I go for shape more than anything. My mug is blue glass - an elegant, modified globe. Coffee looks perfect in blue glass. I avoid plain cylindrical mugs*.
*I would make an exception for a cool Straight Dope one though:)
[deleted: a long, boring story about how celestina inherited several mugs from various folks and places and what she does with those mugs at any given time]
My ideal coffee mug would be the one from Gary Larson’s The Far Side collection. I just regret that I never did buy this mug when I saw it in the store, and now I can’t find it anywhere. 
Anyway, it’s the one that says: “That settles it, Carl! From now on you’re only getting decaffeinated coffee!” And the picture on it shows Carl holding a smoking shotgun and the two guests he just shot with their feet up in the air, while Carl’s wife looks on in disgust at the mess he’s just made in her living room. I just think it’d be a riot to have that coffee mug at work, displayed prominently on my desk, or full of coffee and in my hand, for all the folks what cut up and have to come see me to get some disciplinin’ to see. 
[innocent eyes]
What?
At home: A personalized mug my wife gave me, with a computer and my name, for coffee from the pot. An old white mug with the design now completely rubbed off, for instant and for reheating coffee; I don’t mind putting it in the microwave or throwing it in the dishwasher.
At work: An oversize mug with the Hogwarts coat of arms. Not only can I fill it and pretend I’m only drinking two cups a day, but I leave it sitting on my desk with the coat of arms showing to see who notices it.
I used to use a Far Side mug showing a bunch of scientist types running out of their lab/office to catch the ice cream man.
“A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.” --Paul Erdos
The majority of my coffee mugs are ceramic with paintings of coffee on them. They are all huge (hold about 16-20 oz. of beverage) and all different colors.
I also have handcrafted mugs with little cutouts on the side. I made a set of those in a pottery class and none of the set of 8 leaked. Woohoo.
My favorite cups are glass with a painting of the world on the outside. However, they are only 8 oz. cups, and far to small to get a coffee fix out of.
I have cups that double as bowls as well…the ones with the soup recipes on them. Those rock for cereal or soups. Or drinkies, if the other cups are dirty.
I have several coffee mugs. All bearing the calligraphic inscription of local coffee house, the Ojai Coffee Roasting Company. I keep one in my car, one on my bicycle (it fits perfectly into my water-bottle cage) and one in my room in case I misplace one of the other two mugs.
I have five new coffee mugs!!! Okay, four of them are matching ones: plain white with the “Cutter & Buck” logo that I scored for fifty cents each (normally something like $10 each!) at their “retail store closing sale” [not to mention the 8 polo shirts I got at 75% off - whooeee, was THAT bargain day!!!].
My new favorite is one covered in Shakespearian Insults, in all sorts of different typefaces. It’s a bit smaller than a normal coffee mug, but what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in vitriol:
“long-tongu’d babbling gossip”
“not so much brain as ear-wax”
“All the inections that the sun sucks up”
“the soul of this man is his clothes”
“elvish-mark’d, abortive rooting hog”
“Foot-licker!”
“lewdly inclin’d”
and my favorite:
“idol of idiot-worshippers”
Heh. Wish I had an office where I could use that one.
Forewarning, this IS on topic. It’s a story about how I got my mug.
Of the last 3 years, the first two I was becoming an AutoCAD (it’s a Computer Aided Design computer program) expert. The last year I got a job using ArchiCAD, a competitor to AutoCAD. I complained and complained to the usergroup about how much ArchiCAD sucks. Everybody thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. They just said I was bitching 'cause it’s not AutoCAD. Then one month the company that makes ArchiCAD named me as their tip of the month winner and they sent me a free mug. That’s the one I use at work. I want every one in the office to know that I know ArchiCAD enough to say that it sucks. And they should listen to me cause the company that makes ArchiCAD agrees with me. They sent me a mug to prove it.
Typical of the company, the mug they sent me is a teeny 6 oz mug. 
I have a coffee mug that is very significant, because it was given to me by my late grandmother.
