Iced Coffee

Meg Enns distinctly remembers the summer morning a year ago when she went to buy produce and noticed a "for rent" sign on the old stone filling station at the intersection of Falls and Shawan roads. She immediately pictured a coffee shop at this busy junction. "But I said to myself, `Don't do it. Don't do it. Get it out of your mind,' " says Enns. For a few days she didn't say a word to anyone about what she envisioned. A Florida native, she had been in Maryland only six months and had just been laid off from her job at an Internet company.

It used to be that people just drank coffee. Then came the upscale designer models - espressos, cappuccinos and lattes. And now, seemingly every coffee shop is selling cool, creamy blends of coffee, sugar, milk and ice - a kind of super-caffeinated milkshake - or "frozen blended coffee beverages," as they're known in the trade. Starbucks has the Frappuccino, Dunkin' Donuts has the Coolatta, Panera Bread has the I.C. Mocha and XandO has the Arctic Chiller. This summer, Dairy Queen and Krispy Kreme entered the fray with their own versions.

"100 Greatest Baby Boomer Toys" by Mark Rich (Krause Publications, 208 pages, $24.95) This is one of those ridiculously commercial words-and-picture books that strikes one as obvious and useless -- until, like popcorn, it takes hold of you. It's abrim with charming or provocative or appalling photos and reproductions of the toys of the now-aging boomer generation: Mr. Potato Head, Howdy Doody, Davy Crockett's Coonskin Cap, Tinkertoys (an "honorary" boomer...

Item: General Foods Cappuccino Coolers What you get: 6 one-serving packets Cost: About $2.25 Preparation time: Stir and serve Review: Last summer, on forays into coffee bars, I became addicted to flavored iced coffee. When I saw General Foods' mixes for "Sweetened Instant Iced Cappuccino," I wondered if one could duplicate the same great taste at home. With friends, I tried the French Vanilla and Chocolate flavors. I thought the French Vanilla was dead-on, with the right mix of coffee and milk, as did a few others.

Most months it seems unnatural to drink my coffee cold. Coffee is supposed to be "hot as fire." But as the summer wears on and the weather gets steamy, I find it easier to drop my inhibitions and plunk a few ice cubes in my coffee.I tend to take the basic approach to iced coffee. I deposit a few ice cubes in a tall glass. Then I fill the glass three-quarters full of coffee. I listen to the ice crack, for no particular reason. Then I top the glass with liquid whipping cream. Not milk. Not half-and-half, but pure whipping cream.

Get ready to feel old. Thairish turned 21 on Nov. 2. Owner and chef Kerrigan Kitikul is still behind the counter at this cheerful and sunny walk-up in Mount Vernon's Park Plaza building. Thairish survived the December 2010 fire that gutted the Park Plaza, and it's outlasted a dozen or so other neighborhood restaurants that have come and gone over the past two decades. Hanging on the walls are reviews of and articles about Thairish from the early 1990s, when Thai food wasn't quite as omnipresent in Baltimore is it is now. A few of the framed clippings explain that the restaurant's name, Thairish, is a combination of Thai and Irish - Kitikul's wife is Irish, and the chef/owner is an admirer of Irish culture.

Indulging in a coffee fantasy sounds marvelous, but you might not be ready to invest in an espresso maker, steamer and coffee grinder.Instant and ready-made products simulate the new coffee drinks without the appliance headaches.New choices include General Foods' Cappio, a bottled iced cappuccino containing coffee, milk and sweetener. It comes in four-packs of individual servings or in 24-ounce bottles. Maxwell House offers Instant Cappuccino, a powdered coffee that produces a frothy top when hot water is added.

Just can't get away from the office for lunch? At least try to watch what you eat. The sandwich better be on multi-grain bread, and you'll want some low-fat dressing -- hold the cheese and croutons -- to keep the salad healthful. That, in a nutshell, is the advice from most nutritionists on desktop dining. Vending machines and candy bowls are out, "taking ownership" of your food choices is in, according to Caitlyn Lorenze, 24, a registered dietitian and president of wholesomebody, a nutrition counseling group in Washington.

Rewarming patients after surgery Most patients undergoing cardiac bypass surgery are placed on heart-lung machines that cool their blood to reduce their bodies' oxygen needs. Now researchers have found that taking an extra 10 to 15 minutes to slowly rewarm patients at the end of their surgery reduces brain overheating, lowering the risk of brain damage and memory loss. Researchers from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., showed several years ago that patients given an extra 10 to 12 minutes to bring their body temperatures back up scored nearly one-third better on standard cognition tests six weeks after surgery.

There's not much on TV tonight, but the two things that shouldn't be missed -- Fox's "The X-Files" and CBS' "Picket Fences" -- are on back-to-back, even though their backs are on different networks.* "Bugsy" (8 p.m.-11 p.m., Channel 2) -- You know what really "Bugsy" me? The fact that this movie pre-empts "Homicide: Life on the Street" which is superb. Then again, this 1991 movie is directed by Barry Levinson, who's also one of the creative forces behind "Homicide," so who am I to complain?