Luongo's Missing McNuggets

Staff at the Mcdonalds restaurant at Main & Terminal say Roberto Luongo, the Canucks goalie, grabs a bite to eat at their drive-thru window after games sometimes.  That restaurant is also popular with Downtown Eastsiders who drop in for coffee -- and free refills.

A supervisor said they once got Luongo's order wrong and forgot his "10 mcnuggets."  I don't know whether they got his order straightened out, because the supervisor wasn't talking directly to me, and it was loud in the restaurant as they now have sports blaring on the tv screens much of the time.  It's become a bit like a sports bar.

Luongo, the supervisor said, drives through in either "his truck or his sports car". He comes through during the regular season but hasn't come through during the playoffs.

A young Chinese guy who works at Mcdonalds was delighted that Luongo shook his hand.

That Mcdonald's is a short distance away from the arena in downtown Vancouver where the Canucks play their home games -- so close that you can see the big yellow arches if you look across the parking lot.

Professional athletes have to be on a high quality diet.  But some dietitians advise following the 80-20 rule.  Eat well 80% of the time, and you can eat whatever you please the other 20% of the time.  That allows for some Mcdonalds take-out to snack on while driving home after a game.

McDonald's Asst. Mgr. Threatens to Call Police on Blogger

If Nike's slogan is "Just do it," McDonald's could be "Just wash it."

On the evening of Sun. Dec. 7, a customer in McDonald's restaurant at Main & Terminal near Science World -- that was the day of the Santa Claus parade so it had been busy in McDonald's -- went to the washroom and left her coat on her chair. When she returned, her coat was gone. She asked the cashiers about it and one young male with "Ali" on his name tag said, "I threw it in the garbage."

Ali, who has short dark hair, a calm demeanor, and appears to be of middle eastern descent, walked over to the garbage can and, as the customer watched, fished her coat out. He had to reach down under several trays of garbage and food scraps to find it. 'It had ketchup and grease on it from other people's food", said the customer.

"Just wash it," Ali said calmly, shrugging. The woman was upset and said she thought McDonalds should buy her a new coat. The Assistant Manager, Jennie, a young, thin, white woman with long dark hair, said that wouldn't happen. She used the exact words Ali had used, "Just wash it."

Jennie defended Ali, saying that he had been doing his job as "floor workers" are trained to do it. If there is an empty tray, she explained, the floor workers are under instructions to throw everything away.

When Jennie later realized that this incident was going to be reported on the internet, she insisted that she had never said that tossing coats in the garbage was official McDonalds policy. She asked Ali to back her up on that and he agreed. The boss is always right.

Jennie stated then that if her handling of this incident was reported on the internet, "I'll call the police." She repeated a second time that she would call the police, saying, "It's illegal to put somebody's name on the internet."

Not only the woman's coat but the contents of the pockets ended up in the garbage: her house keys, ear phones, and gloves. She hadn't realized when she went to the washroom that her keys were still in her coat pocket; usually she carries a purse. So she was grateful to find that they hadn't been lost in the garbage. When she got home she noticed that two of the keys were bent though. That could have resulted from the compressor inside the garbage can which presses the garbage to make it more compact. Her ear phones were still in her pocket too. But she was missing a glove.

And McDonald's is missing a customer.

(Above photo: McDonalds at Main St. & Terminal Ave. on the night of Dec. 24, 2008)