Hees the man

It's a shame that somehow my tastes outgrew "the great taste of McDonald's" because now, after 40 years of tormenting customers with bitter, vinegary Heinz catsup, they are changing suppliers and they plan to carry other brands.  If I still ate there, I would hope they would go with Hunt's catsup, but I just checked the messages and the HBFIC (Head Burger Flipper in Charge) had not called me for an opinion as of last night.

It's fun to read that all this came about, not because suddenly people came to the realization that Heinz makes a pretty poor catsup, but because some dude who used to run Burger King, one Bernardo Hees, now runs Heinz.  He got tossed out on his crown at the King and jumped over to be CEO at Heinz when the catsup and pickle giant was bought by Warren Buffett.

You knew that his name was going to play into all this, didn't you?  There is a snowball stand around the corner from me which might be the last business in the country into which Buffett has not bought, but they re-open in March, so let's see what happens then.

My grandmother made her own catsup - and I say and spell it that way in honor of Arthur Spooner, who also said it that way -
- and she told me that the big catsup makers purchased rotten, squished or pockmarked tomatoes to make their burger sauce.  That has stuck with me, and I like to think that the good people at Hunt's, who were kind enough to sponsor "My Three Sons" for years, are out there first thing in the morning in the vast tomato fields of Southern California, wiping droplets of dew off each and every Box Car Willie tomato and getting it ready for the burgers and fries I can't touch anymore.