Also, I’d agree with your assessment of the new fries. The old ones were remarkably bad. I think the whole “sea salt” pitch was a bit of a screen though, as I think they changed up their whole french frying process because word came in from consumers that their old fries sucked (meanwhile, the rest of their menu was pretty decent, relative to the genre). They could have gone the Dominoes Pizza route, where they straight up admit “hey, we heard you think our product was awful, and we’re heeding you advice and making changes”, but instead went the Tulane University route- remember when they switched from Pepsi to Coke campus-wide, but claimed it was entirely their decision, and not the culmination of tons of student requests/complaints? Wendy’s wants to take credit for their fry upgrade, rather than acknowledge that their old product was lousy. Not to say it didn’t work- they say “NOW, with sea salt”, we say “HEY, maybe they won’t suck so much”, and curiosity draws us in.

In other, related news: http://popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

Justin– that’s a potentially valid point… you seem to have deflated my righteous indignation. Have you considered becoming a congressional negotiator?