You see, my grandmother used to get gifts very far in advance. Sometime when I was in my teens she got a mug that said “I’m 21…card me!” and planned on giving to me for my 12st birthday. Unfortunately she did not live to see me turn 21
When my grandfather and uncle were going through her posessions, they found the mug and gave it to me on my 21st birthday. It means a lot to me that my grandmother would give me a gift I could remember her by long after she passed away :sniff:
My mug is smallish, but has massive sentimental value. I spent a summer studying in Moscow a few years ago at Mendeleev University. The mug is off-white with navy blue flowers (Russian folk-art style), and has large cyrillic lettering proudly proclaiming my temporary alma mater. It is definitely a conversation-starter at work… “What language is that?”
arachnidlove, I have the same Maleficent mug - it is fabulous!
Now I have a definite need to find a new coffee mug. Who wants to go ebayingwith me?!
It’s so cool to have people who understand.
Mine is an 11 oz. ceramic with Marvin the Martain (my fave Warner Bros. 2nd string character) looking very angry.
I have a few special mugs, but my favorite, by far, is my Santa mug. It has a rather ugly scene of an equally ugly, cartoonish Santa- complete with reindeer and bag of toys. I don’t know why I love it so, but it’s my favorite, none the less.
My other favorite is a very tall one depicting a scene from the French Quarter in New Orleans. It holds enormous amounts of cafe au lait. I got it on our honeymoon last November. I will not let d_redguy use it. I am selfish with my mugs. I DO let him use my Santa mug sometimes though, when he is feeling a bit down.
For travel, I have a few different mugs. There is the metal & purple plastic one from Target. I like it because the coffee stays hot and it doesn’t leak. Lately I’ve been using one of two white, plastic Cafe Du Monde travel mugs, complete with green lid and a picture of it’s namesake. We picked these up on our honeymoon, too. We REALLY loved that cafe.
I favor a large eggshell colored mug with a decal of the Rail 99 Fair that was held in Sacramento, CA. The decal is in the style of those orange crate labels and pictures a couple in dress of the 1910’s-1920’s with a mission in the background and an old steam train going past. The script says “California Calls You”
Unfortunately, the decal is coming off because of the dishwasher, so it has to be washed by hand.
It is really beatiful, and reminds me of many things.
I have a mug with “Straight Dope Staff” on one side and a Slug drawing on the other.
Wow. YOU got a 'STAFF" mug too? I thought mine was just a bureaucratic mix-up.
At home whichever cup I grab.
At work the coffee club found it was cheaper to buy hundreds of coffee cups than to supply disposable ones. They bought plain white mugs just like you’d get in a diner in a film noir thriller.
So how do you know which one is YOURS, verses EVERYONE ELSES’? Magic marker?
Being an Autocad “expert” ( ahem, prisoner6655321) and needing loads of cafine to stay awake when all my drawings are done, I used to use one of those weird 60’s style plastic coffee cup bases with the replaceable plastic cone shaped, snap in liner. The only problem is the coffee gets cold fast. Now i find myself using a small stainless steel thermos with our company’s logo on it. The coffee stays hot but the tiny cup that forms the top is waaaay too small. So I refill the little cup about a million times a day. It is also very satisfying when someone stops by my desk and i get to pour the tiny cup full of coffee and slam it down like a shot of tequilla, banging it down on the desk like im in an old saloon. Now I’m starting to get compulsive about the thermos a bit, I take it everywhere i go.
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I have two Wonder Woman Cups, one at home and one at work. And another one to be added soon.
My coffee cup is a travel mug that I drink tea in mostly but even if I am at home I still use this. A long time ago Eddie Bauer had these cups on sale that had a wide base and this rubbery stuff on the bottom so it wouldnt skid with a rupper mouthpiece then a plastic lid so it wouldnt spill. Well I didnt buy it and could not find another one similar to it. Fast forward a few years and in the Luxor giftstore I see the same cup. So I bought it this time, its black with a luxor las vegas label on it that is wearing out.
The skid proof bottom actually works… I left my cup on the roof of my car by accident and found it when I got home a few miles away on the roof… but i didnt do any highway driving.