Posted on 02/17/2017 10:24:03 AM PST by Windcatcher
McDonalds is known for its Big Mac, Happy Meals, and creepy clown mascot, but not for trying to be innovative with technology. Yet, the fast food chain restaurant teamed up with aerospace and robotic engineering firms to reinvent the straw and make it easier to drink its Chocolate Shamrock shakes.
(Excerpt) Read more at vocativ.com ...
McD's had to stop using these because they were used as spoons for snorting blow.
“STRAW, which stands for Suction Tube for Reversal Axial Withdrawal”
If there is a Phd in acronymology, then whoever came up with this has one.
McDonalds could come back a lot, if they’d just put the tallow back in the fries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF31qCrclC0
Seriously? Must have been some cheap coke, because, I’m guessing, one could pull a Len Bias with that spoon full of the good stuff.
In the late 1970s, it became apparent the small plastic coffee spoons at McDonalds restaurants were being used by some immersed in the drug culture for other than their intended purpose of stirring hot beverages. These plastic implements had become a popular item of drug paraphernalia, a sort of Everymans coke spoon, and were being used to measure and snort powdered cocaine as well as PCP.
The practice of using these implements in such fashion became so widespread that at least in some cities, a dose of cocaine was dubbed a McSpoon because it came packaged in
the tiny coffee stirrers from McDonalds restaurants. In 1992 an undercover detective in Columbus, Ohio, said McSpoons were commonly sold ten to a bundle in that town and twelve to a bundle in Detroit.
No, it's just a cute spoof video satirizing the Apple style. Well done, too.
There’s a hole in the bottom, dear Liza, dear Liza,
there’s a hole in the bottom, dear Liza, a hole.
I just made a facsimile straw.
1) Take a straw with a flexible neck and turn it upside down (I have lots around for the grandkids).
2) In several places on the short end of the “J”, bend it sideways and cut a small corner with a scissors.
3) Then bend the flexible neck, and cut a small slice with a scissors.
4) You can finish up with a drop of hot glue from a hot-glue gun to keep the “J” short piece vertical with the long section.
Making a syringe out of a lightbulb, however...
But did you package it in a box with the Golden Arches logo?
I improved my facsimile straw.
Make two of them, even better make two in different colors. (I have a box of differently colored flexible neck straws).
Pair them together with the small “J” sections paired to the opposing long section, and glue a couple drops of hot-melt glue via glue gun. Now you have double suction power!
You can create even wilder straw shapes by waving a small butane torch nearby to bend the straws into crazy shapes.
I’m always looking for ways to keep my grandkids entertained while encouraging engineering skills in them. Sometimes they surprise me with toys they design. I’m careful to keep the dangerous tools away and in my hands only to help them (last week my 4-yr-old granddaughter wanted to use my bandsaw, I said no!).
Much easier with eye droppers (can get a package of them at the dollar store). Use a needle-nose pliers to pull on the narrow end within the flame from a butane lighter. No, I don't use the syringes for drugs; I use them for joining plastic parts with liquid plexiglass cement.
Now all you need is some heat-shrink tubing join the straws.
lol
They’ve done limited time or limited area gimmicks before. McRib comes to mind.
Cocaine is probably healthier than a McRib, though.
“McDonalds could come back a lot, if theyd just put the tallow back in the fries:”
Yeah, and go back to cooking the meat on site, as well.
Maybe they're used as an occasional draw now, to remind people that generally overlook McD's to bring them back in, but I'd bet McD's got a great deal on pork one year to make it worthwhile to produce.
The real gimmick this year was Burger King's limited Valentine's Day "adult" meal, IMHO.
That would be a great marketing case for business schools - to what demo are they appealing???
I don’t know what happened to the fish sandwich - it used to be very good, but now it usually seems thawed and microwaved...
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