Do you want fries with that?

Spending my summers in Northern Michigan as a child, I came to the realization that one of the reasons for "summering" was to get away from it all. Bellaire, MI, the town closest to Torch Lake, always had a grocery store, two gas stations, a few ice cream shops, half a dozen restaurants, and that's about it. I remember quite clearly the summer that McDonald's opened up on the main street through Bellaire; everyone was immediately against it. "We will never eat there! It's destroying the culture of this little town!" people said. On the other hand, it brought much-needed jobs and some economic stability to the financially uneasy Antrim county. Personally, I've stopped at that McDonald's maybe twice in my life; I try to stay away from fast food in general, and when I'm Up North, it makes more sense to me to try and support the locally-owned businesses.

Anyhow, here's a really cool map of the United States that shows the location of every McDonald's in the country. It's pretty interesting. If you look closely, you can even see the singular dot of the McDonald's in Bellaire!

Another reason why IKEA is fierce.

The most recent IKEA catalogue and ad campaign is showcasing what it means to be a family in this day and age, complete with same-sex couples.  The slogan is this: "Family life is changing...  Welcome to the new era."

After the release of the catalogue, a group of Catholic activists (dare I say extremists?) began a letter-writing campaign to protest the inclusion of a homosexual couple in the company's publications.  In a quick, skillful, well-worded, and applaudable response, IKEA had this to say: "Homosexuality is one of the essential elements of living in contemporary society."

Congrats to IKEA for standing up for the truth and what they believe in.

This brings a new meaning to "hope you can hold it!"

European no-frills airline RyanAir, which I have had the pleasure (?) of flying myself, is known for it's bare-bones ticket prices.  On their website, you can find flights for under 1 Euro, though with taxes and fees, tickets are usually somewhere around 25 Euro.  Not bad, really.

In order to increase revenues and keep ticket prices low, RyanAir has come up with a plan to begin charging travelers a fee to use the on-board lavatories.  Wow.

Read up about it here, and check out the video on the bottom of the page in which the owner (or someone important) explains RyanAir's plans to begin offering "special features" for their upcoming Transatlantic flights.