I just got a call from Darrell Shanabarger up in my old stomping grounds of Canton OH. Darrell was the engineer on my midnight talk show "NightWatch" on the now defunct radio station WTOF FM. (Darrell, do you think our show put them out of business?) Good friend Darrell and I had many a wild program, some garnering calls from all over the state and even a few from West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Pretty good reach.
There are many stories I could tell you about this guy but the best one occured about 2 a.m. when both of us were dragging. I was about 26 at the time and was engaged to Jill. This particular night, the show seemed like it would never end. The call-in show was particularly brutal (maybe about cults or even some argument about the Koine Greek) and during a commercial break I asked Darrell if he could make some coffee.
He graciously complied and I must admit, it was some of the best coffee I had ever tasted. We woke up and charged through the rest of the shift with energy to spare. Darreel was the coffee man from then on.
Within the year I married Jill and, as you hear in some of the old newlywed stories, her cooking brought up a small conflict. No, it wasn't her meals, only the coffee.
"Jill," I said, "this coffee is just two weak. The stuff at the station seems much stronger."
"I'm putting it in as the instructions recommended," she replied. "And that's a brand new Bunn coffeemaker, too. It says to put in 4 measures per pot."
Still, it seemed weak. I hemmed and hawed about this for another week or so, with Jill upping the ante to 5 scoops and then 6 scoops of ground coffee. Still weak. Finally in exasperation she said, "Then find out how many scoops Darrell's putting in."
That night on the shift I asked him how many scoops he put in the filter before brewing.
"What do you mean, 'scoops?'" asked Darrell.
"You know, the measuring spoon thing in the can. How many do you put in the filter?" I asked.
"Well, I never used the scoop," said Darrell. "I thought you were supposed to fill the ground coffee up to the top of the filter."
We later figured out that he was puting in the equivalent of 13 to 15 scoops per pot.
