Elle Enchanted McDonalds

I'm on the East Coast visiting family members, one of whom is a 6 year old niece, which of course meant that we all went to see Ella Enchanted, which turned out to be quite fun. My niece seemed to like it a lot, but I left the theater thinking the film was probably aimed more towards the 8-11 year old demographic as it featured a lot of mushy romance stuff. They certainly had the parent demographic nailed, though. The soundtrack featured a lot of hits from the 70's and a few actor cameos entertained those who remember the Princess Bride, which happens to be one of those films I don't know very much about and am therefore ruthlessly teased by my peers!

It is probably sacreligious to say this but when I found out a McDonald's was going to move into my neighborhood and replace the mangy -- but family owned -- burger joint called Kwik Way I was secretly thrilled. Of course 400 of my neighbors went to a community meeting to protest the proposed 'restaurant'. The heart of the complaint seems to be that the McDonalds is going to generate so much business that the traffic is going to increase too much. Considering that Oakland is in such fiscal crisis, it would seem to me a good thing if a struggling greasepit that serves pretty bad hamburgers was replaced by a popular fast food that actually contributed a good amount of money to the city. Besides there is already a KFC two doors down from the proposed site, so it isn't like this is going to be the first chain restaurant to come to town. People are way to afraid of chain stores in the Bay Area. Besides, the franchisee would actually be a local businessman who owns two other McD's in the area, so in some ways this IS a family owned restaurant. Is it obvious I just want to be able to be within walking distance of McGriddles? I guess I will recuse myself due to conflict of interest...