Thursday, December 01, 2016

Owner operator obituary...


Earlier this week Michael 'Jim' Delligatti died. How many know that name? Well, what he did played a big part in my life. Jim and his family are the owner operators of various Pittsburgh-area McDonald's restaurants. However, this franchisee created the Big Mac, McDonald's 'signature' hamburger. He was 98 and came up with the idea for the Big Mac in 1965; introduced it to his own restaurants in 1967 (against McDonald's wishes) and went national in 1968 (they saw the light).
""It wasn’t like discovering the lightbulb," Delligatti told John F Love, the author of McDonald’s: Behind the Arches (1986). "The bulb was already there. All I did was screw it in the socket.""
Not only am I a McDonald's fan, the Golden Arches being a constant in my much traveled life since the early 70s and in the UK from 1974 (yep, since it started). I have tasted their meals in over 40 countries (intentionally testing, and also referring to the Economist's Big Mac Index [Patty-purchasing parity] since its inception). I am also a McDonald's-slagger slaughterer (I mow down the pretentious twits that claim they don't know what it is or have never had one or won't let their children near the place...details on request :-) ).

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