Food and Drink

Welcome to Black Friday 2011, the new "you can't do anything without making a political statement" milestone. If you decide to stay home just to avoid the mad frenzy, you could also be accused of supporing the "Occupy Black Friday" movement, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street that seeks to shake us out of our materialistic stupor or something ("hit the corporations that corrupt and control American politics where it hurts, their profits").

Never mind all that supercommittee budget-reduction nonsense; let's talk about something really important. No, just to stop the myth before it becomes firmly entrenched, Congress did not declare pizza a vegetable:

This is not a fight over pizza. It is, instead, a fight about tomato paste. Specifically, it's a fight about how much of the product counts as one serving of vegetables.

The obesity and nutrition police will be here tomorrow, and there will be a tastebud inspection at 0900:

Visiting an organic farm in Hawaii on Saturday, First Lady Michelle Obama said that “arugula and steak” was her “favorite” meal and expressed her view that American children need to “get their palates adjusted” so they will begin eating properly.

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Gee, just think. If I'd stuck with the job I had to make money in high school, I could have had a real career:

A woman in Evansville, Indiana, has been working at McDonald's for nearly 40 years.

89-year-old Loraine Maurer says the reason she's continued to work at the town's very first McDonald's is that she's happy.

On a strict, if temporary diet:

Interfaith and anti-hunger advocates across Indiana are feeding themselves on the average food stamp benefit of $31.50 for one week.

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Even though Burger King has dispatched its creepy mascot, we can still find strange fast-food ads. This is one from KFC I saw the other day, and I include it here in case you think I'm just a delusional rightwing Occupy Space hater. "What part of the chicken is the nugget?" says the ad. "Here, we sell popcorn chicken." Did not one person sitting around the ad-pitch table raise his little hand and ask, "But what part of the chicken is the popcorn?"

Speaking of risky changes:

Wendy's went on the hunt for the perfect burger in an operation that started in 2009 called “Project Gold Hamburger” that aimed to look at every single aspect of the burger and work out exactly what chances could lead them to the perfect burger experience.

Hey, kids, better load up on those fries while they're still legal:

Michelle Obama said Thursday that a pledge by the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants and its sister chains to serve healthier meals is a "breakthrough moment" for the industry.

Well, what's the point then?

The 10th annual Midwest Deutsche Oktoberfest will be brewless Sunday.

That's because the big party is at the Ellis County Fairgrounds and the Sunday sale of beer is against the law in unincorporated parts of the county.

That's how they do things in Kansas. Here, I think we're at least smart enough to MOVE THE OKTOBERFEST TO SATURDAY!!!

Ah, the advance of civilization:

NANUET, N.Y. -  A 290-pound New York man is steaming mad at the White Castle fast-food chain, which he claims repeatedly broke promises to make the booths in his local eatery bigger.

Martin Kessman, 64, filed a lawsuit against the fast-food giant last week in Manhattan federal court, claiming that the uncomfortable booths violate the civil rights of fat people.

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