Where's the Beef?

I find it interesting that three words had such a big impact on 1980's America. What started as a Wendy's slogan quickly spread to bumper stickers, advertisement spin-offs, and was even used as a political debate retort when Walter Mondale said it to Gary Hart.

Even seasons three and four of the Simpsons have numerous references to this slogan.

So what is the infatuation?

Irate elderly ladies?

Tasty burgers?

Witty rhetoric?

We may never know.

Annotated Bibliography

I'm currently reading "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser. He spent two years researching fast food and its significance on American culture. He mentions such physical effects and being a direct cause of obesity, such mental effects as 96% of children are able to recognize Ronald McDonald (who, by the way, was first played by Willard Scott, the man that gives us such whimsical smiles with his Alzheimer ramblings and lackadaisical insanity), and economic effects such as McDonald's being the largest purchaser of beef, potatoes, and pork, on top of being the largest retail property owner in the world. Obviously this book is slanted and not going to talk about the Ronald McDonald House Charities or things of that nature because those are subjects constantly advertised and, for the most part, well known. Anyone curious in the subject should pick up this book and maybe think twice before turning down that local restaurant down the street in favor of a burger and some fries.

pIQuing Interest

Whenever I eat a lot of junk food I end up feeling depressed, can't think straight, and find myself getting annoyed easily.

According to Dr. Ryuta Kawashima "If you find yourself getting angry at the drop of a hat, it could be a sign of decreased brain function."

Food has the ability to affect mood and brain function. Logically, one could make the conclusion that fast-food could be a contributing factor in the decline of American (and other countries') intelligence.

But fast-food is not completely to blame. The ease of trading paper for cheap food is a choice. No one is forcing the food down our throats. We make the choice to put something damaging into our body.

But chemically unbalancing us is not the only contributing factor. Because we have the ability to buy premade food we loose the training it takes to make the food in the first place.

How many of us could make a loaf of bread from scratch using an open fire? Or how many of us know how to roll and make our own noodles?

A person that goes on a two-week vacation can drop their IQ by 20%. How much more are we losing by choosing to not know how to make something our ancestors could make? Years and years of food-preparation negligence is in no way helping us and only continues to hinder us.

Fine and Dandy Candy Cigarettes

Flavored cigarettes have recently been banned. The New York Times reported that in 2008 the tobacco industry had an estimated $96 billion in sales, yet flavored cigarettes make up about 1% of those sales. According to the Centers for Disease Control, since the Happy Meal starred on the McDonald's menu the childhood obesity rate has risen from 4.2%-17%.

The ethics and morals that govern and control our lives are being treated about as sacrosanct as a circus clown.

In the same way an overweight, Loony Tunes wearing 40-year-old Walmart greeter knows that french fries are unhealthy, so does anyone that picks up a cigarette.

Enough advertisements have shoved that down our throat.

Fast-food can cause obesity and heart problems, cigarettes can cause lung cancer, concerts can cause tinnitus or even make one go deaf, and if you fall on a pencil just right I'm sure it can pierce through your eyeball and into your prefrontal cortex.

Tobacco has been with (and economically founded) our country since the beginning. Taking away the right people have to chose what they would like to smoke is only going to lead to an increase in moral restrictions the government should not have a control over in the first place.

"The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. Try to make people moral and you lay the groundwork for vice." - Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching.

Intro

Welcome to the Kidney Stone Age, where popular culture is analyzed through fast-food and vice versa.


Please ignore him.

He is the first person to ever have been thrown out of a Sizzler for "suspicion of mischief" (trading children for Jell-O cups)and legally changed his name to E in a radical stupor of eccentricity.

He also likes Englebert Humperdinck.