A Stinky Idea

It’s raining, lighting and thundering and I am not afraid. I do not know why I thought of this tale from years ago this morning. There might be lessons here though-

I saw four large men wheel it away this morning, the French Fry Vending Machine. It has been replaced with an additional soft drink machine. The French fry vending machine was monstrous. It was almost twice the size of an average soft drink vending machine. The McDonald's French fry machine prepared piping hot deep fried Waffle Fries. Can you believe that, hot deep fried waffle fries at your convenience while you wait? It was almost as if we had died and gone to clogged artery heaven. However, there were negative aspects to this badly market tested technological and culinary marvel.
I believe it frightened people. All anyone ever knew of was that French Fries came from fast food establishments, the microwave or in some rare instances from the kitchens of elder matrons and guy with big guts. "From a vending machine," was different, it just was not right.
To assuage their fears, they made fun of it in the campus newspapers. They even gave it funny nicknames, none of which I can recall. Regardless of the nicknames, some were brave or hungry enough to eat the product. I would often see a waffle or two just below the monster on the floor where someone's eagerness led to carelessness. "Unfortunately," these curious fans did little to help make the Fry monster a profitable venture.
Given that the waffle fry fans probably totaled no more than an order of the space age delicacies, this could not out-weigh two important facts. The monster generated great heat and cooking oil invariably becomes rancid and smells bad. The hallway where the monster stood was at least 20-30 degrees warmer than the rest of the building. I would feel ill just walking through there. It was after a few weeks that I made the connection along with everyone else that the Fry monster was the culprit. A few hours after the Fry monster was taken away to where bad vending ideas go to die, I noticed these words scrawled on a sheet of notebook paper and taped to the wall where the monster once stood, "I Can Breathe Again."
In addition to the great heat generated, the dirty oil smell was almost immediate and filled the hallway near the library tunnel entrance. I really don't believe that others did but, I wondered where the oil went; was it just recycled indefinitely; was it at least filtered each time? My guess from the smell would be the obvious answers of, no and no.
The passing of the McDonald's French Fry Vending Machine was significant in that it may be one of the first times that something that we did not need, wasn't good for us and did not want left the market place so quickly. Yeah, yeah, I know you're thinking it was because of the lack of profits but, I say, "...his wonders to unfold."