Did Somebody Say McSensitive?

McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo is peeved at Merriam-Webster because its new Collegiate Dictionary defines "McJob" as "low-paying and dead-end work." I suppose this is the corporate counterpart to those people so PC that they object to the term "Dutch treat."

Comments

[Douglas Fletcher]

Yeah, I'm peeved too. I thought that definition was reserved for 'temp job.'

[Anonymous]

"Low paying and dead-end work"

I thought that was journalism

[Jeff]

This entire issue is a reflection of the false idea that all jobs are or should be careers.

They aren't and can't.

Fries with that?

[joe]

'McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo is peeved at Merriam-Webster because its new Collegiate Dictionary defines "McJob" as "low-paying and dead-end work." '

They pay a decend wage, asshole. You think the perception came out of nowhere?

[Anonymous]

Easy there, Mr. Huberty...

[Damn the Man!!!!]

Typical corporate slime! He is just scared because he knows he is keeping burger flippers down. Anyone at Micky-Ds could be a CEO if it wasn't for coporate slime like him.

[matt]

McJob? Musta been popular in canada or up north. Never heard of it before down south.

[BlameBush]

It's not low-paying, dead end work. Just look at Cantalupo...he worked his way up from a lowly "would you like fries with that" dude, to the head of the entire multi-national corporation. Of course, his head is now one giant zit, but that's what 38 years of standing in front of the deep fryer will do.

[Madog]

I heard it when I lived in Florida. I've heard it used most by teenagers/twenty-somethings. Though I've heard it used to mean any sort of cookie-cutter, identical jobs.

[Jesse Walker]

It's not low-paying, dead end work.

Doesn't matter. That's what the word means, and you aren't going to change it by writing open letters to dictionary publishers. Dutch people aren't all a bunch of misers either, but most of them seem to have resigned themselves to the fact that the phrase "Dutch treat" is part of the language.

[Brad S]

"I used to be on clean-up duty, too. Then, I moved up to washing lettuce. Now, I'm on fries. A couple more years, I may even make assistant manager. And that's when the big bucks REALLY start rolling in!"

[anne]

Next thing you know, they won't want us to call fat children McKids.

[Jim Cantalupo]

Does matter. Dictionaries don't "own" a word; and people (yes even evil corporate officers) can attempt and succeed at changing meanings.

I am sure if Merriam-Webster defined "Jesse Walker" as "sub-par pretentious writer" you would try to change the situation. Not saying he should sue or anything, but I can see where he is coming from.

[Jesse Walker]

If "Jesse Walker" becomes widely used slang for "sub-par pretentious writer," I won't like it, but I hopefully won't be so subpar and pretentious that I protest if a dictionary acknowledges the fact. It's not like Merriam-Webster invented the "McJobs" designation.

[Why is the McMan keeping me do]

Just a week and a half into November and I already spent my McWelfare check! Who can afford to live on such shit wage?

[Jason Ligon]

I think he's too late in his campaign:

http://www.despair.com/potential.html

[R. C. Dean]

I suppose this is the corporate counterpart to those people so PC that they object to the term "Dutch treat."

Yeah, but what do those people think of the term "blackball" (used as a synonym for veto, as in "Cantalupo blackballed my promotion to head burgerflipper, the bastard.")

[joe]

"Just a week and a half into November and I already spent my McWelfare check! Who can afford to live on such shit wage?"

Wow. We're talking about poor people who are working for their paycheck, and this ass immediately starts with welfare bum jokes.

[Mark Fox]

To me the "Mc-" prefix indicates uninspiring monotony, eg. suburbs full of McMansions. I imagine Cantalupo would not like my version either.

[matt]

Most people I see working at fast food places aren't necessarily "poor people" but teenagers of middle class families earing extra spending money.

[twistedmerkin]

I thought a dutch treat was a hooker with a bag of coke.

[Anonymous]

What's a french letter?

[Warren]

Mark,
You're right. The 'Mc' prefix can be, and is, used to modify just about any noun. Ol' Jimbo might be even more miffed to know his company is the embodiment of everything repetitious and unimaginative. But he shouldn't be, repetition and limited options, were the keys to McDonald's assent to global dominance. After all you can't be the quintessential example of ubiquitousness unless 'everybody knows your name'.

[Brad S]

Isn't USA Today known as "McPaper"?

[dragoon]

Of course, far more people are going to hear about the McJob term now that he's made a stink about it. I guess McDonald's taking legal advice from Fox and O'Reilly nowadays.

[dan truly]

man, i can't believe no one's yet protested against the term 'dutch oven.'

[Anonymous]

From the Washington Post:

ARCHDALE, N.C.--Four in the morning at Hardee's: "I'm wide awake and ready to go," says 58-year-old Patsy Sechrest.

She is in the back of the Hardee's on Main Street, digesting a breakfast of Benicar, Demadex, hydrocodone and Premarin, washed down with a little milk. Ninety minutes before the restaurant's opening, the pills are doing their work. Her back doesn't hurt. Her feet aren't swollen. Her allergies are under control, her blood pressure is steady, and her heart is beating smoothly under a work shirt that covers her chest scars and, for the moment, still smells of detergent.

