Wizah Network - Journalist - Eric Linge's Articles
A mysterious cup of coffee on Liberty St. By Eric Linge
Thano downed his coffee before I was two sips in. He began swirling the porcelain demitasse like he was swirling a goblet of red wine, coating the inside with the muddy grounds left on the bottom. He then flipped the cup onto the saucer and let it sit. I stopped taking notes and vowed to down my demitasse. Thano was going to look inside and predict my future once the coffee was gone.
A cup of unfiltered coffee can be deceiving if you’re unaccustomed to drinking it. I expected to find more liquid in the cup than I did. Traditional Greek (and Turkish) coffee is brewed with the grounds directly in the water. The resulting beverage is thicker than espresso, and the grounds settle into a sludge at the bottom of the short cup, leaving less room for liquid. I downed my cup quick and got a dash of the bitter sludge on my tongue.
I made a disgusted face. Thano asked, “You done with that?” We were at his restaurant, Thano’s Lamplighter on Liberty St. The blue awning outside advertises it as “American & Greek Cuisine,” and neon signs in the front window advertise pizza and cocktails. We were each finishing cups of Greek coffee.
He swirled my cup like he swirled his. I hadn’t left enough liquid to loosen the grounds so he flipped it fast and slammed it onto the saucer to force the grounds out. He let it sit there and went back to his cup. He pulled it off its saucer, a puddle of mud emerging from underneath. He showed me the inside of his cup. It looked like it had been painted with an inconsistent coat of dark brown spray paint. He said he was looking for designs in the splatterings. The designs tell the story that is the future. He looked down his nose through his reading glasses, tilting the cup in many directions to see the insides from different angles.
Thano is a portly man, middle-aged, with dark features, olive skin and a full head of hair. He’s affable and speaks in quirky, broken English phrases. I asked him where he learned to read fortunes in coffee grounds, and he said, “If you grow up with old ladies. I don’t know how they learn it, but they say in the coffee this means this and that means that.” Neighborhood ladies taught him while growing up in Sparta, Greece.
Thano went on looking into his cup in silence for a few minutes, and I eventually asked him what he saw. “Oh, I saw lots of things in mine.” Things I don’t think he wanted to tell me. He doesn’t usually read his own fortune because he doesn’t want to see his future. He took my cup and peered into it. “You’re worried about something, but things are going to go away. Have you been worried?”
Actually, yes, I told him. I moved to Ann Arbor late last summer from New York City where I quit a magazine job. Since then, I’ve been working part time as a janitor and busboy because I can’t seem to land a full time journalist job. I did this to be with my girlfriend who had to move from New York to attend medical school here.
“You’re a fighter. Don’t give up,” he told me, looking down his nose, through his glasses, and into my cup in his hand. “You’re supposed to go somewhere else but you came here?” He looked up at me.
Well, actually, I just kind of told you that. “How’s your relationship with your girlfriend?” I tell him it’s been up and down. “You’re going to argue but things will be ok. You’ll have some disappointments, but I don’t know what. You’re looking for something. You may get very upset. You still worry. You’ve still got blockages, but you’re going to have better days.”
This is classic coffee reading. I told him about me, and he told me similar things about me. He also assured me things would eventually be better. Fortunes among friends almost always end with a positive spin, and obstacles are always overcome because reading fortunes wouldn’t be fun if bad news was impending.
To read fortunes, Sophia, professional psychic and author of Fortune in a Coffee Cup, says to look at the grounds in the cup like they were clouds in the sky, and use that to weave a narrative story. Diviners often see roads in cups, which mean a journey is impending. On that journey there will be obstacles, but they will be overcome. If the grounds look extra dark, there is a dark horizon on the journey. Love may be found and lost and found again. Anything can happen. It’s all up to reader.
About reading fortunes, Artemis Leontis, Adjunct Associate Professor of Modern Greek at the University of Michigan, says, “People take it semi-seriously, but it’s the performance that people enjoy. I don’t know people who work their day around the predictions of a coffee cup.” In Greece and Turkey coffee reading is usually a light-hearted diversion that women share. Older women are traditionally more skilled than younger women. Thano is the rare man who reads coffee grounds, although he did learn from those old neighborhood ladies. I first learned about coffee fortunes a few weeks prior to this divination session with Thano. I was brand new in Ann Arbor and had never before met him. I ordered Greek coffee at the Lamplighter, and he brought me my cup. He said, “There’s good news for you,” as he walked back to the kitchen. This intrigued me so much that a few days later I introduced myself to Thano and asked how he knew there was good news for me. He said he had seen a big bubble on the surface of the coffee that looked like an eye, and that meant good news. This is further proof how readers like to spin fortunes positive. Many people from the Middle East or the Mediterranean see the eye as bad news, like someone’s eye is looking with envy. Kaballah devotees wear the red string on their wrists to fend off the glance of this evil eye. Yet Thano saw only good.
Müge Göcek, an assistant professor of sociology and women’s studies at the University of Michigan, and specialist in Turkish studies, calls coffee divination an icebreaker, like a parlor game. Something to do after meals. Fortunes are usually so vague, she says, people can interpret them however they want.
