-L. wrote:

Most people are glaringly ignorant of the case. The woman deserved
the award - IIRC it has been reported to be around 300K which was a
pittance.

-L.

I feel it was ignorant to put hot coffee (*no matter WHAT the temp)
between ones legs. When it spilled, she couldn't pull her pants off in
the car to stop the burning.

When we elected Bush.........

uh oh........


Wayne Boatwright wrote:
Oh pshaw, on Fri 01 Dec 2006 02:23:02p, TFM® meant to say...


wrote in message
ups.com...
I saw this printed on a package of mixed nuts at the grocery sto
"Handcrafted".
How do you handcraft a nut?


I've got one for you. At the Publix grocery stores here they sell
packaged, prepeeled boiled eggs in the deli section.

This is printed on the nutrition information section of the label,
"Allergen information : Contains eggs".

ROTF! DUH!

At exactly what point did the government decide we were all
simpletons? :-)

--
Wayne Boatwright @¿@¬
_____________________

Christopher Helms wrote:
How do you handcraft a nut?

There's a killer joke in there someplace. I can feel it.

It's in my head and it's gonna stay there, believe you me.

wrote:
Peter wrote:

Well, you guys do have a lawsuit happy culture where you can sue for the
coffee being too hot for millions of dollars

Some people may think I'm a bad person for thinking this, I don't care,
but anyone who is stupid enough to hold hot coffee in their lap while
driving deserves to get burned. They need to stop awarding stupidity.

I agree. They post a frakking disclaimer on the cup...it says Caution:
HOT! What more is necessary?

barry in indy wrote:
"Yeff" wrote in message
...
On 1 Dec 2006 15:57:09 -0800, wrote:

"But there were no instructions telling me *not* to put the
gerbil into
my rectum! Who do I sue?"


You mean you're not supposed to DO that??????!!!!!!

--
barry in indy

And why did my curling iron's packaging say "For external use only?"
What happened that they needed to put that?

She had them make, in class, bread, applesauce, butter, and pickles.
They had no idea how any of those were made, but were astounded that
pickles came from cucumbers!

gloria p

My daughter is 8 and knows how to make all of that...and butter too!
Being historical re-enactors, we learn a lot about that stuff. We
always joke that if the apocalypse hits, we reenactors will make out
just fine...

-L. wrote:
Dan Abel wrote:
In article . com,
" wrote:

Peter wrote:
Well, you guys do have a lawsuit happy culture where you can sue for the
coffee being too hot for millions of dollars
Some people may think I'm a bad person for thinking this, I don't care,
but anyone who is stupid enough to hold hot coffee in their lap while
driving deserves to get burned. They need to stop awarding stupidity.
Speaking of stupidity. I really hate it when people just make stuff up.
Are you both referring to the suit against McDonald's?

She wasn't driving, her grandson was.

The car was stopped.

Nobody knows how much money she got. The final settlement was out of
court, and a condition was that nobody reveal the amount.

McDonald's had already been sued 700 times for this.

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

Most people are glaringly ignorant of the case. The woman deserved
the award - IIRC it has been reported to be around 300K which was a
pittance.

I don't agree. That description is wildly biased and reports
inaccuracies.

This specific case was a matter of Stella's lawyers
outfoxing McD's lawyers. A lot of the "evidence" offered in
the case was inaccurate or misleading. McD adhered to
industry standards for brewing and serving coffee. Period.

Their lawyers could have nailed the testimony about coffee
being served cooler in other restaurants, but they didn't.
McD's coffee is exactly in line with everyplace else that
makes coffee with drip systems. Period. They sent a college
student out with a thermometer to measure the temperature of
coffee in other restaurants and he came back with lower
figures. Would anyone expect that he would come back with
*higher* figures? He was described as measuring the coffee
in "steaming mugs and cups." A takeout container doesn't
much affect the temperature. But a ceramic mug certainly
would - it's a heat sink. What kind of thermometer did he
use? McD's lawyers didn't ask. A quick-read thermometer
gives an average reading along the probe - not accurate.

Stella was wearing sweats that soaked up the coffee and held
it next to her skin. She didn't try to get out of the car
nor to remove the fabric from contact. Pouring freshly
brewed coffee on your hand or arm would burn, of course, but
nothing like the severity of pouring it on your clothing and
sitting there until it cooled. Anyone who has ever worked in
a restaurant knows what hot coffee or tea on skin feels
like. A couple minutes with some cold water or ice takes
care of it. Pour it on clothing and it's a whole different
story. McD's lawyers didn't make anything of that.

Stella's lawyers said coffee at home is served at a lower
temperature. That was slippery. It's *brewed* at the same
temperatures as commercial coffee makers do, but the warmer
plate is smaller and cheaper. It's that way to keep the
retail price down, on the premise that *some* heat is better
than *none. Not because it's better, just cheaper. All
coffee from machines is brewed between 195 and 205, home and
in business.

There was a lot of testimony like that and it got right past
McD's lawyers.