The working life: This is the life of Patsy Sechrest, wife of 38 years, mother of two grown children and consumer of 10 prescriptions a day, who once thought she'd be retired by now, or at least counting down the days. But in the current economy, more and more older women are living life like Sechrest, for whom the counting of days is how many she has worked in a row.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42036-2003Oct3.html

[tzs]

The "blackballed" comment actually refers to the "black ball" in pool. Nothing to do with race.

Also, a "french letter" is a condom.

Other french related idioms....

"Taking french leave" == going AWOL

"the french disease" == syphilis (of course, this was paralled by the french term "la vice anglaise" == buggery). And I believe the French and the Spanish were equally rude about syphilis, each accusing the other of generating it.

What happens when you saturate your brain with Regency and Victorian novels....

[Anonymous]

TZS: "Le Vice Anglais" is corporal punishment / spanking, not buggery...

[j]

The person in the Washington Post article expected to be retired by 58? That's a worthy and for many an achievable goal but isn't retirement age usually considered 65?

[Brad S]

j - I agree. What kind of pension plan does Hardee's offer - defined benefit, defined contribution, money purchase, 401k - that their employees can plan to retire comfortably by age 58? I obviously made the wrong career choice.

[rusty]

a breakfast of Benicar, Demadex, hydrocodone and Premarin, washed down with a little milk............ will someone please forward that recipe to my wife.

[Kevin Carson]

"They've killed off all our elm trees. They've cut all our doors in half. God only knows what they cook in those ovens of theirs. And you know what 'Dutch treat' means? It means NO TREAT AT ALL!"

[Mark]

I worked for McDonald's when I was in high school and there were no other jobs available. I'd say "low-paying and dead-end work" pretty much covers my experience. I hated it like nothing else I've ever done, and I've had some crappy jobs. Joy WIndish if you should happen to read this, I still think you're an evil bitch.

[nm156]

"Black ball" is a reference to the method of voting to approve or reject an applicant for membership in Freemasonry, namely: "White ball accept, black ball reject." One black ball and you're toast.

[Daniel Imfeld]

re: anon@9:30

This is straying a bit from the topic, but in Europe McDonald's calls a drive-through "McDrive," and a walkup to-go window is a "McGo." Oddly, they don't use these names in the USA.

[JSM]

...because its the McUSA.

Another straying off topic item is how the media responds to the idea of privatizing the national park system. One Washington State outlet had the gall to suggest that one day we might be visiting McOlympic Pennisula!

[Steven Crane]

Does anyone else think the spate of new words that Merriam-Webster adds to the dictionary each year is just a little ridiculous? I realize that dictionaries are tragically unhip, but adding "bootylicious", "gaydar", and "dot-bomb" doesn't help them much. In fact, didn't Beyonce recently lament the popularity of "bootylicious"?

[R C Dean]

Jeebus, what a pompous lot. I was an officer in a fraternity, you knobs. I know exactly what blackball means and where it came from. Hell, I've blackballed people with my own hands, using an actual black marble.

I post a crude little insensitive joke and get two lectures on etymology.

[Anonymous]

I thought the point was that McDonald's is putting 'Mc' in front of every goddamned menu item that it has become an indication of how lame their thinking is. Not to mention insensitive to people of Scotch/Irish heritage. They haven't had a clever use of the ethnicity since the Filet O'Fish was introduced.

To Mr. Cantalupo: McFuck McYou.

[Tom from Texas]

My heart bleeds for those who have to work such "low-paying and dead-end" jobs. It forced me to go back and reread that part of the Constitution that says we all have a right to high-paying, exciting, glamorous jobs the day we turn 16.

Throughout history there have always been jobs that really, really suck - driving the plague cart, emptying spittoons, etc. A thousand years from now there still will be jobs that really, really suck.

[Judge Smails]

"the world needs ditch diggers, Danny"

[Garth]

I have three words for this subject:

"I'm Lovin' It!"

[arjay]

j & Brad S

Indeed, but to further expand on your questions, why in this age of extended life spans and good health (even if brought about thru prescription drugs) does anyone even have a concept of "retirement"? Frankly I find the notion that any one should just get to quit working and suck on the public tit just because one has reached some magical age (the age when Bismark figured everyone would be dead?) stupid.

[PC = Popular Crap]

Is that cantalope head now also going to get upset at terms like "Hobo" or "Panhandler" ?

[george]

I own a two story McMansion - built of two by fours and composition board, sheathed in celotex and vinyl siding. In other words, cheap, overpriced garbage.
So typical of today.

[Boydos]

Has this mcwhole mcworld gone mcfucken mccrazy. I get in me mcfucken mcfucked mccar, every mcfucken mcday, mcdrive past mccountless mcdonalds, mcserving mcshitloads of mcshit, but mcmaking mcshitloads of mccash because mcmillions of mcidiots can't mccontrol themcselves. Why can't mceveryone just mclearn some mcfucken mcselfcontrol, mckeep mcfucken mcdriving until they mcfind some mcdecent mcfood, like mcHungry mcJacks. Mclong mclive mcshit mcfast mcfood mcfrom mcme mcfuckenjacks