Starbucks Becomes IBM

Can you believe this? Starbucks, which has become a formidable cd as well as java outlet, has declined to sell the new Bruce Springsteen cd because of some risque lyrics having to do with what a prostitute does. Asked to comment, some Starbucks executive uttered the following:

"When considering new projects, our primary goal is always to help our customers discover and acquire quality music, Starbucks said in the statement. To that end, Starbucks is currently in discussions with many different artists and labels and therefore, we do not comment on rumors and speculation."

If anybody can still remember the 1980's, whenever there were rumors of a new IBM computer, like for instance a 286 or a DOS 2.1, the IBM mantra was always to the effect that 'we do not comment on unnanounced products." In fact they still say it. I just checked and found this via a google search from last year:

""While IBM cannot comment on unannounced products (either our own or especially those of our clients)," Stein continued, "I think it is safe to say IBM and Apple have a great collaborative relationship and that both companies' products should be positively impacted by this."

I guess the equation is IBM is to Starbucks as Chuck-E-Cheese is to pizza (no, just kidding, but it does sound good!).