Big Mac

What's wrong with the Cardinals? Probably nothing, as they still are one of the strongest teams in the National League. But the lineup Matt Holliday supercharged in the second half of 2009 isn't performing at anything close to that level, bringing hitting coach Mark McGwire up for review. The Cardinals were expected to run away with the National League Central but find themselves fighting off the Reds and playing at a relatively mortal pace. There have been no major injuries, yet the Cardinals entered the weekend 9-9 in May, having dropped three of four to the Phillies and six of nine in one stretch against the Astros, Pirates and Reds.

Each morning, Monday through Friday, I'll hook you up with reading material to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday -- that way I'll have an excuse to do the same at the start of mine.     Running it back: The Indianapolis Colts have not given Johnny Unitas' number to some guy named Kole Heckendorf . ... A day after practicing on a limited basis, Lee Evans, Ben Grubbs and Tom Zbikowski did not participate on Thursday . ... David Reed has been practicing and could play Sunday . ... Due to those enhanced security measures, the Ravens are asking fans to arrive early for Sunday's game at M&T Bank Stadium.

OK, Francophiles, try this tongue twister:Deux morceaux de viande hachee pur boeuf sauce speciale salade fromage cornichons oignons sur un pain rond avec sesame.What is it about McDonald's Big Mac hamburger that gets even some dedicated vegetarians' mouths watering? It has to be the special sauce. Everything else -- lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and sesame seed bun -- have been used since beef first was chopped up and pounded into a patty. Well, maybe not the sesame seeds.But the sauce, that's different, and we can thank Jim Delligatti, a McDonald's franchise owner in Pittsburgh, for creating it a quarter-century ago.This year, as the Golden Arches celebrates the Big Mac's silver anniversary, the triple-decker sandwich is being served in 66 countries, from Beijing to Boston, Manila to Moscow.

What's wrong with the Cardinals? Probably nothing, as they still are one of the strongest teams in the National League. But the lineup Matt Holliday supercharged in the second half of 2009 isn't performing at anything close to that level, bringing hitting coach Mark McGwire up for review. The Cardinals were expected to run away with the National League Central but find themselves fighting off the Reds and playing at a relatively mortal pace. There have been no major injuries, yet the Cardinals entered the weekend 9-9 in May, having dropped three of four to the Phillies and six of nine in one stretch against the Astros, Pirates and Reds.

MOSCOW -- The Big Mac, which had been falling steadily against the ruble, regained its strength yesterday after a determined effort to support it.In other words, after several days of battering by the rapid fall in the value of the Russian currency, McDonald's raised its prices by about 20 percent.Prices at McDonald's may not explain all of Russia's economic travails for the last four years, but they offer a vivid account of the harrowing effect on business and people.While the Russian leadership was bickering yesterday over whom to blame for the disastrous decline of the ruble and legislators were demanding a vote of no confidence in the government, businesses like McDonald's were trying to weather the storm.

PARIS -- Since McDonald's opened its first restaurant in France in 1979, an uneasy truce has held between this country's fine chefs and promoters of "le fast food." Now a McDonald's advertising campaign that appears to mock one of the greatest French chefs of all, Paul Bocuse, has led to open hostilities.Mr. Bocuse is suing McDonald's Corp. for $2.7 million. The ads, which appeared in 66 McDonald's restaurants in the Netherlands, show Mr. Bocuse and four disciples examining a pile of plump chickens, but the caption suggests they are dreaming of a Big Mac."

MOSCOW -- In a city where waiting is practically an art form, the lines at McDonald's have been awe-inspiring.In the two years since the world's largest McDonald's opened on Pushkin Square, up to 60,000 people a day have waited in line to buy sandwiches and french fries.But the gigantic lines that snaked back and forth for a block and stretched across the street into a park abruptly ended in January. The Big Mac had gone up to a whopper of a price.The Big Mac that once cost 16 rubles has cost 59 rubles since Jan. 8.The elderly here get a pension of 200 rubles a month.

IT BEGAN on a summer afternoon in Pittsburgh, 25 years ago, when a curious customer at a local McDonald's peeled the wrapper from what would soon become the most popular sandwich on Earth.The rest, of course, is hamburger history.Biting into the world's very first Big Mac, how could that Pittsburgh diner have known that by 1993, more than 14 billion of the "twin all-beef patties" and the "golden sesame seed buns" would have been devoured at the 12,000 McDonald's outlets that now girdle the globe?

