Coffee
Coffee
[Cueball and Megan are talking.] Cueball: We should make coffee for our guests. Megan: Crap. I know nothing about coffee. Cueball: We're basically fake adults. Megan: Don't panic. We can figure this out.
[Megan shakes a can of coffee grounds out on the floor as Cueball watches.] Megan: We just pour the coffee grounds...
[Pan to only Megan who pours a pail of water over the grounds now lying in a pile on the floor.] Megan: ...Add water...
[Cueball watches as Megan vacuums up the mixture on the floor with a bag-less vacuum cleaner, the wire going off panel right behind her.] Vacuum cleaner: Vrrrr
[Megan is holding the dirt canister from the vacuum cleaner over two lit gas burners on a stove. The canister free vacuum cleaner is standing behind her and Cueball is behind this watching her.] Megan: Now we just hold it over the burners... Burners: Hissss
[Megan is holding the dirt canister over one shoulder while pouring the hot content into a small mug, as Cueball watches. Three wiggly lines above the liquid indicates that it is hot.] Megan: Annnd... serve. Cueball: Nice! Megan: I'm a regular Starbuck!

In this comic Cueball and Megan are anticipating guests.  Offering coffee to house guests is a commonly-accepted courtesy in the United States (and most of the western world (and rest of the world)). However, they seem to be unaware of the basics of coffee making . Cueball is concerned that this lack of knowledge is an indication of their mutual immaturity (thinking of himself as a "fake adult"),
This comic thus follows a frequently used theme of people growing up but finding themselves unable or unwilling to accept traditional adult roles (see 150: Grownups , 441: Babies , 616: Lease , 905: Homeownership and 1674: Adult ). While there are cultures where coffee is served to children, it is generally seen in the United States (and western world (and rest of the world)) as an adult beverage—like beer which has also served as the subject in the comic 1534: Beer .
Megan is, however, confident that the necessary steps can be determined. The steps she follows however are quite unorthodox...
She attempts to make coffee by pouring the ingredients on the ground (misinterpreting the meaning of "ground coffee"), sucking it up with a Dyson vacuum cleaner (misinterpreting the meaning of " vacuum brewing "), then boiling the mixture by placing the vacuum cleaner's removable plastic canister over a hot stove, and pouring the resulting sludge through the vacuum-cleaner filter (instead of a standard coffee filter ).
Megan says she is a regular "Starbuck" after pouring the batch of coffee, believing the name of the cafe chain Starbucks to be synonymous with the actual job title " barista ", further indicating a general lack of knowledge regarding the subject of coffee. The Starbucks coffee chain was loosely named after the fictional character Starbuck from the book Moby Dick , so she could be referring to this, although Starbuck had nothing to do with coffee brewing! The third possible interpretation is that Megan is unaware of the reason for Starbucks' naming and thought that it was the possessive "Starbuck's" and that the founder was named Starbuck. See more trivia about Starbuck below.
This method of making coffee would be very expensive as it would most likely destroy the vacuum-cleaner canister and filter. If the vacuum cleaner had ever been used, then it would not be very hygienic either, although if it had not been used then the floor would probably also be very unhygienic anyway. Since the plastic from the canister has probably also gone into contact with the sludge after being heated over open fire, there is a high risk that this "coffee" is actually poisonous for more than one reason.
The title text refers to the expense of replacing the "filter", as vacuum-cleaner filters are considerably more costly than single-use coffee filters.
This was the first of two comics in a row about food, the next being 1744: Metabolism .
[Cueball and Megan are talking.] Cueball: We should make coffee for our guests. Megan: Crap. I know nothing about coffee. Cueball: We're basically fake adults. Megan: Don't panic. We can figure this out.
[Megan shakes a can of coffee grounds out on the floor as Cueball watches.] Megan: We just pour the coffee grounds...
[Pan to only Megan who pours a pail of water over the grounds now lying in a pile on the floor.] Megan: ...Add water...
[Cueball watches as Megan vacuums up the mixture on the floor with a bag-less vacuum cleaner, the wire going off panel right behind her.] Vacuum cleaner: Vrrrr
[Megan is holding the dirt canister from the vacuum cleaner over two lit gas burners on a stove. The canister free vacuum cleaner is standing behind her and Cueball is behind this watching her.] Megan: Now we just hold it over the burners... Burners: Hissss
[Megan is holding the dirt canister over one shoulder while pouring the hot content into a small mug, as Cueball watches. Three wiggly lines above the liquid indicates that it is hot.] Megan: Annnd... serve. Cueball: Nice! Megan: I'm a regular Starbuck!
