McDonald's

I was reading CNN earlier today and saw this headline “McDonald's warned: Drop the toys or get sued.” Curious, I read the article. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is the group behind the lawsuit. My first reaction was, “Who the bleep are these guys and why are they trying to ruin something fun?” What’s the harm of a toy in a Happy Meal? The toys are what make a Happy Meal happy.

Then I thought about it. We rarely go to McDonald’s. Why? The food is not healthy. And we certainly don’t need another plastic, cheap toy around the house. The landfills certainly do not need another broken plastic toy.

Julie and I went to McDonald’s on the last day of school. I told I would take her out for lunch and asked her where she wanted to go. She wanted McDonald’s “because we haven’t been there in a long time.” I explained that it would be crowded and gave her several other, healthier alternatives, but no, she really wanted to go. So we went and we beat the crowd of all the other parents and kids who had the same idea. She got a Puss In Boots digital clock as a toy and she has been driving me crazy ever since with announcing what time it is every 5 minutes. At least it is a somewhat practical toy.

What did she have to eat? McNuggets, French fries, chocolate milk (total of 580 calories). Not the best nutritional lunch, to say the least.

I went to CSPI’s website and I read the letter of intent to sue that was sent to McDonald’s. It was very eye-opening. Here is an excerpt: “Considering that a reasonable lunch for a young child would contain no more than 430 calories (one third of the 1,300 calories that is the recommended daily intake for children 4 to 8 years old), not a single Happy Meal meets that target. The average of all 24 meals is 26 percent higher in calories than a reasonable lunch.”

They went on to say: “McDonald’s practices are predatory and wrong. They are also illegal, because marketing to kids under eight is (1) inherently deceptive, because young kids are not developmentally advanced enough to understand the persuasive intent of marketing;8 and (2) unfair to parents, because marketing to children undermines parental authority and interferes with their ability to raise healthy children.”

Will CSPI be successful in their lawsuit? I don’t know. I do know that we need to do better by our children. We need to help them to make the most of this land of opportunity. We don’t need cheap plastic toys filling our land and oceans. We don’t need high calorie, low-nutritional food expanding our waists.

Will I take Julie to McDonald’s ever again? Probably. But what was once a rare occurrence will become even rarer. And when she asks “why can’t we go to McDonald’s”, I’ll let her know where I stand. The food is bad for us. The toys are junky and bad for the environment.






8 Institute of Medicine, Food Marketing to Children: Threat or Opportunity? (2006); Kunkel et al.,
Psychological Issues in the Increasing Commercialization of Childhood: Report of the APA Task Force on Advertising and Children (2004).

American?

I was speaking with a very lovely lady that I know. She had been on the phone with a customer services representative from a large well-known corporation. She commented that she could tell the person wasn’t American.

I didn’t want to start an argument, so I let her comment go. But, I was curious. How did she know the person wasn’t American? A thick accent? Poor English?

I have some very good friends who were born in another country. They came here legally and they have accents, but they are now American citizens. I have 2 co-workers who were also born in other countries. Both came legally to this country. Both have accents. Both are also now American citizens.

You can’t tell by voice alone who is American and who isn’t.

This country was built by immigrants. Many didn’t speak English when they first came.

I have ancestry from many countries. People who came from Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, England, etc. All seeking a better life.

One of our beloved Founding Fathers had some rather nasty things to say about the influx of those different from him. To quote Benjamin Franklin, “Those who come hither are generally of the most ignorant Stupid Sort of their own Nation…and as few of the English understand the German Language, and so cannot address them either from the Press or Pulpit, ’tis almost impossible to remove any prejudices they once entertain…Not being used to Liberty, they know not how to make a modest use of it…I remember when they modestly declined intermeddling in our Elections, but now they come in droves, and carry all before them, except in one or two Counties...In short unless the stream of their importation could be turned from this to other colonies, as you very judiciously propose, they will soon so out number us, that all the advantages we have will not in My Opinion be able to preserve our language, and even our Government will become precarious.”

To further quote Franklin, “Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.”

There are many things wrong with his statements, not the least of which is that Pennsylvania was already settled by the Erie Tribe, the Seneca and Oneida tribes of the Iroquois Nation, the Lenape Tribe, the Munsee Tribe, the Shawnee tribe and the Susquehannock tribe.

But I’ll address Mr. Franklin’s concerns about language with a little quiz. How many of the following words are English and how many are German?

Alzheimer's disease
Angst
Aspirin
Automat
Blitz
Bratwurst
Cobalt
Concertmaster
Dachshund
Deli
Delicatessen
Diesel
Doberman pinscher
Doppelganger
Doppler effect/Doppler radar
Edelweiss
Fahrenheit
Fahrvergnügen
Fest
Flak/flack
Frankfurter
Führer
Gauss
Geiger counter
Gestalt
Gesundheit
Glitz/Glitzy
Glockenspiel
Hamburger
Hamster
Hertz(Hz)/Gigahertz/Megahertz
Hinterland(s)
Kaput
Kindergarten
Kitsch/Kitschy
Knockwurst
Kris Kringle
Lager
Lederhosen
Levi's®
Liverwurst
Neanderthal
Nickel
Poltergeist
Quartz
Reich
Rottweiler
Rucksack
Sauerkraut
Schnapps
Schnauzer
Schnitzel
Spitz
Strudel
Uber
Umlaut
Verboten
Waltz
Wanderlust
Wiener
Zeppelin
Zinc



Ready for the answer?








Did you really think about it?








All of them are German.

Next time you get mad that you have to press 1 for English, remember every time you say “I wish I had a nickel” – you are speaking German.

Yeah, we Germanized the English language. I think we made the country better for it.

Auf wiedersehen!