A witch's brew

I don't know what to think about the new Starbucks logo. I never really noticed the change, but there it was on this morning's tall cappuccino, boobs and all. Besides being under the spell of a beckoning cranberry orange scone for some reason, the image of the 16th century split-tail siren brought my mind to witchcraft.

Apparently I'm not the only one.

A Christian group out of San Diego has found grounds for outrage over the new logo for Starbucks Coffee.

The Resistance says the new image "has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute," Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. "Need I say more? It's extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks.

As far as I know, Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz hasn't appeared on Oprah to proclaim his devotion to the Church of Satan. But it does appear this bear-breasted siren was intended to cast the spell of seduction on its customers.

"Terry [Heckler] also poured over old marine books until he came up with a logo based on an old sixteenth-century Norse woodcut: a two-tailed mermaid, or siren, encircled by the store’s original name, Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice. That early siren, bare-breasted and Rubenesque, was supposed to be as seductive as coffee itself."

Seduced.