After four years in St. Louis, I have maintained my coffee addiction by exploring a variety of cafes. There are the classics: all of the Kaldi’s Coffee locations, Meshuggah Cafe on the Delmar Loop, and even our very own campus spots like Cafe Bergson and Whispers Cafe and Collins Farms at Law Cafe.

Maybe you fear the silence of the A-stacks. Or perhaps you want to eat a delicious chocolate-chip scone without worrying about your noisy chewing or that crackling noise of the paper bag. Maybe you just want to do some people-watching while attempting to read a chapter from your psychology textbook. Whatever the situation, you find yourself in Whispers Cafe.

While sitting in a lively restaurant and staring at a beautiful landscape painting, I asked my friend, “Is that the Grand Canyon?” She looked at me like I was an idiot. Oh wait, stupid question. I was sitting at Canyon Cafe.

Narrow margins. Partisan biases. Dubious counting methods. This is not the 2000 election—it’s the Washington University cookie contest, held in anticipation of the vice presidential debate.