Brickbat: All You Can Drink

Luckydoor / Dreamstime.com

France has banned restaurants and other places that sell drinks containing sugar or other sweeteners from offering free refills of those drinks. Some restaurants have already removed or moved their drink fountains, while Five Guys has placed microchips on drink cups that switch off their drink fountains if someone tries to refill a cup. The ban is aimed at fighting obesity.

Comments

[Hamster of Doom]

The ban is aimed at fighting obesity.

Charles. Hang your head in shame.

[Libertarian]

What about the skinny people who have a problem with keeping weight on? (I hate them, too, but that's a subject for another post). Doesn't this law hurt them?

[Monty Crisco]

MY GOD WON'T ANYBODY THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!?!?!?

[Hamster of Doom]

Texas Governor Greg Abbott will!!

How fortunate that we just need bigger government pay raises to solve everything.

[Hamster of Doom]

Fucking links, Hamster, how do they work.

[MSimon]

The ban is aimed at increasing eatery profits.

[Libertarian]

+1 Baptists and bootleggers

[Radioactive]

that sold like a real punch in the gut...

[True Scottsman]

Five Guys Burgers and Fig Leaves

[True Scottsman]

Nota Bene*
I think people ought to be responsible for whatever they consume.
Five Guys has good burgers, and if they are doing this to socially signal, then fuck them.
I will respond accordingly.

[The Hyperbole]

Restaurants in France face prosecution starting today if they offer unlimited soda drinks

Avoiding prosecution is social signaling?

[True Scottsman]

Five Guys is in France?
My googlefu is like yellow belt, so...

[True Scottsman]

However,
I agree that discouraging businesses from expanding to certain locales is anathema to free markets.

[MSimon]

The Marianas Trench has zero burger joints.

[UnCivilServant]

If you can show a customer flow that will turn a profit, people will open them.

[loveconstitution1789]

Plus, when I was in Europe many years ago, it was hard to get soda over a 5oz bottle. I would sit down and order 3-4 bottles of soda because I knew they take forever to bring you another and they barely quench your thirst.

In most European countries their tap water sucks, so you have to buy bottled water. Will that be water with gas or no gas?

Good luck getting ice.

[Radioactive]

why would I order lice?

[American Memer]

Cinc monsieurs?

[Jerryskids]

Are they banned from offering BOGO deals with a stipulation that the free drink offer is non-transferable and must be used in the same visit as the original purchase?

And I thought the "free refill" was an American thing (and somewhat regional at that) so is this French ban something that's really only aimed at those filthy American fast-food restaurants anyway?

[Jerryskids]

Even though it's been 15 years or more, you can still get my nephew worked up about free refills. When he and his wife visited Niagara Falls they went to a very nice restaurant, which is where he found out Yankees don't know what sweet tea is. After explaining what he wanted, he got about 5 refills on his glass of tea and then found out they didn't do free refills and they charged him like $35 for his crappy tea*. We still give him a hard time about that and he'll still get spitting mad about it. I think he still suspects that restaurant was just screwing with him personally.

*They brought him a glass of unsweetened tea poured over ice and a little saucer with like 4 sugar cubes on it and he had to explain to them that you have to put about twelve cubes in the hot tea to dissolve it and then pour it over the ice - they never would put enough sugar in it because, unless you're from the south, you think the amount of sugar southerners put in their tea is some kind of practical joke. Southerners don't actually drink tea, the drink tea-flavored syrup.

[True Scottsman]

If I went to any bar and asked for an Arnold Palmer, I would expect iced tea with lemonade. This is what I get. The percentages of tea/ lemonade is interesting to me because I use the server's ability to gauge the percentage as a very good gauge of how the server intuits me.

Not to worry, I give for effort. (They all give me too much lemonade)

[MSimon]

I like tea with lemonade. I ask them to leave out the tea.

Otherwise coffee. Black.

[Radioactive]

I would expect an over the hill pro golfer...

[True Scottsman]

He is under the hill now.

[Ted S.]

Try going to a restaurant in the south and ordering something not on their menu.

[Hamster of Doom]

+1 Whattaburger, no pickles, no lettuce, no tomato, triple meat, triple cheese, side of gravy fries.

[MSimon]

Tuna salad on garlic bread. At my favorite Italian Restaurant. Romas. On Sheffield.

RIP.

[Rat's instance]

Tea-flavored is inaccurate. The sigar overpowers the tea. They could forget the tea and get the same result. I am careful to emphasize unsweetened tea when I order anywhere near the South.

[lap83]

This. I had a "sweet tea" once at a Mcalisters. Never again.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Southerners don't actually drink tea, the drink tea-flavored syrup.

And they are correct in doing so. It's delicious. The south's blood sugar shall rise again!

[MSimon]

It is the injections that follow in later years that I'm not too fond of.

[Monty Crisco]

As a southerner, I have felt like a heretic for coming to love unsweetened tea in the last few years. Still, can't get enough of it. I guess I always felt like sweet tea - which I was raised on - was just too fucking sweet. Christ, its sweeter than COKE!!!!

[sarcasmic]

That happened to me once. Though it wasn't with that nasty concoction. Since then I always ask if refills are free.

[Slocum]

"Southerners don't actually drink tea, the drink tea-flavored syrup."

You need to cut it with a little bourbon and some soda water.

[CZmacure]

Southerners don't actually drink tea, they drink tea-flavored syrup.

