Now a McRib I could understand...

I will start tonight with a Battling the Current Public Service Announcement. I would like to remind everyone in the United States (including those residents of Indiana who have finally decided to embrace the rest of society) that we are to spring forward this weekend and turn our clocks ahead one hour. Yes, despite the fact that there is still snow on the ground and I am still wearing a heavy winter coat every day we have officially declared it spring in order to get people to either a) use less electricity or b) do more shopping. The government will tell you that the reason is A but in reality it is B. The entire reason behind daily savings time is that it makes it easier to have evening barbecues.

Though do I have to lose an hour of sleep this weekend? I’m so sleep deprived at the moment it is not even funny. All I want to do is lie down and sleep for the next twenty hours except that now it will be nineteen hours because the man has an issue with the ways the clock works. And you know this extra hour of sunlight is just going to increase global warming.

Ok, I’m going to switch gears and talk about our constitutional right as Americans to have McNuggets. Or more accurately, I will discuss the woman who called 911 three (3) times to complain about the fact that they were a) out of McNuggets and b) they wouldn’t give her her money back. Let’s examine this in detail, shall we?

First of all, how the hell does a McDonald’s run out of McNuggets? We’re talking about an item that takes up little storage space and can be stored indefinitely. It’s not like they are making fresh batches of them in the back every day. There is probably a McNugget closet somewhere that contains numerous boxes of the chicken like items and the staff was just too lazy to go back there and get the next box.

Also, the “all sales are final” rule seems to be bizarre even for a fast food restaurant. Times are tough but I can’t imagine a franchise needing to hold onto the four dollars of revenue that they made from the purchase. If times are that tight why can’t they do what every other restaurant does: Add more ice to the soft drinks and cut back on how many fries you put in the bag.

But as much as the employees are in the wrong here (and given the crappy economy I would expect a better level of McDonald’s employee at the moment) we do have to face the fact that a woman called 911 three times to complain about her order of McNuggets. That can be worth one call at most. We’re not talking about a Shamrock Shake here. We’re talking McNuggets. They can barely be described as food. I’m not sure how a four dollar food item can be considered an emergency. Or that she felt the need to call repeatedly and is surprised by the fact that this resulted in her both being arrested and becoming a minor celebrity.

The interesting fact is that this is not that unusual of a story. These stories cross the news wires at pretty regular intervals and it tells you something about our society. We immediately seek retribution from a third party. We can’t solve our own problems, we must always ask for help from someone else who should know what to do. We feel as though the universe owes us so that even a few dollar dispute at a restaurant becomes a capital issue. If we don’t get what we want we will go to war because it is our right to get everything we want. I just don’t think that is a healthy attitude for a society. At some point we must take some responsibility and be at least a little bit zen about the fact that not everything goes as planned. Especially not a food order.