Voltaire drank 50 cups of coffee a day, according to H.W. Brands in his impressive biography The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (p.564) and Voltaire lived to be 84.
That makes him my HERO, since I drink ten to fifteen cups of black coffee a day and have for forty years.
I stumbled on this bit of anecdotia the week after a health study concluded that a "minimum of six cups" of coffee a day reduces the risk of prostate cancer.
Now the World Health Organization June 2 press release adding cell phones to its list of suspected carcinogens, suddenly seems watered-down since it also includes the very item six daily cups of which is supposed to REDUCE the risk of cancer: Java.
Balzac died of caffeine overdose and he only drank 40 cups of coffee a day. Maybe they were mugs.
And then there's the case of the 103-year old San Francisco waiter who, still working, attributed his longevity to drinking two pots of coffee a day (also prescription William F. Buckley, Jr. followed) : Johnny Carson interviewed the centenarian-plus-three waiter on his television talk-show Tonight, but the interview never aired: The waiter died on-stage while answering a question.
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