Eating organic, local, and avoiding fast food since seeing Super Size Me--can we raise our daughter to have the same foodie values?

While I'm still struggling with the concept of an adult Happy Meal, millions of other grown-up Americans are digging into brightly colored boxes that contain a "premium" salad, bottled water, and, oh yes, a fitness-oriented treat.

In another attempt to revamp its continually tarnished image, McDonald's has partnered with responDESIGN to feature its Yourself!Fitness DVDs in each "Go Active! Happy Meal for Adults" (am I the only one who is appalled by these names?). There are four DVDs in the series and Bill Lamar, Chief Marketing Officer for Mickey D's, hopes that "customers collect all four DVDs to benefit from a complete workout program."

There are some people who take great comfort in the global ubiquity and consistency of fast food. Whether it's a McDonald's in Brussels or a KFC in Bangkok, knowing that the menu choices will taste the same as a location in Boise, Idaho or St. Louis, Missouri is somehow reassuring. But things are not always as they seem - or taste.

You probably never thought you'd hear “McDonald's” and “energy independence” in the same sentence, but here is a tale that defies the odds: Mississippi resident Robert Tomey, who owns four Mickey-D's in the southeast, is running his VW Beetle on the copious gallons of grease that are left over in his french-fry friers, according to a recent Associated Press article. To advertise his concept, he has come up with the perfect neologism, emblazoned on his license plate: FRYBRID.

People are always dumping on CNN for being too liberal, or not liberal enough. But I, for one, am just grateful we have a media outlet with CNN's resources willing to ask the tough questions and tackle the burning issues of the day.

The question, yesterday, was “How does McDonald's new premium McCoffee compare to Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts?” To get an answer, CNN's Jeanne Moos stood outside CNN headquarters at the Time Warner Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side and persuaded passers-by to participate in “an unscientific, totally amateur” blind taste test.

Chipotle’s a restaurant chain, but there's little to link it to the conventional fast food joints this country's used to, if you don't count the fact that McDonald's is their biggest backer. Besides, hasn't McDonald's proven to be pretty progressive in some ways? They deep-sixed the styrofoam packaging, took a pass on genetically modified potatoes, and partnered with Paul Newman to upgrade their salad dressings.