BEIJING -- The world's largest McDonald's -- and the only one with its own Communist Party unit -- opened here today amid much hoopla, considerable Chinese curiosity and big expectations for profit.A huge, inflatable Ronald McDonald lashed to the roof of the two-story restaurant continually flopped around in the capital's strong spring winds. Inside, hundreds of newly trained, relentlessly cheerful employees nervously hand-polished its 28,000-square-foot interior in anticipation of its first customers.

EarthShell Corp., the maker of a new biodegradable sandwich container being tested by McDonald's Corp., said yesterday that it will start marketing its environmentally safe packaging to other potential food service customers. The Annapolis Junction manufacturer signed McDonald's as its first customer for the packaging, made of limestone and potato starch. In its original three-year contract worth an undisclosed sum, EarthShell was to supply McDonald's with at least 1.8 billion containers for its Big Mac sandwiches.

ONE OF these days, Mark McGwire is going to face the questions that every other accused baseball steroid cheat has faced, and will face until it all gets resolved. But before that, McGwire needs to face one other question that is even more important than the others: When did you become a made man? McGwire is untouchable, exempt, a sacred cow. Suggest that this scandal in any way brushes against him, and be prepared to face the consequences. Ask Jose Canseco, who directly implicated his former teammate in his forthcoming book.

Morgan Spurlock, the director of Super Size Me, is fitter and more rational than Michael Moore, his major influence. Spurlock launched a one-man near-suicide mission targeting fast food - and managed to make a first-person muckraker without turning into Moore physically or mentally. This movie is about Spurlock eating nothing but McDonald's food for a month. It's not about him eating up the screen. The picture is like a kid's all-you-can-eat dream come true, but come true as an adult nightmare involving deteriorating blood pressure and organ function.

PARIS -- Just a hop down the road, the Decler sisters could have been dining on a couple of tender frog legs or a mixed seafood grill with scallops, or an order of steak tartare so tender that the knife provided with it never comes into play. But the Declers were having none of it. They were dining on Les Big Macs and frites, Big Macs and fries -- french fries -- and loving every bite. "I can love good food and I can also love McDonald's," says Vanesse Decler, 21, in a mini-review that the fast-food chain would have to accept as decidedly mixed.

COLLEGE PARK - You can hear a little more post-practice laughter these days in College Park, see a little more bounce in the step of both the coaches and players. Music booms out over the practice field during conditioning drills, and a genuine sense of joy has returned to Maryland's football team. That can happen when you outscore your last two opponents 95-7. After faltering under the weight of preseason expectations, Maryland (2-2) has evened its record the past two weeks with wins over The Citadel and West Virginia, and today plays its final nonconference game, traveling to Ypsilanti, Mich.

EarthShell Corp., the maker of a new biodegradable sandwich container being tested by McDonald's Corp., said yesterday that it will start marketing its environmentally safe packaging to other potential food service customers. The Annapolis Junction manufacturer signed McDonald's as its first customer for the packaging, made of limestone and potato starch. In its original three-year contract worth an undisclosed sum, EarthShell was to supply McDonald's with at least 1.8 billion containers for its Big Mac sandwiches.

The St. Louis Cardinals sent a message to the rest of the National League over the past couple of weeks. They pitched and pounded their way to the top of the NL Central standings, and they did it largely without superstar slugger Mark McGwire. McGwire, who has been coping with a sore back, returned to the lineup Thursday night and took part in a lopsided victory over the San Diego Padres, but the Cardinals have proved that they finally are a complete team even when Big Mac is stuck on the sideline.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Since the end of the apartheid era, visits by Queen Elizabeth, Pope John Paul II and Mick Jagger have signaled South Africa's return to the international arena.Now another name can be added to that list: Ronald McDonald.The hamburger clown made his debut last week at the opening of South Africa's first McDonald's restaurant, hours after the company won a court order barring a local competitor from using its trademarked golden arches, names and logo.The local company had opened outlets in Johannesburg and Durban under the name "MacDonald's" -- with the extra a. In addition to the subtly different name, it offered a burger called a Big Mac as well as something called a Little Mac.But a South African court ruled Friday that the local company could not use the symbols of McDonald's at least until another hearing Dec. 3.The United States had already placed South Africa on a "watch list" of countries for failing to protect intellectual property, since a lower court had ruled that the locals could "borrow" the hamburger trademarks.

It sounds impossible, but Mark McGwire is simultaneously attacking and defending his single-season home run record. Both are positive developments.He's attacking his record of 70, set last season, with an awesome flurry of homers since the All-Star break. It's a blast to watch, no pun intended.But even more importantly, he's hitting the homers without using androstenedione, the controversial testosterone-producing chemical that left a smudge on his record, however faint.McGwire admitted last week that he stopped using andro four months ago because he feared too many kids might follow his lead.