Mocha Dick

Mocha Dick is not something you might get from a barista at Starbucks, but there is a connection: Mocha Dick was an eighty-foot sperm whale which, in the early 19th century, was said to have up-ended twenty-seven crafts in the Pacific and sent thirty men to Davy Jones's Locker.  Herman Melville was led by the account to write "Moby-Dick," published on this date in 1851.  And Starbuck, of course, was first mate to Captain Ahab on the Pequod.  

Starbucks' founders, "Moby-Dick" buffs, wanted a name out of Melville's novel for their coffee shop venture.  One that narrowly missed being chosen:  Queequeg, name of the elaborately tattooed cannibal harpooner.  How does this sound:  "Let's go down to Queequeg's and get a latte."  

John Huston's 1956 film of "Moby-Dick" may not be all that Melville readers would wish, but one memorable scene is Father Mapple's sermon on Jonah and the whale, delivered magnificently from the prow-shaped pulpit of Nantucket's Whaleman's Chapel by Orson Welles, fiery as an ancient Hebrew prophet.  

Footnote:  Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplayfor "Moby-Dick."  When he had completed it, Huston called him and said, "That's pretty good, Ray, but it needs a love interest."  The director let Bradbury fret about this for two days before telling him he was kidding.