I will cheerfully pay a whole dime more for everything on the Dollar Menu if it means the people behind the counter get a livable raise. As a free additional bonus, they'll all be spending all that raise in other local businesses.

I rode crammed into the clown car at the circus once. The back seat was out, so we could get more people inside. I forget how many kids and clowns were in there, but the donkey stepped on my foot. I didn't mind though because it wasn't the worst thing the donkey could have done on my foot.

What I don't understand, is that where I'm from (Denmark) McDonald's is consistently voted as one of the best places to work in (or maybe its BK - but I'm pretty sure McDonald's. Anyways, same same). My friends who worked there during high school/gap year/uni all got paid 20+ USD per hour and got all kids of benefits…

There have been a lot of stories lately about McDonalds' sales struggles this past year or so. I listen to economists and economic reporters questioning why this might be and talking about the menu being "too confusing" or about competition from high-end fast food from Chipotle and the like. This might be true, but…

I blame Oprah for two of TV's biggest quacks and charlatans: Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz.

Only problem with your post is that Neuschwanstein is not located in Austria ;)

Luigi Lucheni - he was just a complete ahole from the get-go, from what I understand. His parents put him in an orphanage because he was too much to handle. Legend in the family goes that he didn't care who he killed: he just wanted to be famous. He would have killed any royal he heard was coming to town; it just so…

That certainly is NOT all, come right back here and tell us more. (Please.)

Totally fair enough, it really is tricky and most academics shy away from using a medical label for her behavioural issues. In more informal articles and documentaries that I've seen (in German) the idea of her having suffered from an eating disorder is usually discussed quite openly because her symptoms were so very…

I didn't want to get too deep into diagnosing her (that's always seemed pretty tricky to me, and I've got zero medical training) but yeah, it definitely seems there was some complicated shit going on between Sisi and food and her body.

Very good, detailed article. I'm from Germany and she is indeed everywhere, or should I say a certain image of her. There is however a very keen understanding that there s a very big difference between the way she is portrayed in the three very, very, very much beloved movies (who are on TV EVERY CHRISTMAS) you…

The families intermarried so often the Wittelsbachs practically were Habsburgs and vice versa. The marriage of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph was the 20-somethingst between their families. They were first cousins, as you mentioned, and their second daughter Gisela was married off to a Wittelsbach guy yet again.

Great piece on one of history's great Complicated Chicks! Once you know she's Mad King Ludwig's cousin and Drunk King Max's daughter, and that her son died in a suicide pact, you understand her madness & misery all the clearer.... With all that inbreeding, the drunks & crazies really proliferate in a royal family. All…

There's so many royal/aristocratic related landmarks that seem to fall into the category of "damn they spent a lot of money on this... good thing it's making it back now with tourism". Think of how many people go to Versailles each year- a place that was literally designed to keep the common folk separated from the…

Great article! As a German growing up with the Sissi movies, I'm naturally obsessed with anything Sisi! She really epitomises everything that is wrong with reducing women to their physical appearance.

I think most Americans tend to learn about the Austro-Hungarian Empire vis a vis WWI when, let's face it, they didn't make a great showing. (It was like swinging an ax into a log and poof, it's already been eaten by termites.) So a lot of the English-speaking world doesn't seem to realize how important the Habsburgs…

Straight up, that's the best legacy for a king. Ok, so maybe not blowing all of your money on art and architecture, but, then again, at the end of the day, what survived?

I love articles like this! Thanks, Kelly.

One aside on "Mad King Ludwig": I went to Austria with my folks when I was a kid, on one of those bus tour thingies. Our guide was English, and he was very condescending about Ludwig, his mania for Wagner, his weakness, and what I now realize are sly hints about his…