I've been known to climb a few soap boxes in my day. There are just certain things that can really get me all riled up and when they do, it's hard for me to step off. I'm also one of those consumers who gets really caught up in brand loyalty. In fact, people who ride around town with me lately have been bombarded with brown truck sightings (I know, I know, you're tired of me pointing out every brown truck and even the ones that aren't brown but might as well be) - that's just an unfortunate result of one of my favorite brands also providing my income. These two character traits, however, can create quite the internal conflict when they meet up face to face. This is exactly the situation I find myself in with the relatively recent changes to the value meals at Wendy's.

Surely you're aware of the absurd lawsuits that this country has produced over the last few years. A while ago there was that whole "hot coffee" incident at McDonalds. Then, more recently, someone decided it was the restaurant industry's job to put blinders on our eyes when they get "too big for our stomach". All of this litigation lead to the development of sweeping reform across the fast food industry. Gone are the days of super sizing and the confusing-nomenclature-yet-satisfying "biggie sized" meal at Wendy's. The latter is what I'd like to concentrate on.

It wasn't too long ago that, at least in my area, the "Biggie Size" version of a value meal at Wendy's was only 39 cents extra. Well then came the 10 cent price hike and, other than the initial disruption to my exact change payment method, I was cool with it. Then comes along this whole "eat less because we're gonna make you" revolution and now, as I've only recently realized, the Biggie size fries is no longer the Great Biggie, but the original Biggie. While from a naming scheme perspective this makes a lot more sense, the pricing scheme didn't change and the actual sizes of the fry cartons also remained the same. Plus there's this added confusion of how one is supposed to get a Great Biggie if one so chooses. Wasn't it enough for everyone to start offering alternatives to fries with their value meals? What's next, are we gonna have McDonald's start hiring people to make sure we eat these healthy alternatives too? Are grocery stores in trouble? Will they be required to have nutritionists walk around with us and make sure we buy the right kind of meat and bread and not too many sweets?

I hate hearing the whole Bill of Rights/freedom argument over and over again like it's some queen of spades or something, but I really am kinda tired of losing some of my autonomy in the world because there are people who can't take responsibility for anything. But most of all, I'm mad that, even after I've paid 49 cents extra for my double with cheese value meal, I'm still hungry. And Wendy's, just because I'm not really blaming you for all of this, I just want you to know you're still not off the hook for that little Halloween scam you run every year.