The "Did'ja ever wonder why?" Thread

Is Smartass the opposite of Dumbass, or are they similar? Discuss amongst ya'selves....

Several things here: Coffee - full of little solids - can attain a far higher temperature than plain water. I think this was a big factor.
Also, she did have delicate skin, being elderly.
Also, being seated in a car, she didn't have anything resembling immediate access to methods of cooling the burn, making for a more serious injury.
A nice list of facts.

Good points.

Safety tip:

If you can't figure out how a teakettle works and happen to dump scalding water on your arm, do it over the kitchen sink (like me) where nice cold water is readily available.



Well, I've been called both...

I've always wondered about this. How does the fact that she actually got burned severly make it McDonald's fault? Every thread I've seen on the subject always seems to have someone that implies "Since she was severely burned, it must be McDonald's fault"

Why are items that arrive in a car called a shipment,

.... and items that arrive in a ship called cargo?

If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed and dry cleaners depressed?

Laundry workers could decrease, eventually becoming depleted! Even more, bedmakers will be debunked, baseball players will be debased, landscapers will be deflowered, bulldozer operators will be degraded, organ donors will be delivered, software engineers will be detested, the BVD company will be debriefed and even musical directors will eventually decompose.

(On a more positive note though, perhaps we can hope that politicians will be devoted.)

I belive it's because McDonald's was selling coffee that could do something other places' coffe couldn't - burn you badly - and they did nothing to inform people that this was a very different situation. Add to that the fact that - given a line of prevous incidents - they bloody well knew the hazard existed.

Now, you can ague that it's stupid to put a cup of hot coffee between your legs while driving a car (mostly becasue it IS stupid) but people do it because this risk is fairly small. Spilling drinkably hot coffee would result, at worst, in a first-degree scald. No big deal. People injured in this manner get the "Aww, shaddap, ya moron. Your fault!" treatment.

The woman in this case, however, faced a risk far in excess of what she had reason to expect. So, yes, it's still her fault the coffee spilled, but IMHO it's also clearly McDonald's negligence that led to the debilitating injury.

I'm too lazy/busy to read all previous 31 posts.. But I'd be willing to bet Lecktor has eaten the Silica Gel at least once or twice in his lifetime.. perhaps even smoked it..