[The Hyperbole]

A recent health study suggested that half of French adults are now overweight. However; only 15 are technically obese.

That's a lot of trouble for just fifteen fat frogs.

[Hamster of Doom]

Eat them. Problem solved.

[Radioactive]

just the legs man, just the legs...

[straffinrun]

Wait a second. I can't get free refills but you're still making me get my own drink from the fountain? So it's basically becoming a convenience store.

[Libertarian]

Don't even get me started about clearing the table and putting the trash in the can and the plastic tray in the rack when I leave.

[Libertarian]

(this was a reply to straffinrun)

[straffinrun]

Maybe I can change the grease in the deep fryer and fill out their OSHA compliance forms on my day off.

[Radioactive]

not if you're not in the union...

[Libertarian]

Honey Boo Boo's mom and Susan Boyle are skinny now and they look gorgeous.

[Monty Crisco]

You'll NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!!!!!

[Monty Crisco]

EVERYBODY MISSES NUMBER 6!!!!

[Monty Crisco]

TOM SELLECK KEPT THIS A SECRET FOR YEARS ON "MAGNUM, P.I."!!!!!

[Robert]

I keep missing some #2, and lately with the size of my prostate, I'm starting to miss a little of #1.

[Radioactive]

I just miss...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Five Guys, a newcomer in France, opted to add microchips to cups so when customers try and get a refill from its fountains, they automatically switch off.

This is outrageous. The chip should detect the drinker's BMI so that the French always surrender the free refill to correctly-weighted individuals like myself.

[lap83]

"So that the French always surrender the free refill"

So the law also forces the French to deny an integral part of their heritage. What a shame

[loveconstitution1789]

Speaking of surrender.

What is the difference between the French surrendering to the Germans in WWII and the French surrendering to Nanny-State rules like this?

[Monty Crisco]

Hitler?!?

[UnCivilServant]

The Maquis.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why can't I get another Sieben Oben 'round here?

[Radioactive]

the scarlet pimpernel?

[Libertarian]

White privilege essay contest sparks outrage in Connecticut suburb

The contest , put on by the town's diversity council, asks students to describe the impact white privilege has had on their lives, using a term that refers generally to advantages conferred automatically to whites, and not to minorities. The concept has moved into the mainstream as the nation has discussed race more openly.

The chairman of the diversity council, Harold Bailey Jr., said that in addition to the chatter in town, people as far away as Singapore have weighed in online.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017.....uburb.html

[Rat's instance]

My white privilege got me a brown wife.

[Libertarian]

White privilege is bad. Trying to educate children about black history is bad. I don't think there's a way to win this game.

"An Ohio high school is under fire after all the students in an African-American history class participated in a classroom assignment last week where they picked cotton and listened to black spiritual music from the pre-Civil War era."

http://heatst.com/culture-wars.....n-picking/

[Radioactive]

now you begin to understand...there is no winning or losing there is just the void...

[Pat (PM)]

What about 375 oz cups?

[Hamster of Doom]

That's almost 3 gallons. Nearly 25#. Arms like Popeye, which clearly means you drink wots you fucking likes.

[Rat's instance]

I still get free refills of hollandaise?

[Libertarian]

Sorry to break this to you, but hollandaise is just mayonnaise that's gone bad.

[JR Robble Dobbs]

Oh yeah, if it's so bad, then why do we celebrate it every year in December. I love that time, people say happy hollandaise to me and I say it back to them. To bad Libertarian, you can't enjoy the spirit of the season.

[Vhyrus]

If I assume you're black does that make me racist?

/augh! not the face!

[Radioactive]

isn't that part of the war on b?chamel?

[Rufus The Monocled]

So people who are fine and healthy get screwed.

Real effen brilliant.

Cradle to grave bro.

[Robert]

A recent health study suggested that half of French adults are now overweight. However; only 15 are technically obese.

15's not bad in a country as big as France.

Apparently it applies even to no-cal sweetened drinks, which is a head scratcher.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Ban it all. Just in case. To be safe.

Soda Speak Easies here we come!

[Jerryskids]

If the French were serious about cutting down on the sugary drinks, they'd not only ban free re-fills but also the size and the number of high-calorie drinks. There's 140 calories in 12 ounces of Coke, about 350 calories in 12 ounces of champagne. Your move, Frenchy.

[UnCivilServant]

They often ban spanish wine.

[The Grinch]

350 calories? No shit?

[Rufus The Monocled]

What if you went to a burger joint and there were no burgers?

[Vhyrus]

...you'd be at Arbys?

[Radioactive]

is this some sort of bullshit one hand clapping crap question?

[Rufus The Monocled]

So. When this law doesn't lead to the desired results and (inevitably) fails they will over turn it, right?

Of course not.

By that time, habits will have likely changed. Mission accomplished! It wasn't good for you anyway!

[straffinrun]

My body, my choice? Sorry, wrong thread.

[eyeroller]

Your choice to be obese affects interstate commerce, pal.

[Vhyrus]

My foot is going to affect your interass commerce...

Is what I would like to say, but the supreme court keeps blocking me off their twitter.

[Kurmudgeonly Kristen]

What does Five Guys need with the French, anyway? Just close the stores. Let them eat foie gras.

[Radioactive]

nope, cruel to geese...

[Malvolio]

Can you sell it for a nickel -- or a metric nickel or whatever wampum those heathens use?