Thano explained to me that looking at the bubbles on the surface is just the quickie fortune telling method. The real fortune, he told me, lies in the grounds. He invited me to have a cup of coffee with him at the Lamplighter in a few days, which is how I got to be sitting across the table from him, buzzed from having chugged my short cup of thick coffee.
The Thano Method
Sitting across the table, Thano told me, “I see you at a big party,” a vague premonition, open to interpretation I thought. I told him, well, I am applying to law school. Maybe you see me in law school.
I asked Thano what it was in my coffee cup that made him say the things he did. He used my pen to point inside my cup. The bottom of the cup had a thick splotch on one side. The other side was thin and feathery with grounds. The splotch represented my blockages. The feathery pattern meant things would be opening up for me, and there would be better days. He also pointed out a kidney shape near the rim of the cup. That’s me lying in bed, he said. Despite my problems, I sleep well. He was definitely right about that. I’m so sleep deprived I drink four cups of coffee a day to stay awake between morning and night.
I will always be skeptical of any fortune telling method though. I do agree with the professors that the best part was the experience. Thano, however, is convinced coffee divining works because a friend in Greece read his grounds and accurately recalled details of Thano’s past. The friend then predicted Thano would be leaving Greece, and he would spend his life in a new place. He would, of course, be o.k. Thano had no plans to leave Greece at the time, but he soon came to the University of Michigan to study business. He opened a restaurant; business was good, and he’s been here ever since.
Don’t expect to get your fortune read every time you come to Thano’s Lamplighter. Sometimes when there are few people in the restaurant and somebody orders a Greek coffee he may bring your cup and mention quickly what he sees in the bubbles, like he did for me. If he’s having coffee at home with neighbors he may even read their fortunes in their grounds. But don’t get Thano wrong. “Some ladies do this for a living. I don’t want to be a fortune lady,” he said.
Months after Thano’s original prediction, has the good news ever materialized for me? Well, like every other coffee fortune, this is open to interpretation. I did get accepted to law school, and this article is being published in the Observer. That’s good news, but on the other hand: I never did find full-time journalism work in Ann Arbor. I had difficulty paying my rent and credit card, so I moved in with my girlfriend to save money. That didn’t work too well. We broke up a few weeks ago, and I moved to my parents’ house in St. Louis, Mo.
Thano never explicitly said when the good news would arrive. Maybe all of the news in the previous paragraph is actually good news, and it’s just too early to tell, Or maybe I just need a few more cups of coffee before it arrives. Or maybe I’m missing the point, which is that coffee divination is fun not science. Whether Thano was right or wrong, I definitely enjoyed my afternoon with him. Maybe that’s most important.
Instant Coffee Fortune Teller
Filtered or Unfiltered
Fortunes can be read with filtered or unfiltered coffee. If you prefer filtered coffee, dump a spoonful of used grounds into the bottom of a coffee cup when only a little bit of coffee is left in the bottom of the cup. Swirl the mixture around the inside of the cup to coat the surface with grounds. Dump out the runny ground mixture while turning the cup, further coating the sides. Turkish coffee is available during brunch at Café Zola (112 W. Washington), daily between 7a.m and 4p.m. Greek coffee is always on the menu at Thano’s Lamplighter (421 E. Liberty).
Read your own
Sophia, professional psychic and author of Fortune in a Coffee Cup, says to look for shapes in the grounds like you would look for shapes in the clouds, and weave what you see into a story. The bottom of the cup is about the past. The middle is about the present, and closest to the rim is about the future. Shapes nearest the handle are the most important and intense. Look for these shapes to help you weave your story: Bird: Good news, especially business news, is on the way. Bones: people look up to you Bridge: you are on the verge of a major decision Bubbles: A happy social life; the more bubbles mean the better the times. Camel: You have worries holding you back. Castle: You’re isolating yourself. Clouds: Your ideas could make you famous. Clover: You and your partner are surrounded by good fortune. Coins: Money is coming; More coins mean more money. Cow: You will meet an old friend or former lover. Dogs: Loyal friends surround you. Dress: You will succeed in your plans. Eyes: attraction and charm, especially good for actors and actresses Fire: passion or lust, great for lovers or a magical one-night stand Fish: Wisdom and blessings are swimming to you. Flowers: Happiness is coming. Hat: Someone is trying to cover information. Horseshoe: good luck on a long travel Kite: a restless soul with little direction Leaf: A whole leaf means good health; a torn leaf means poor health. Letters: the first letter of someone’s name who figures into the story Lightning: inspiration and wisdom Monster: You’re going to need to deal with something that scares you. Numbers: important numbers in your past, present, or future Oysters: sexy times Pyramid: success with your dreams, more than one pyramid means more than one dream Question mark: Kind of obvious; you have a question. Road: You are about to begin a journey or adventure. Rocks: misfortune blocking your path Snake: You will need to make an intense decision. Tornado: turbulence in life Trees: Strength and nobility is what people see in you. Umbrella: shelter from obstacles and safety from financial troubles Vegetables: fertility and prosperity Volcano: Unresolved family problems will explode.
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