Charlton, MA: McDonald's

Crispy Chicken Sandwich - 0 stars
about $4

Yes, McDo is getting expensive; you can end up spending over $6 for a value meal these days. I swore off of McDonald's since reading Fast Food Nation, but at 11 pm on the Mass Pike rest stops there isn't really any other option, and the 6 packs of Asian-style crackers I ate in the Air Canada lounge in Toronto weren't cutting it for dinner. I know I should get the Chicken McGrill instead, because it's "healthier," but I always succumb to the temptation of the deep-frying, and ...

Predictably, the chicken was overcooked by a factor of 3, and came with an uninspired tomato, some iceberg lettuce whose only fault was that it was iceberg lettuce, and an awe-inspiring scoop of mayonnaise that I scraped off. Coupled with a bun utterly devoid of either character or structure, it added up to zero stars. And I couldn't even play the arcade games because I only had Canadian coins in my wallet.

Back in Toronto, after 20 minutes spent trying to get the projector to work, and operating on two hours of sleep, Michael did a great job on the demo. By the afternoon, he and Daniele were bickering so amiably that one member of the audience said they were like an "old married couple." We told them they got the comedy for free with the software.

Random travel notes
The Air Canada lounge does put U.S. airport lounges to shame, with a full bar, Canadian beer (the good stuff) on tap, and free, high-speed wireless Internet access. It's surprising that such a fine lounge is provided by the same airline that flies an 18-seat plane to Hartford where the co-pilot seems to double as the flight attendant. There was no demonstration of the safety features of the plane, perhaps because it didn't have any.