Keep Your Laws Off My Dick's Fries

Seattle Times, you sure know how to get our attention. Above this story about how the King County Department of Health was considering banning trans-fats, you stuck a photo of wonderful thin fresh-cut fries bubbling away in grease, with this alarming caption:

In the last few months, Dick's Drive-Ins have been experimenting with different oils to cook their French fries. The local restaurant chain hasn't yet found a suitable alternative to trans fats.

Whooooooa whoa whoa wait a minute. You are going to BAN DICK'S FRIES???!!!?? You officious assholes!

Here are all the members of the Board of Health, the people who want to take away your right to chomp greasy wonderful Dick's fries at 1:30 am while staggering around drunk.

Unless you want those hangovers to last all weekend, I suggest you email them pronto.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Seth in Food on July 10, 2007 12:00 PM

Comments [rss]

guest

Answer: rather than ban trans-fats from Dick's, ban overweight people from Dick's. That way, Guest #9 has the satisfaction of making other people's decisions for them and keeping "our" healthcare system chugging along.

The rest of us can continue to eat Dick's deliciously bad-for-you fries! It's a win-win-win situation -- the most ideal outcome!

guest

@Seth

people have had that decision to make on their own and they've blown it. which is why there is such a drain on our healthcare system now. idiots who shove fast food down their throats like it's going out of style, blow up to obesse proportions then need modern science to give them bypass surgery because they are too poor to afford it on their own.

guest

@7, seriously. This is too much stick with no carrot.

I'd also disagree with the idea that Dick's customers can't afford a coronary bypass. Dick's ain't cheap, at least not relative to other fast-food joints.

Seth

Here's an idea--why don't you let me decide whether I want to do things that "contribute to heart disease"? Is that so hard? Want to do something that will be better for health? How about a tax credit for joining a gym? Or no sales tax on swimming trunks? Or something? Instead of foisting your impotence at improving public health onto fucking FAST FOOD JOINTS, like it's their fault.

guest

there's a difference between not being healthy and contributing to heart disease.

i'm not advocating making the fries a health food. what i'm saying is get rid of the frying medium that has been proven to increase the risk of heart problems and replace it with an oil that doesn't.

i think we can all agree that makes sense. french fry flavor be damned!

guest

hey, if NYC can do it, with all its greasy food joints, so can we. i (heart) dick's fries, but i'm all for going transfat-free.

Tom

Guest #3, eating French fries is never going to be healthy no matter what oil you use. Why kid ourselves?

guest

huh. yeah, screw the public welfare. why remove something that has been proven to increase the risk of heart disease?

hell, i think all this talk about cigarettes being bad is just a load of crap. start passing them out to kindergarteners. when they get in high school and start drinking, they'll need something to hold in their free hand. plus it makes you look cool when you stumble around drunk with your dick's fries and impending coronary bypass that you can't afford to pay for.

yeah!

guest

To be fair, though, Dick's low overhead probably allows them to pay employees fairly well (not to mention granting them lavish benefits).

You can have healthy fries or happy employees, but you can't have both.

JasonTrue

Restaurants that claim they need trans fats for flavor are full of ... something. Trans fats don't taste better than unhydrogenated grease... however, they can be kept in the fryer much longer without deteriorating.

Restaurants making lots of french fries and deep-fried fish and what not complaining about the trans fat ban just want to spend less money buying fresh oil.