There’s lots of news stories lately about friction between the United States and Mexico. It’s overblown, of course, but it’s always been thus. As the seven-term presidente of Mexico, José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori once drily observed, “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!” With a gatling gun of a name like that, and his Sgt. Pepper uniform, you know his opinion carries weight.
So we’re wandering around Merida, Mexico. It’s not really an appropriate template for the whole country when you’re making comparisons, but it will have to do. It’s a long walk to Mexico City and I’m not really interested in places like that. It’s nice here in the Yucatan, and we like it.
But my readers need me to shed some light on relations between Mexico and the US. To do so, you’ll have to cast your mind back, and remember those dreaded words the teacher would intone, like the crack of doomsday, as she handed out those blue test booklet thingies for your longhand essays : Compare and contrast…
Shudder. It’s nearly 100 degrees out today, and that gave me a chill. Anyway, I’m lazy and ill-informed, so I’ll have to eschew bulleted lists and the kind of in-depth reporting that allows New York Times readers to know everything there is to know about a topic, except the truth. I’ll stake my claim on comparing and contrasting a single thing. The one, fundamental difference between the United States and Mexico, that explains a lot more.
In the United States, the ice cream machine in the McDonald’s is always broken. This is not my own personal experience. I haven’t been in a McDonald’s in twenty years, and I only went in them back then because the company I was working for built them. I wouldn’t eat in one on a bet. However, stories about the ice cream machine being broken are legion on the internet, and the memes must flow:
Now before you get out the pitchforks and torches and start looking for me, please understand that we built the restaurants, but McDonald’s installs their own equipment. On the voluminous plans to build one of those den of gustatory irresponsibility, there’s just a hole in the counter that says: ice cream machine goes here. Don’t blame me. And I didn’t hire anybody to look after the place after the grout in the tile floor firmed up and the checks cleared. McDonald’s does that:
Of course the intertunnel, combined with the snarky meme generation, can’t be relied on for balance, never mind accuracy. But it’s not just an urban legend. When someone can start a website devoted to cataloging broken Mickey D’s ice cream machines, there’s got to be some truth buried under the frivolity. Check out the McBroken website. It’s a hoot.
According to their internet sleuths, 13.36% of all McD’s ice cream machines are busted. That’s nationwide. The numbers in places like NYC, 48% out of order, approach the comical.
So there’s gotta be truth to the rumors. You want a McDonald’s ice cream for reasons that escape me. And the ice cream is escaping you, anyway. So what’s it like in Merida, Mexico?
Postres is Spanish for desserts. That spot is in a covered stone plaza outside the Walmart on the Paseo Montejo in the heart of the city. We saw wonderful gaggles of teens lining up in the heat to grab McFlurries, and then sit on the steps in the shade and socialize. There is no McDonald’s restaurant. It’s just an ice cream machine, and it always works.
Quod erat demonstrandum, I’d say.
One Response
I wouldn’t know about McD’s ice cream, haven’t got anything from one in this century. Even longer.
Besides, the Dairy Queen here has got soft serve chocolate, so I have not need to find out.