{"id":5056,"date":"2003-11-10T06:44:10","date_gmt":"2003-11-10T13:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=5056"},"modified":"2003-11-10T06:44:10","modified_gmt":"2003-11-10T13:44:10","slug":"shooting_the_me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/10\/shooting_the_me.html","title":{"rendered":"Shooting the messenger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dictionaries describe language as it is used, balancing the tensions of “rules” and “reality.” McDonald’s needs to consider that, as it has a conniption over the McJob entry in the new Merriam-Webster Dictionary<\/a>:<\/p>\n

McJob <\/b>(mek j\u00e4b’) n. a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement<\/p>\n

McDonalds huffs and puffs that this is an unfair characterization of their employees and job training and opportunities for management and shift supervisor positions and stuff like that.<\/p>\n

In an open letter to Merriam-Webster, McDonald’s CEO Jim Cantalupo said the term is “an inaccurate description of restaurant employment” and “a slap in the face to the 12 million men and women” who work in the restaurant industry.
\nCantalupo also wrote that “more than 1,000 of the men and women who own and operate McDonald’s restaurants today got their start by serving customers behind the counter.”<\/p>\n

That may all very well be true. But the popular opinion and usage of the term <\/i>seems to indicate otherwise, and that’s what McDonald’s needs to combat, not the dictionary that reports it.<\/p>\n

Not satisfied with looking like overly-sensitive jerks, the McDonald’s folks are also waving around the threat of law suits.<\/p>\n

Walt Riker, a spokesman for McDonald’s, said the Oak Brook, Illinois-based fast-food giant also is concerned that “McJob” closely resembles McJOBS, the company’s training program for mentally and physically challenged people. “McJOBS is trademarked and we’ve notified them that legally that’s an issue for us as well,” Riker said.<\/p>\n

Must – not – make – obvious – joke – here …<\/i><\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dictionaries describe language as it is used, balancing the tensions of “rules” and “reality.” McDonald’s needs to consider that, as it has a conniption over the McJob entry in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11185,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/21\/nice_dictionary_you_got_t.html","url_meta":{"origin":5056,"position":0},"title":"Nice dictionary you got there — be a shame if somethin’ were to happen to it","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Mar-07 6:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"McDonald's has a problem with the Oxford English Dictionary. McDonald's Corp. on Tuesday restarted its push to get the word \"McJob\" removed from dictionaries -- and has set its sights...","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5014,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/17\/mcjobs_the_deno.html","url_meta":{"origin":5056,"position":1},"title":"McJobs, the Denouement","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Nov-03 8:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"After the Merriam-Websters McJobs flurry (not to be confused with a McFlurry) of a week ago seems to be dying down, I got a trackback from the Swedish site that...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5051,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/11\/all_your_dicton.html","url_meta":{"origin":5056,"position":2},"title":"All your dictonary are belong to us!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Nov-03 6:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"McDonald's seems to have prevailed in turning dictionaries from descriptive to descriptive-of-only-what-we-want, by getting Merriam-Webster to drop the term \"McJobs\" -- at least from its list of new words in...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"McDictionary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/mcdictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14260,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/03\/19\/todays-lesson-on-the-meaning-of-the-word-dictionary.html","url_meta":{"origin":5056,"position":3},"title":"Today’s lesson on the meaning of the word “dictionary”","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Mar-09 5:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"A proper dictionary is descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, it reflects usage, not some editor's idea of what is right, proper, virtuous, or politically correct. If people start using \"less\" when they should be using \"fewer,\" for example, then over time that meaning of \"less\" will start showing up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8845,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/07\/your_lexical_le.html","url_meta":{"origin":5056,"position":4},"title":"Your lexical lesson for today","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Apr-06 9:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"I had no idea that \"scumbag\" originally meant \"condom\" (though it makes sense in retrospect), nor that the NY Times has had a long sensitivity to the term and that...","rel":"","context":"In "Writing and Language"","block_context":{"text":"Writing and Language","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/writing-and-language"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24175,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/02\/defenestration-is-in-fact-one-of-my-favorite-words.html","url_meta":{"origin":5056,"position":5},"title":""Defenestration" is, in fact, one of my favorite words","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-Dec-11 5:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's also one of the stock answers I give (either with or without \"of Prague\") when someone says, \"I have a question.\" #ddtb Embedded Link Merriam-Webster Online","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}