Here's the other reality. The lawyers made a big deal about
700 people being burned in the prior 10 years. During that
time McD served, according to the Wall Street Journal,
around a billion cups of coffee a year. 1,000,000,000 cups
per year. Total of 10,000,000,000 - ten Billion cups of
coffee - cups of coffee in that time. 700 people were
burned. 70 per year out of *one Billion* per year. Do you
think that if you put out *one Billion* cups of freshly
brewed coffee that 70 people might be burned? One out of
ever 14,000,000. Odds of 14,000,000 to 1? That would be 5
people per day from more than 30,000 outlets. I wonder how
many people burn themselves at 7-11 pouring coffee? No
suits? Of course not, they poured it on themselves.

The American coffee institute weighed in on McD's side.
Coffee maker manufacturers likewise. No one has changed
anything in the light of this case.

The jury was upset with what appeared to be callousness on
the part of McD employees. None of us were in the courtroom,
so we can't evaluate that. Bad presentation appears to have
been a very significant factor, based on comments of jurors
after it was over. McD's employees said they had no plans to
lower the temperatures. They said they knew that there were
burn cases, some of which they settled with cash. Virtually
no previous lawsuits. Stella's lawyers asked if they had
consulted with burn experts and they said no. For every
14,000,000 cups of coffee served, one person was burned.

A subsequent suit brought in Nevada was laughed out of court
with the judge saying that hot coffee is hot and consumers
should recognize that fact before acting. It's very, very
instructive that no more such suits have happened.

But the overriding point is the sheer magnitude of the
universe in question versus the problems in it. I still
can't grasp the intelligence behind McD's having
responsibility after they no longer have control. You buy a
cup of coffee presumably knowing it's hot and spill it on
yourself. McD's served coffee exactly like every other place
that serves coffee, but they're responsible. The number of
burns from everybody else is unknown, so no contrast can be
made and no context can be offered. That worked to Stella's
advantage. I think that McD's had lousy lawyers.

Pastorio

"TFMï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï ¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ �" wrote:

I used to drink and drive. Coffee, that is.

Then I came to the conclusion I might as well pour a third of it on my
pecker to start with and avoid the surprise.

LOL Spilled *tea* on my sweats just now and spit the rest
on my monitor. Get a good lawyer. You'll be seeing us in court.

No, seriously...

Pastorio

"Goomba38" wrote

I feel it was ignorant to put hot coffee (*no matter WHAT the temp)
between ones legs. When it spilled, she couldn't pull her pants off in
the car to stop the burning.

And then she removed the lid. I drank an awful lot of coffee out of
styrofoam cups in my day, and I often didn't bother taking a lid. Take
my word for it, that cup is completely unstable without a lid and man,
that friggin coffee burned my hand like crazy, even with the half and half
added. OUCH. Didn't happen often, just once in a while to make me
cautious. Using the pressure of your legs to hold the coffee cup upright
while you're adding the sugar?

BAD IDEA.

nancy

TFM® wrote:
"kilikini" wrote

Not at all. I totally agree!

I agree, too!!!!!!!! Come on, for gosh, sakes!


Who is this "Gosh" you speak of?

That should properly read, "Come on, for God's sake!".

I believe in Gosh

jmcquown wrote:
TFM� wrote:
"kilikini" wrote

Not at all. I totally agree!
I agree, too!!!!!!!! Come on, for gosh, sakes!

Who is this "Gosh" you speak of?

That should properly read, "Come on, for God's sake!".

I believe in Gosh

So you won't go to heck.

Pastorio

Reminds me of the time in the dim and distant past, when my
cousin and I carefully opened a walnut, replaced the innards with
an actual metal hardware nut, and resealed the walnut. Someone
got an interesting surprise. Hopefully, they looked before they
ate (kind of hard not to).

Was that a home prank or an in-store prank?
I know a foam who, as a teen, used to inject random oranges with vodka in
the store...

wrote:
I saw this printed on a package of mixed nuts at the grocery sto
"Handcrafted".
How do you handcraft a nut?

Were the nuts carved into the shapes of the season or animals? :-)

~xy~ wrote in message
news:ekich.401499$1T2.342305@pd7urf2no...
[snip]
I know a foam

Good grief! I aparently lost a majority of gray matter last night.
What's a "foam?"


who, as a teen, used to inject random oranges with vodka in
the store...

The Ranger

In article ,
Yeff wrote:

On 1 Dec 2006 15:57:09 -0800, wrote:

Peter wrote:

Well, you guys do have a lawsuit happy culture where you can sue for the
coffee being too hot for millions of dollars

Some people may think I'm a bad person for thinking this, I don't care,
but anyone who is stupid enough to hold hot coffee in their lap while
driving deserves to get burned. They need to stop awarding stupidity.

Stupidity is awarded by God at birth. The problem is it keeps being
*rewarded*.

"But there were no instructions telling me *not* to put the gerbil into
my rectum! Who do I sue?"

Or not to put the contraceptive jelly on toast......
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson