THEY GOT NAME

Have you seen the new Taco Bell commercials, in which the excellence of some new delicacy offered by the franchise is extolled by Ronald McDonald? Indeed, multiple Ronald McDonalds from all over the country express their enthusiasm for it. One of them is from the small town of Kane, PA, where one of my sisters used to live, but she says she didn’t know him.

This is, to be sure, a clever bit of sticking it to the competition. But it struck me that, while many of the Ronalds McDonald look elderly, some of them appear to be young—younger than me, anyway. This led me to the question: after, say, 1970, what American with the last name McDonald freakin’ gives their son the first name Ronald?

Anyway…

Monster-of-the-Week: …this week the nod goes to the Evil Grimace, from that ‘70s-era realm known as McDonaldland.

Later the purple fellow must have reformed, as the adjective “evil” was dropped, and he seemed to be one of the gang. He didn’t seem evil enough, at any rate, to name his son Ronald McDonald.