How many of us really eat McDonald’s fast food anymore? Lately, the harder the company has tried to convince me, the more I feel less tempted to even walk in. I’ve heard plenty of various accounts of dangers encountered through eating a meal from “Mickie Dee’s” including people finding glass in their buns, people getting food poisoning, and people becoming enraged by the contents of the food served by this franchise.

“Not Just a Hot Cup” by Hilary Stout shows one of the many argumentative flaws of our justice system and modern society. In the case of a 79 year old woman ordering coffee from a drive thru at McDonald’s, enduring 3rd-degree burns after spilling the coffee, she sued McDonald’s and a jury decided to award her over 2 million dollars. Yes, that’s right! As absurd as it might sound to many of you, she became a millionaire because this priceless hot cup of coffee was just way too hot.

I find this article intriguing because many aspects of our justice system seem unfair and senseless. Though the amount was later on lowered to about 500,000 dollars and this business almost lost millions to this woman over 20 years ago when this happened, American culture has become one that consistently promotes the intake of hot drinks such as coffee, as well as others. I often hear things like “ The best part about waking up is Foldger’s in your cup” and “America runs on Dunkin’ “ and feel a bit tempted to try these drinks but personally, I think coffee is disgusting. People should be more careful when servicing the public and have been because I haven’t heard of many related occurrence’s. This article, although referring to an incident that happened over two decades ago, it very relevant to our day to day life because it shows us how absurd, outrageous, and irrational the law can be when addressing even the simplest or most insignificant events.

– Shantell Andrews