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How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

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Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#61

Post by potatolicious »

wisty wrote: post #46
grecy wrote: post #10

I grew up in rural Australia, and we used to host a ton of exchange students from North America. Driving from Melbourne back to my home town, there is a huge billboard saying "Next McDonalds 100km" (60 mi.). Many times we would have to pull over so the American exchange students could take a photo, as they were in disbelief they were so far away from one. On that same road you're easily 250km (130mi.) away, but there…

Most Americans have no taste-buds. They don't eat lamb, and prefer grain-fed beef (which tastes like slightly gamey chicken) to grass-fed beef (which has a much more ... beefy ... flavor). And don't even think of offering them kangaroo. On the other hand, I'm sure there's some Minnesotan here, who'll tell me I'm a wimp for not eating gopher. Regional US food rocks, but generic "US food" is just bland.

> "Regional US food rocks, but generic "US food" is just bland."

So. So true.

American food is friggin' amazing, but you'd never know it if all you ate was what is normally labeled "American food".

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#63

Post by twoodfin »

jasonkester wrote: post #2

Back when Starbucks first exploded to such ludicrous levels that you'd sometimes find two of them sharing a single parking lot, the expectation became that there would always be a Starbucks nearby. So much so that when I tried to drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles early one morning, I was surprised, then baffled, then amazed, then outraged that there was no Starbucks at all on I-10. I spent nearly 4 hours driving with…

Starbucks' expansion was interestingly "clumpy". Not surprising, I guess, when you realize they have to deal with the same supply chain issues as anyone else in a similar space. They didn't open a freestanding store in Tulsa until 2002, years after seemingly every other corner in Manhattan had one.

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#65

Post by femto »

vacri wrote: post #55
brntn wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this hard to believe (grew up in Swan Hill). Where are you heading to from Melbourne? I doubt you could stay in Victoria and be more than 250km from a McDonalds.

Maybe in the Wimmera? You're certainly far from Macca's when you head up the Cobb in NSW, though.

Eyeballing Macca's Australian website [1], I'd say that the furthest point would be equidistant from Kalgoorlie, Broome and Alice Springs. That's pretty close to the north-eastern corner of the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve [2], 800km from the nearest McDonalds.

[1] http://mcdonalds.com.au/find-us/restaurant

[2] http://g.co/maps/pehrm

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#66

Post by bane »

tocomment wrote: post #42
tzs wrote: post #8

> Which begs the question: just how far away can you get from our world of generic convenience? An interesting kind of related question is to ask what is the farthest you've ever been away from other humans. For most of us, we've never been more than a few miles from others. I've read that the record is probably held by one of the Apollo astronauts who remained in lunar orbit while the landing party landed.

He should have said "raises the question". " begs the question".means assuming the conclusion of your argument.

Nobody uses it with that meaning anymore, the phrase has taken on a different meaning. This happens with language, definitions shift, nuance is added, old meanings fall away. If you use the phrase with the original Latin meaning, you'd likely just confuse your listener. It hasn't had that definition in the common parlance for probably the last couple of centuries -- or at least since Latin stopped being necessary for a proper education.

Time to update your dictionary!

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#67

Post by evilduck »

wisty wrote: post #46
grecy wrote: post #10

I grew up in rural Australia, and we used to host a ton of exchange students from North America. Driving from Melbourne back to my home town, there is a huge billboard saying "Next McDonalds 100km" (60 mi.). Many times we would have to pull over so the American exchange students could take a photo, as they were in disbelief they were so far away from one. On that same road you're easily 250km (130mi.) away, but there…

Most Americans have no taste-buds. They don't eat lamb, and prefer grain-fed beef (which tastes like slightly gamey chicken) to grass-fed beef (which has a much more ... beefy ... flavor). And don't even think of offering them kangaroo. On the other hand, I'm sure there's some Minnesotan here, who'll tell me I'm a wimp for not eating gopher. Regional US food rocks, but generic "US food" is just bland.

Gopher? Tame! Come visit New Orleans some time, we have the crazy stuff.

That, and the American Craft Beer movement would like to have a word with you.

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#68

Post by commandar »

wisty wrote: post #46
grecy wrote: post #10

I grew up in rural Australia, and we used to host a ton of exchange students from North America. Driving from Melbourne back to my home town, there is a huge billboard saying "Next McDonalds 100km" (60 mi.). Many times we would have to pull over so the American exchange students could take a photo, as they were in disbelief they were so far away from one. On that same road you're easily 250km (130mi.) away, but there…

Most Americans have no taste-buds. They don't eat lamb, and prefer grain-fed beef (which tastes like slightly gamey chicken) to grass-fed beef (which has a much more ... beefy ... flavor). And don't even think of offering them kangaroo. On the other hand, I'm sure there's some Minnesotan here, who'll tell me I'm a wimp for not eating gopher. Regional US food rocks, but generic "US food" is just bland.

>They don't eat lamb, and prefer grain-fed beef

That really has as much to do with cost as anything. Grass-fed beef can be twice the price of grain-fed, and lamb's definitely not cheap, either.

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#69

Post by chimeracoder »

rhplus wrote: post #34

I think this visualization would be far more interesting at the city level. At the country level, it's basically a map of population density. At the city level, I think it might reveal much more about demographic differences between neighborhoods and also do a much better job at highlighting key transit routes/hubs.

Yeah, in all honesty, that graph looks not too different from a map of lights at night (proxy for population density).

Re: How Far Can You Get From McDonald's?

#70

Post by chimeracoder »

commandar wrote: post #68
wisty wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Americans have no taste-buds. They don't eat lamb, and prefer grain-fed beef (which tastes like slightly gamey chicken) to grass-fed beef (which has a much more ... beefy ... flavor). And don't even think of offering them kangaroo. On the other hand, I'm sure there's some Minnesotan here, who'll tell me I'm a wimp for not eating gopher. Regional US food rocks, but generic "US food" is just bland.

>They don't eat lamb, and prefer grain-fed beef That really has as much to do with cost as anything. Grass-fed beef can be twice the price of grain-fed, and lamb's definitely not cheap, either.

I'm surprised it's not corn-fed beef - corn's a lot cheaper.
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