Barnes & Noble, it’s something that Jeff Bezos has been doing for years. Would you rather have your kids hanging out at the mall or hanging out on the Internet? Zara is closed at 2 a.m. when kids are supposed to be asleep. The Internet isn’t.
At least when I emerge from between the golden arches, I’m just fat – not fat and broke. Plus, some fast food is delicious by any standards – In-N-Out Burger, Chick-fil-A, Whataburger. I fondly remember when that icon of suburban sprawl, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, first came north. It was in the 1980s, when I lived in New York and was dating a stylish young lady from New Orleans who was full of scorn for Yankee cooking. She claimed a decent meal could not be had north of the Mason-Dixon line. Every few weeks she’d have a dinner party, inviting guests for “a real southern treat.” But the stylish young lady could not cook. What she did was sneak down to the only Popeyes in the city, which was in a scary neighborhood on 42nd Street. She’d come home with her Vera Bradley bag full of spicy white and dark, biscuits, Cajun Fries, red beans and rice, and jambalaya. She’d stick them in silver serving dishes and everyone would rave.
FAST FOOD – IT’S FAST AND IT’S FOOD
Anyone who complains about American fast food is too young or too dumb to recall the greasy spoons that came before franchise restaurants. You’d be driving down the highway and everybody in the car was hungry, and you’d have to pull over to whatever was along the roadside with a big sign out front that said, “Eat and Get Gas.” And, depending on the circumstances, pricier sit-down restaurants aren’t necessarily what we want instead of McDonald’s. Now that legalized marijuana has become ubiquitous, we can be frank about this... Has anyone ever smoked a joint and had a “pâté foie gras attack?” Fast food may be contributing to America’s obesity problem. But take me to a Michelin 3-star French bistro, and I’m going to order things that are much more fattening than a Big Mac. Starting with that pate foie gras, and going straight to escargots in garlic butter sauce, roasted duck breast (1,500 calories and 25 grams of fat), asparagus hollandaise, potatoes au gratin, crème brûlée, and a big wedge of cheese washed down with two bottles of 1996 Chateau LaTour.
IT’S A FREE COUNTRY
And I like that. We Americans are supposed to be able to do what we want to do. And what we want to do is obvious. Fifty-two percent of us live in the suburbs. On any given day, 37% of us will eat fast food. And, as far as I can tell, 100% of us are stuck in a traffic jam in the Leverett Connector.
American Consequences
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