beatrice “Beattie” France, and Ryan May of the W. Wright Cutlery & Silverware company. 36–37. Pioneers of the cupping procedure used for tasting coffee Clarence Bickford and B.D. Balart. 38–40. Developers of the Q Grade test used in tasting coffee Jean Lenoir, David Guermonprez, and Eric Verdier. 41–42. The makers of the Mudjug spittoon used by Ed Kaufmann in tasting the coffee, including Darcy Compton and Garrett Celano.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“which coffee tasters use to identify flavor.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“CHAPTER 1 THE BARISTA AND THE TASTER 1. The barista Chung Lee at my local Joe Coffee. 2. Ed Kaufmann, the head coffee buyer at Joe Coffee Company. 3. Jonathan Rubinstein, the founder of Joe Coffee Company. 4–5. Richard and Alice Rubinstein, Jonathan’s parents who invested in the very first Joe Coffee shop. 6–11. Other key Joe Coffee staff, including Tim Hinton, manager of my local Joe Coffee Company, and Frankie Tin, Brandon Wall, Doug Satzman, Will Hewes, and Jonathan’s sister, Gabrielle Rubinstein. 12–15. The employees of Mazzer coffee grinders, which ground my coffee beans, including Luca Maccatrozzo, Cristian Cipolotti, Luigi Mazzer, and Mattia Miatto. 16–19. Thunder Group, makers of the strainer used at Joe Coffee, including Michael Sklar, Brian Young, Takia Augustine, and Robert Huang. 20–22. The folks at Hario digital scale for coffee, including Shin Nemoto, Sakai Hario, and Tagawa Hario. 23–25. The workers at the Specialty Coffee Association, including Don Schoenholt, Spencer Turer, and Kim Elena Ionescu, who organize coffee conventions where Joe Coffee employees find new supplies. 26–29. Oxo kitchen tools, including Juan Escobar, John DeLamar, Eddy Viana, and Lynna Borden. 30–31. The developers of the coffee flavor chart, including Edward Chambers and Rhonda Miller,”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“The thankees listed are a diverse group. Some have contributions that are obvious (the barista and the farmers). Some are admittedly quite tangential (the folks who make the asphalt for the roads on which the coffee-carrying trucks travel). But my thesis is that the world is woven together by connections. So I wanted to be expansive in my thanks, not restrictive. These folks may be tangential, but they are also, oddly enough, crucial.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“I take out my crumpled piece of loose-leaf paper, look at the Guarnizo family, and read: “Gracias por ustedes.” I continue, in my stumbling Spanish: “I now understand more about all the work that goes into making my morning cup of coffee, and I will not take it for granted again. “Thank you for picking the beans and washing them and drying them. “Your coffee has given me great happiness every morning, and helped give me the energy to write books and articles and take care of my kids. “From now on, I’ll think of you when I drink my morning coffee. And perhaps you will think of people like me in the United States, and the joy you give to us. And perhaps you will think of all the artists and architects and salespeople and engineers in New York who are inspired by what you produce.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“We sit on the porch and drink the beverage that Wilmar’s wife roasted in a saucepan. It tastes delicious, though perhaps at that altitude, anything would. Now is the time, I tell myself. Several of the gratitude books I’ve read suggested writing a gratitude letter and reading it out loud.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“I flash back to an article I read a few weeks ago. The idea was that, yes, three dollars for a cup of coffee is ridiculously high. Practically felonious. But if we paid American minimum wage to all the people on the chain, coffee would cost about $25 a cup.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“I wouldn’t have known they were coffee trees; there are no beans visible. Instead, the trees are filled with little red or yellow fruits that look like grape tomatoes. The coffee cherries, they’re called. Hidden in each cherry is the bean that produces my morning drink.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“We are here. The Guarnizo farm. We’re in front of the main house, which is painted light yellow and has a corrugated metal roof.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“Ed has given me some background. This farm is a small one, owned by the Guarnizo family, which has nine brothers and one sister. The only visitors in the last year have been us and one other buyer.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“The Farmers Thanks for Growing My Coffee”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“I’d asked if I could personally thank some of the steelworkers, and three of them have agreed to meet me.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“steel. The ships and trains and trucks that carry the beans are made of steel, as are the stop signs and bridges and docks on their routes. Steel is in coffee scoopers and roasting machines, refrigerators and spoons.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“The Extractors Thanks for Getting All the Raw Materials”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“Not to mention that these phone calls are nudging up my total—I’m up to 526 thank-yous.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“I’m really glad you never found any bugs or mice in your coffee. And thank you. You made my day. You put a smile on my face.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“Next I call Parkway Pest Services, which keeps the insects out of the warehouse. A woman answers.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey

“Tom Vanderbilt, who wrote the Slate article, puts it this way: “For an invisible object, [pallets] are everywhere: There are said to be billions circulating through the global supply chain. Some 80 percent of all U.S. commerce is carried on pallets. So widespread is their use that they account for, according to one estimate, more than 46 percent of total U.S. hardwood lumber production.”
― A.J. Jacobs, Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey