February 12, 2019

America’s Greatest French Fry Secret Revealed

Hmmm:

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s the fast-food french fry ranking picture:

Sorry, intern, but your food critic is right. Well, he’s right about one thing, anyway:

In this ranking, Del Taco is the University of Maryland, Baltimore County taking out Virginia in the first round of March Madness. I came in with the lowest of expectations for Del Taco fries — this is a Southern California-based taco chain after all, and I didn’t even know they had fries until I went in.

Hello, upset! This was a very decent batch of crinkle fries, with a crispy, salty outside and nice, fluffy center. Even better was that the employee who took my order gave me packets of both ketchup and smoky hot sauce with my order.

This is one of the best kept french fry secrets around, so good on Lucas Kwan Peterson for going beyond his preconceived notions and recognizing it. On the other hand, I’d say that Carl’s Jr. fries kind of suck and In-N-Out fries are fine. As for McDonald’s, I know they have a great reputation, but the last few times I’ve had them I’ve been unimpressed. Was this just bad luck? Maybe. But I’d put them on probation at the very least.

What’s also interesting here is that—in Peterson’s opinion, anyway—taste and texture are very tightly correlated. The upper-left and lower-right quadrants are practically empty. Hmmm again.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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