Ah, now this thread has finally migrated to a subject I consider important - coffee! In order to brew truly good coffee, a coffee maker has to deliver water to the grounds at around 190 degrees. I actually measure mine when I get a new coffee maker, and if it doesn't get that hot, I return it. If two samples don't get it right, I look for another brand. I don't know how not a liquid has to be to cause 2nd degree burns, but I suspect 190 degrees would do it.
Of course, the obvious retort to all this "more than you ever wanted to know about coffee" soliloquy is: Ok, so the water has to be 190 degrees to make good coffee - what does that have to do with McDonalds?" Alas, I cannot offer a response to that one. Except to say, that some restauranteurs I've heard express themselves on the subject hold to the theory that if it's hot enough, it doesn't matter how bad it tastes. Perhaps that's McDonald's' logic.
At any rate, my take on the McDonald's coffee suit is this: I don't care what the temperature of the coffee was; if the lady was dumb enough to think it was cool enough to not hurt if it spilled on her, she should be taken away and locked up: she is a menace and will sooner or later kill herself and/or somebody else. If she put the stuff between her legs knowing it was hot enough to burn her, well, that's nature's way of weeding out the stupid. As likely as any other scenario: She's not stupid, but just wasn't thinking. And for not thinking, she gets rewarded. Most of us have to pay for our mistakes ourselves and she should have, too. I agree that a 2nd degree burn in the groin area is serious. Amazingly, I've never had to have one to appreciate that fact, and I think pretty much everybody I know is in the same category. Maybe it just so happens that, by some queer accident, I and everybody I know personally is a genius. Lucky me. But it's strange that there are no other indications of this aberration of fate.
MarkC
