Mass quantities
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I so jennerous! I paid! I paid!!! I served them cold hamberders what I paid for with my oan money!!!
Updating to add:
due to a large order placed yesterday, we're all out of hamberders.
just serving hamburgers today.— Burger King (@BurgerKing) January 15, 2019
And just who is responsible for that shutdown? Donnie, you could have plenty of yummy treats for them if you just stopped being so determined to win.
Of course, the usual suspects — by which I mean not just Trump’s defenders, but also the contrarian you’re-not-cricitizing-him-in-the-right-way-meaning-only-those-I-approve types — are tut-tutting about how criticism of Trump’s junk food catering is “elitist,” because Real Amurrcans eat fast food, and complaining about his just makes his critics look like a bunch of kale-munching snobs.
This probably goes without saying here, but: I’m not offended by the presence of fast food in the White House. I couldn’t give a shit if Trump elected to have Taco Bell cater his next Cabinet meeting. If he wants to offer Nancy and Chuck Big Macs at their next negotiating session, well, it’ll be silly and I reserve the right to joke about it, but I wouldn’t be bothered — Nancy and Chuck will be just fine.
But this was a “once in a lifetime” honor for most if not all of these players, and it’s not unreasonable to wish for a President who would treat it as something special and give them a nice meal. Doesn’t have to be some fine dining molecular gastronomy tasting menu from a Michelin-starred chef, but there’s a middle ground between that and McD’s. There’s a reason the position of White House chef exists and is considered an honor. Perhaps some concessions need to be made to the shutdown, but then again, if you’re catering in anyway, it’s not like D.C. doesn’t have a vibrant restaurant scene that could manage something that the players would find appealing but not ordinary.
Real Amurrcans don’t go around wearing suits every day, either, but from the pictures I saw, these players wore them for their trip to the White House. Because a trip to the White House is supposed to be special for ordinary people. And Trump not only chose to make it cheap and ordinary, but bragged about it, and made it sound like these players wouldn’t want or expect anything better.
I doubt we’ll hear them complain. Some of those players are probably Trump supporters and wouldn’t want to cause a problem. The others are either returning to their campus in Trumpland, or hoping to get jobs in a professional league that is continuing to blackball a player for taking a political stand, a league that considers independent thought a problem but abuse of women a mere P.R. problem. So yeah, they’ll keep their mouths shut if they know what’s good for them. Doesn’t mean the rest of us should.
I’m with screechy: how disappointing for those young men, to be invited to the White House for dinner and have to line up for a cold Big Mac.
1000 hamburgers now? Trump is becoming more unhinged by the day
Screechy, re. ‘Trump not only chose to make it cheap and ordinary….; but look at the….erm….tasteful golden candelabrae with putti and the silver salvers and the styrofoam cups emblazened with the presidential seal bearing the fries (God! Cold, fried cornstarch sticks in styrofoam cups). They don’t get those fine dining touches on the farm.
McDonald’s used to have a T shirt with the Golden Arches stencilled on over the chest-height message ‘I ate at McDonald’s’.
On my final visit to any McDonald’s and after the worst hamburger I have ever eaten, I bought one of those shirts and altered it to read triumphantly: ‘I ate at McDonald’s… AND I SURVIVED…!”
I wore that T shirt till it was a rag. (Got a lot of favourable comment on the ski slopes.) That was about 20 years ago now.
But Screechy has a point. No surer way to insult your guests than to invite them to dinner and serve them take-away Big Macs still packaged in styrofoam. And then to compose a tweet about it that has a spelling error, self-praise, and no apologies for the Shutdown that has apparently extended all the way to the White House kitchen.
But in Trump’s defence, he probably did it on his iPhone, and while composing his tweet something he fancied possibly went past him, and he reached out and grabbed it.
I’m giving him the benefit of any doubt. Only fair.
Screechy, quite. It was both lazy and dismissive. If I’d been in that group of players and team administrators I would have felt cheapened and used. Shame really, because for some of these people this should have been a highlight. Possibly the biggest thing to ever happen in their lives (not all college athletes go on to wealth and happy fulfilling lives).
Trump’s claim that this food is what these guys like, and the implication that better food wouldn’t even appeal to them, is just nonsense.
