The Talking Coffee Cup

 I have a talking coffee cup.  No, that's a lie.  A clever headline, clickbait.  I have a coffee cup that squeaks and hisses.  It doesn't actually talk.  It just makes noises that if they were louder might remind me of the radiators in the house I lived in for the first couple decades of my life but they aren't louder so they don't, or maybe they did anyway now that I mention it. 

The cup came from WFMU, so it's probably appropriate that it makes odd noises. 

The noises are because it's supposed to be an insulated mug, like a Thermos or as the English call it a vacuum flask.  Except the seal between the two layers was breached and when the cup gets washed water gets in what should be the vacuum.  

Then when you put hot liquid in the cup the heat or the pressure or some combination thereof forces out the water and some of the air from the vacuum part.  It just squeaks and hisses and sounds like a hungry stomach all the time while you're trying to drink.  

It might be annoying if I had this cup at work or in a public place where stomach-growling noises coming from something other than a stomach would be embarrassing or annoying.  Good thing it's just working from home with me.  It's like a companion.  Sometimes the squeaks sound like vocalizations from the squirrels that live in our yard that I've been feeding during the winter.  That's good because it reminds me to check on them.  The winter was pretty mild right up to when my sister died at the end of January and it's been a rough one since then, though I don't think she has anything to do with it.  

I finished drinking my morning coffee out of the cup while I wrote this so it's quiet now.  In a little bit it'll change to a talking teacup because I only have one cup of coffee most days these days.