interpreting the lid on my coffee cup

most mornings, i get coffee (and occassionally a bagel) from reuben, who mans a cart on the southeast corner of broome + broadway. reuben and i have a lot in common: we both like to shout "next", we both love efficiency in food service, we're both often misunderstood by regulatory agencies (he's had trouble renewing his vendor's license), and we both spend a good portion of our days in a small space, surrounded by bacon. lately, i've been limiting myself to one bagel per week (thanks to moses for leading us out of egypt, and incidentally helping me in this restriction), but i still enjoy a medium coffee on most days.

maybe reuben got new lids lately, or maybe i never looked. but when i went to take a sip the other day, i noticed that there was a lot of information on my coffee lid. i mean, a LOT.

here's a description (picture to follow): with the drink area at 6:00, the crest that stretches from 9:00 to 3:00 reads "place drink area opposite cup seam." dead center, it reads "caution hot", with "dopaco®" in a logo just above. underneath these two phrases, and just above the drink area, the cup reads "lock here." to the left of that, "dtbl", "10S", and "12-20", each on its own line. to the right of the drink area, there is a "6" in the center of a recycling triangle icon, with "ps" faintly below it. below that, and slightly to the right, is "68."

if in fireworks lie secret codes, on coffee cups rest cryptic characters. the "caution hot" i understand, missing colon notwithstanding. the "place drink area opposite cup seam" reuben does not; on this day and the next, my "drink area" was right over the seam. the recycling icon makes sense, but "6"? that must mean to hell with it, dump this in a landfill. the "lock here" is for people who take their "drink area[s]" a bit too seriously for my tastes, and "dopaco" represents the cryptographers who put this all together. that leaves the numbers and letters surrounding the drink area. "dtbl" is a mystery to me, but i assume that "10S" and "12-20" refer to ounces. perhaps "68" is the individual number on my cup (i'll check tomorrow!).

as for the "ps", well, i'll write about that later, as is fitting for a ps.

anyway, that is all. you may go.