Thanking Everybody Behind One Cup of Coffee

Writer A.J. Jacobs decided to thank every person who had a hand in his morning cup of coffee. He started with the barista and kept going: the people who roasted it, the truckers who hauled it, the farmers who grew it, even the folks who made the cup and the lid. The list kept growing until he had thanked about a thousand people, which became his book ‘Thanks a Thousand.’ He found out that one simple cup of coffee depends on a huge web of people we never see.

The Janitor Who Left Millions

Ronald Read pumped gas and worked as a janitor in Brattleboro, Vermont. He wore old flannel shirts, drove a used car, and gathered fallen branches for his wood stove. Once at the local coffee shop, somebody even paid for his breakfast because they figured he couldn’t afford it. When he died in 2014, his town found out he had quietly built a fortune of about $8 million through careful investing. He left $1.2 million to the local library and $4.8 million to the hospital, the biggest gifts either had ever received.

Washington Hands Back the Power

When the Revolutionary War was over, George Washington could have held on to command of the army, and plenty of people expected him to. Instead, on December 23, 1783, he stood before Congress in Annapolis and resigned his commission. People there said his voice faltered and there were plenty of tears in the room. He handed over his commission and rode home to Mount Vernon in time for Christmas. King George III reportedly said that if Washington did that, he would be the greatest man in the world.