Re: Practice the Black Arts in class, get fired.

In article <ddfr-42A558.09185116052008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
David Friedman  <ddfr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>In article <sg3r2494617f7l4b1u37p2f1gvlg73del5@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> mike weber <fair****tfan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 16 May 2008 00:05:56 -0700, Daniel R. Reitman
>> <dreitman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> 
>> >On Wed, 14 May 2008 09:25:12 -0400, Howard S Shubs <howard@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>> >wrote:
>> >
>> >>But it has, and the woman involved was old enough to know it.  I
>> >>have very little sympathy for her.  There's no fool like an old
>> >>fool.  All that life experience and she STILL put hot coffee
>> >>where she did.  What an idiot.

I would not put a cup between my knees unless I was having trouble
with it.  If the instant case was styrofoam, I've had some difficulty
getting a plastic lid off or onto a styrofoam cup.  A few times I've
had a bit of trouble getting lids onto regular wax-paper cups.  Her
manual dexterity at 79 years old may have been a factor.

Furthermore, I don't see how to open a cup in a car without the risk
of spilling somewhere on me.  You might put it on the floorand work
from there, but my waistline will no longer permit such bending.  I
suppose I might open a window and hold it outside, but that's a bit
awkward, and it didn't occur to me until thinking about it a bit now
(have you ever bothered to open fast-food containers thru your
window?).

>What I find puzzling, reading the Wikipedia article, is:

It would have been nice if someone hadn't snipped the URL or failed to
provide it again:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants>

>"Liebeck was wearing cotton sweatpants; they absorbed the coffee and
>held it against her skin as she sat in the puddle of hot liquid for
>over 90 seconds, scalding her thighs, buttocks, and groin.[8]"

Footnote 8 is

    8.  ^ See Gerlin. See also Ralph Nader & Wesley J. Smith, No
    Contest: Cor****ate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in
    America (1996) ISBN 0375752587, 268

Gerlin is

    4. ^ a b c d e f Andrea Gerlin, Wall Street Journal, "A Matter of
       Degree: How a Jury Decided That a Coffee Spill Is Worth $2.9
       Million," Sept. 1, 1994, p. A1, available from Reed Morgan's
       website

That article is at <http://www.reedmorganpc.com/wsj_coffee.htm>.
 It
does not mention anything about how long she sat in it.  So the source
may have been Nader and Smith.  The most the article says about
exposure and duration is

    The company suggested that she may have contributed to her
    injuries by holding the cup between her legs and not removing her
    clothing immediately.

and

    But a doctor testifying on behalf of Mrs. Liebeck argued that
    lowering the serving temperature to about 160 degrees could make a
    big difference, because it takes less than three seconds to
    produce a third-degree burn at 190 degrees, about 12 to 15 seconds
    at 180 degrees and about 20 seconds at 160 degrees.

The coffee was at 180-190 degrees.  If I reach 79, if I spill
something so hot that it's destroying bodily tissue in my groin in
seconds, if my seat belt happens to be on (I have no idea whether
Liebeck's was or not, but personally I rarely unbuckle when doing
fast-food operations), I might not have the ability to remove my
clothing quickly.  I don't know whether the agony would be a spur to
greater speed or remove all ability to concentrate on action, and I'd
rather not find out.

-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]