Here is a New York Times article from 2014 discussing how a relaxation of NCAA regulations allowed schools to provide food even beyond the standard three meals a day to student athletes. The article mentions how the University of Mississippi “hired a sports nutritionist and a certified chef, and the food budget at the new dining hall nearly tripled to more than $1.3 million annually. The menus included prime rib, made-to-order pasta and an omelet station set up for Ole Miss’s athletes.” Oregon football players have “a nutrition buffet, complete with a vitamin cabinet, Muscle Milk and dried fruit.” At Nebraska, they get “personalized protein shakes to wash down strawberries dipped in a flowing chocolate fountain.” Vanderbilt has been offering grilled salmon and tofu options. Etc.
Clemson isn’t specifically referenced in the article, but as one of the most successful Division I football programs, with lots of budget to throw around, I’m pretty sure those players eat pretty well on a day to day basis. They aren’t getting by on ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches and fast food like many of their fellow “students.” (Nor should they — first, they’re essentially employees whether the NCAA wants to admit it or not, and second, they’re required to expend thousands of calories a day in practices and workouts, so of course their food needs are different. In this respect I’m totally ok with athletes getting “special” treatment.) They wouldn’t have turned up their noses at crazy exotic rich people foods like, say, non-deep-fried vegetables.
And now look what Trump has caused:
https://mobile.twitter.com/BurgerKing/status/1085213382192627717
Screechy, to be honest, most students probably would do better not getting by on ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches; brains take a lot of energy too! But, those are cheap and easy and therefore tempting (though I hate peanut butter – I don’t think it’s really edible, that’s a marketing research designed to see if they can persuade people to buy something totally unappealing – so even as a student I never ate peanut butter sandwiches. I looked for canned beans and lots of rice).
Oh Iknklast, Crunchy peanut butter made with nothing but roasted peanuts, salt and a little peanut oil is a thing of satisfying comfort. It’s also the only thing that makes celery sticks tolerable. That smooth putty like crap and the flavoured and adulterated stuff claiming to be peanut butter is an abomination.
Yes, my favourite peanut butter is a crunchy made with just peanuts and electricity. The stuff I used to eat as a kid (no offence Mom & Dad, it was all you could afford at the time) tastes like wallpaper paste to me now.
Not that I’ve made a habit of taste-testing wallpaper paste, but you get the idea.
Funny, when I was a kid, going to McDonald’s was actually a big deal for my family. We weren’t exactly well off, but I didn’t realize that until much later. With the White House McBanquet though, it sounds like a rich person’s idea of a poor person’s idea of a feast. Or a little kid’s party. Surprised there were no Happy Meals ordered. Also, can’t let the peasants get a taste for caviar now, can we. Berders and flies are good enough for them.
I’m sure the Queen does the same thing when she has a football team over whilst her palace staff is out because of a government shutdown. It’s probably where Trump got the idea.
Rob:
Peanut butter is not all. Try honey as well.
I am looking for a theology school in which I can enrol and submit the following thesis for my doctorate: God put the flute into the celery stick in order that it may be fillled with honey, yea to overflowing; and thus to bring great rejoicing throughout all the lands of the Earth.
For they that believeth in salvation through honey and celery shall surely never die; but have everlasting life.
Amen.
The only thing for celery sticks is cheese…wonderful cheese. Makes them absolutely perfect.
Heresy…!
Honey? I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I’ll give it a go. Iknklast, I love cheese. I really love cheese. I’m still in mourning that the local cheesemonger has shut down. Celery just ruins a good cheese. I’m not going to let this cause a schism between us though. I’m sure we can agree all our options are better than a cold junk food burger.
Yummy treats, iknklast? But that’s what he served them. The most favoritest treats, the hamberders(TM)!
Peanut butter on thickly sliced bread with a strong Cheddar cheese has long been my go-to snack. Don’t judge me, but the bread has to be spread with butter first to weaken the grip of the peanut butter to the roof of ones mouth. If my sweet tooth* is needing a fix, a mature cheddar cheese and strawberry jam sandwich never lets me down.
Comedian Frank Skinner swears that banana dipped in Coleman’s English mustard powder is delicious, but I can’t vouch for it personally. Honey on celery? Sounds wrong, but the most surprisingly tasty combinations often are. Will try it.
*Many years ago I walked into the kitchen and found one of my daughters with a slice of bread generously lathered in jam. She was putting a finger into the jam, then touching said finger to her teeth, one tooth at a time. Turned out she was conducting her first bit of research – trying to discover which tooth was the sweet one!
I think I found an explanation for what happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4lnZr022M8
But at least Skinner took them out of their packaging and presented them somewhat artfully.