<<Besides, nothing beats getting to work early, having a cup of coffee and going over the paper>>
Amen to that. One of life's little pleasures.
I worked in Toronto's old city hall a million years ago. Beautiful old structure with polished oak floors, massive broad marble floating staircases, high ceilings, sunlit wood-paneled offices, accessed in the front by climbing a huge flight of outside stairs and on the side at street level by a little door leading into what was like a basement only at ground-level, with a newsstand-coffee counter just inside, run by the CNIB, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
The guys at work used to arrive at about 8:30, get their coffee and Globe & Mail (Toronto's "business" daily) at the newsstand and then sit around the office reading the paper, drinking coffee and munching doughnuts till the start of the working day at 9:00 AM.
One day some genius decided that the work day would start at 8:30 AM and end at 4:30. The results were basically that all the older guys would come in with their coffees, Globes and doughnuts at 8:30, just as before, sit around reading, drinking and munching till 9:00 AM just as before, and then get to work. The only difference now was they left at 4:30 instead of 5:00. I was the new guy in the office and was severely reprimanded for starting work at 8:30 as required. I got the message. That was a precious half-hour, and appreciated by all as such.