Daily Dirt: Sorry, there’s no excuse for poor service and bad manners

OK, fast-food people. It’s time to step up your game. Now. … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 179 of the Daily Dirt.

1. Here are a few things I feel need to be addressed by some of the major fast-food giants in our area:

McDonald’s: Bring back the all-day breakfast and open the dining areas. The long lines at drive-throughs and lukewarm food have become more than tedious and disappointing. I’m tired of — and disappointed — hearing about a lack of employees. Other eateries have managed to reopen. Let’s get with it, Golden Arches.

KFC: After hinting in recent weeks/months that indoor dining would soon be returning (I ask about this almost every time I am at the drive-through window), I was rather disappointed by a recent trip to The Colonel. Earlier this week, grandson Matt and I were driving through the Quincy KFC site for some of their tasty chicken strips, fries and a Mountain Dew. I asked the server at the window how long it would be until the inside restaurant would be reopening. “That will never be open again,” she said. I asked her to repeat that thought, just in case I had misunderstood. Wow. In my humble opinion, that is a colossal mistake. I would almost bet my Muddy River paycheck that ruling will eventually be reconsidered. At some point, the drive-through only thing is going to grow more than tiresome and trigger a fast-food mutiny. I’m at the point now, if I am told the dine-in facilities will never be reopening I am done with that establishment.

Burger King: More than any other fast-food site in Quincy, my recent trips through Burger King’s drive-through have been met with ill-mannered employees. I thought it may have been just my luck to run into this behavior, but now I have been hearing the exact same thing from other individuals. Earlier this week, I received a report from a family that said while waiting for their change — with no accompanying “thank you,” which unfortunately appears to be norm — the employee in question dropped a minimum of three nasty F-bombs. For the record, I have not experienced any profane language. The fast-food employees are now making considerably more money than they did even a year ago, and I’m happy for them. Everyone deserves a decent wage. Everyone also deserves to be treated with common decency.

2. Five more of my favorite sports names:

• Dong Dong, Chinese gymnast.
• Neville Neville, former star cricket player in England.
• Samoa Samoa, former Washington State quarterback.
• Longar Longar, former Oklahoma basketball player.
• Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, professional basketball player from Cameroon.

3. My wife, Kathy, cuts her pieces of pizza with scissors. I’m not sure what my comment is about that.

I think I’ll just let it stand on its own merit, or lack thereof.

Steve Fact O’ The Day
As a wee lad, Steve once told his mother he would have preferred to have been named Sandy. “Why?” his mom asked. “Because I think I have a chance to be the next Sandy Koufax,” Steve asserted. Considering Steve threw right-handed and not left, and that his fastball was never clocked any higher than 49 mph, Steve was obviously a dreamer. Nothing much has changed.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Pizza scissors are a fine option if you can’t find your cutter.