Articles by Jen Harper

Once upon a time, Jen Harper was Ask Umbra's whip-cracking editor, though she doesn't really have a whip or necessarily know how to crack one. She has now successfully re-entered civilian society.

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Would you like fries with that?Photo: lille abe via FlickrWe love our McDonald’s stories (as evidenced here, here, and, oh yeah, here), so it’s no wonder that this one jumped out at us: McDonald’s Happy Meal “came with cigarette.” According to the U.K. publication Metro, Nicky Holloway found an unused cigarette in the Happy Meal she purchased for her 1-year-old son.

“‘My son can feed himself and I was watching him eat, but he could easily have put the cigarette in his mouth.’ Miss Holloway said the manager of the McDonald’s branch in her home city offered her another meal or a £1.99 refund.

But she insisted on keeping the meal and toy from the children’s movie How To Train Your Dragon and contacted the McDonald’s head office.”

The butt in the bag was obviously a mistake, and the mom was understandably pissed. But was that cigarette really worse for him than the garbage he was stuffing in his 1-year-old face? Methinks not.

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Jen Harper Culture

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Rock the house [VIDEO]

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, so does that mean that people who live in stone houses shouldn’t throw glass? Guess we should ask Antón García-Abril and Ensamble Studio, who, according to Treehugger, have built La Trufa, or truffle, a small holiday house that looks like a big rock on the north […]

Jen Harper Culture
Looking at gorillas through crazy-colored glasses

Photo via GeekosystemObserving wildlife? Good. Inadvertently threatening the wildlife while observing it? Eh, not so good. But some bizarre-looking glasses may be the solution. According to Geekosystem, “Earlier this month at the Dutch Rotterdam Zoo, an 11-year-old male gorilla named Bokito escaped and ran rampant through the zoo’s food court, injuring a woman when he […]

Jen Harper Culture
IHOP stacks up to Double Down competition

Courtesy of IHOPMan, I sure could use a cheesecake sandwich right about now. But instead of bread on either side of the cheesecake, I want pancakes. And then I want to top it with strawberry compote and whipped topping. And because that probably won’t be enough, let’s tack on eggs, hash browns, and bacon on […]

Jen Harper Food and Agriculture
Sit, stay, recycle [VIDEO]

Has “green” jumped the shark if even pugs are on board? They’re always late adopters. For Puglet’s next trick, he will push climate-change legislation forward. —————————————————————————————————————————————————– Like what you see? Sign up to receive The Grist List, our email roundup of pun-usual green news just like this, sent out every Friday.

Jen Harper Culture