FREAKY FRIDAY!

My husband is a pretty good guy, but he can be a tiny bit… sanctimonious when it comes to issues of food and drink. (Sorry, honey, but you know it’s true. Love you!) For example, he thinks I’m being extremely high maintenance when I tell the folks at Subway that I want “easy lettuce, no tomato” on my sandwich. It’s Subway, for Pete’s sake! They make your sandwiches to order!!! And since the beginning of time, he’s tried to convince me that the world would be a more peaceful, happier place if I would just drink my coffee black. NEVER!! As I have told him for years, I like my coffee like I like my men: rich and sweet. A perfect cup of coffee for me has two Splendas and enough fat-free Coffeemate to be the same shade as Creamy Caramel. Perhaps I have the sophisticated palate of a five year-old, but if I can’t drink my coffee just so, I’d rather not have it. I can see Sean and I having the same discussion about my coffee when we’re in our dotage. And you know what? That’s a little comforting, for some reason.

Yesterday I ran out of Coffeemate. I was about to throw out the container, when I had a flash of brilliance – this would be a perfect project for this month’s Dirty Dozen “Lost & Found” challenge to recycle an item normally destined for the trash! I could make a cute container from which to pour my beloved Coffeemate, and simply refill it from here on out! I took a craft knife and carefully cut off the wrapper, hoping to use it as a pattern, but alas, that shrink-wrappy stuff can’t be duplicated through paper without a whole lot of wrinkling. Because of the curves of the canister, I thought the patchwork technique that I use to make my pumpkins might be a better way to go. A few pieces of dp inked with Staz-On, a little ModPodge, and my container just needed a wee bit of embellishing to finish. The star of my “Lighten Up” brand of creamer is none other than the DoodleFactory character, Zot. I wanted to make him look as pathetic as possible, in serious need of a caffeine fix, so I decided to make him flesh colored. After all, is there any situation in which you’d feel more vulnerable than being naked?? (If you can’t relate to that statement, you’re probably svelte and toned and I probably don’t want to be your friend. No offense.) The tag was made with shrinky-dink stuff.

Supplies used: Stamps – Zot from DoodleFactory Creatures by Sun Spirit Studios, distributed by Starving Artistamps; Paper – Chocolate Chip, patterned paper by Flair and Creative Memories; Ink: Staz-On Saddle Brown, Brilliance Archival Graphite Black; Accessories: Coffeemate container, ModPodge, Copic Sketch markers, clear embossing powder, ribbon, shrink plastic, 3-D Dots, Creative Memories cutting system, Marvy Uchida Giga Scallop oval punch.

Poor Stella
I know this has been a long post already, but I do owe you faithful Freaky Friday Fans (both of you) a good and weird-but-true story. Since I’ve been speaking of coffee, I’d like to share with you the story of poor Stella Liebeck. Stella’s story was one of my favorites to tell my students in my previous life as a college professor. They were always amazed at how the truth of her plight was so much different than the pervasive myth surrounding her case.

When I say “McDonald’s hot coffee case,” what do you think of? Frivolous lawsuits? Some dumb lady who got millions of dollars because she spilled hot – duh! – coffee while she was driving her car? Well, get a load of the real story.

In 1992, Stella Liebeck was a 79 year old woman sitting in the passenger seat of her grandson’s car as he drove through a McDonald’s drive-thru in Albuquerque, NM. After receiving their order, the grandson pulled forward and then stopped his car momentarily so that Stella could add cream and sugar to her coffee. She put the Styrofoam cup between her legs and tried to pry off the plastic lid. When she did so, the entire contents of the cup spilled on to her lap. She was wearing sweat pants at the time which absorbed the coffee and held it next to her skin. She suffered full thickness burns (aka 3rd degree burns) over 6% of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks and genital and groan area. She was hospitalized for 8 days, during which time she underwent skin grafting and debridement treatments. TO HER INNER THIGHS AND GENITAL AREAS!!! When she was released, she sought to have McDonald’s pay her medical bills which totaled $20,000. McDonald’s refused.

During discovery, Stella’s attorneys were able to prove that there had been more than 700 claims by people burned by McDonald’s coffee during the previous decade. You see, coffee in your carafe at home is about 135-140 degrees. McDonald’s coffee was held at between 180-190 degrees. They did this because consultants advised this was temperature to maintain optimum taste. Unfortunately, as an expert in thermodynamics applied to human skin testified, liquids held at 180 degrees will cause full thickness burns to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other evidence showed that as the temperature of liquid decreases to 155 degrees, the burns relative to that temperature decrease exponentially. In other words, had Stella’s coffee been held at 155 degrees, she would have been able to avoid serious burns.

When you get coffee in the drive-thru, where do you intend to drink it? I don’t know about you, but I plan to drink it in my car. Virtually all of the students I polled with that question over the years said the same thing. You know what McDonald’s argued? That their customers buy coffee on their way to work or home with the intention of consuming it once they arrived at their destination (despite their own research which showed otherwise).

The jury awarded Stella $200,000 to compensate her for her injuries, and then reduced that to $160,000 because they also found her to be 20% at fault in the spill. The jury awarded her 2.7 in punitive damages as well (about two days of McDonald’s coffee sales). Eventually this amount was reduced by the judge to $480,000 (or treble damages – a statutory limit that punitive damages can only be three times the amount of compensatory damages; 3 x $160 K = $480,000), though he stated that he thought McDonald’s conduct was reckless, callous, and willful. But no one really knows how much Stella actually got, because the parties entered into a secret settlement (rather than duke it out for years in the appellate court system).

After the verdict, the Albuquerque McDonald’s started holding it’s coffee at a temperature of 158 degrees.

In summary, McDonald’s could have gotten out of this case early on for only $20,000. And I don’t know about you, but there is no amount of money that would make me want to go through skin grafting and debridement down there! If only she had drank her coffee black…

Okay, class dismissed. Enjoy you’re the rest of your Freaky Friday.

(Note: the bulk of my facts about the Stella Liebeck case are paraphrased from an ATLA fact sheet, copyright 1995, 1996 by Consumer Attorneys of California)

Comments

[juliehrr]

Your creamer project cracked me, Carole! But, my heart ached for Stella . . . what a horribly painful tragedy for this poor woman . . . I cannot even imagine what she went through . . .

[monica sheldon]

I use to drink coffee and I drank my with cream or blank as it made no difference to me how I drank mine. to me coffee was coffee. as long as i had it who cared if I had creamer in it or not?? But your right about Mickey D's they do need to be more sensintive if more of this is going to happen.But we have to watch ourselves also and don't get clumsy in the car or inside the restaurant.

[Karen Sullivan]

that altered coffee container is too cool! love the patchwork look on it.. and interesting Freaky Friday antecode too

[Christina Fischer]

I love to read your blog entries -- you definitely have a gift for storytelling!! :) I do feel for Stella, and I can't imagine how terrible her experience must have been!

Your altered Coffeemate container is fantastic! What a perfect image to use -- I've felt that way MANY times! Thanks for sharing it!

[Kearneykrafter]

I, too, must have my coffee a "creamy caramel" color. As a matter of fact, I darn near choked on my "coffeemate" cup of coffee as I read this blog! MY hubby feels the same. He says, "why bother with drinking coffee at all, if you're just going to add all that foo-foo stuff to it?" Glad to hear that there are others in my boat! Loved the info on the Mc D's story too....very true! Have a good day!