In today's newsletter:

• The unexpected history of McDonald's drive-thru (and indirectly, how some other writers spent their winter vacation).
• A deadly earthquake in Japan, how Minnesota is different this year, and why fish and chips are endangered.
• Yet another reason to like Dolly Parton.

However ... before we dive in ... our sponsor today is a special one. The company's founder is a long-time supporter of Understandably, and someone I've turned to for advice more than once.

I remember the first time he told me about his company, GradGuard.

My reaction: Wait a minute. This idea is so smart. Why didn't we have this when I was in college? And how have I not heard of it before?

Well, now's your chance to hear about it.

​

​College Bound? GradGuard Protects Your Student​

Maybe you have a kid in college. Congratulations to you both. But here's something to check: What happens to the tuition you've paid if something happens to prevent finishing the semester?
Most colleges don't offer tuition refunds after the first few weeks of school, and almost none provide refunds for housing or academic fees. But in 2021, 113,000 U.S. students had to withdraw for medical reasons, including things like anxiety, depression, mononucleosis, flu, and physical injuries. Plus, nearly half of U.S. students (41%) say they've considered withdrawing in the last year, with 55% citing emotional stress.
The risk is real, and that's why it's smart to consider protecting yourself with GradGuard’s Tuition Insurance. More than 500 colleges and universities rely on GradGuard to protect their students and families. You can too, but protection must be purchased before the first day of classes.

​Visit GradGuard.com to protect your student.​

​

Not allowed out of the car

Many years ago, McDonald's had a big problem at one of its restaurants near a U.S. Army base near the Mexican border.

Sales dropped sharply, and the franchise owner quickly figured out why. It turned out that the commander of the nearby base, Fort Huachuca, in Arizona, had issued a new order.

Soldiers were no longer allowed to go into civilian stores and restaurants while they were wearing their uniforms. So, no matter how much they might want to stop at McDonald's on the way to or home from work on the base, the soldiers couldn't do it without breaking the commander's rule.

Reading this story in 2023, you might ask yourself: Well, why didn't they just go to the drive-through?

Smart question. But, at the time, McDonald's didn't have drive-throughs at any of its restaurants.

So, this local Arizona McDonald's franchisee took matters into his own hands, by cutting a hole in the wall of his restaurant, adding a sliding window, and solving the problem.

Results: Soldiers could get their Big Macs without getting out of their cars in uniform, and we can identify the exact official birthday of the McDonald's drive-through, which McDonald's says is January 24, 1975.

It not only solved the problem for this local McDonald's outside a military base, but it highlighted a tremendous opportunity.

In fact, fast-forward nearly 49 years, and McDonald's says that orders at the drive-through now account for 70 percent of its U.S. business.

This brings us to what many writers at other digital media organizations were doing between Christmas and New Year's.

Last year, McDonald's told investors that its future would be about digital, delivery, and drive-through services," and that the "vast majority of new restaurant openings ... will include a drive-through."

This year (well, last year, but only a few weeks ago), they did just that, launching a new spinoff restaurant that embraces those priorities.

This is CosMc's, which is a drive-through-heavy, smaller restaurant series named after a fairly obscure 1980s McDonaldland character from outer space, and building on the 1970s innovation McDonald's unveiled outside the army base.

The new concept is all about beverages and snacks—basically things that you can order quickly, and that you're likely to order during the menu "dead zones" at McDonald's.

So far, there's only one CosMcs restaurant, in Bollingbrook, Illinois, and I will admit that I am unlikely ever to go there. Fortunately for our purposes, writers for other digital media organizations flocked to it in the last days of 2023. Their observations and reviews:

• "CosMc’s is indeed reminiscent of space – lonely, gray and being actively colonized by corporations." (The Guardian)
• "[C]onsidering that it took a significant chunk of my day to do this tasting adventure, I really hoped that I'd find more to like at CosMc's." (EatThis)
• "We entered the queue at 11:26 a.m. and began strategizing our order. ... [W]e were assigned to one of four drive-thru lanes at 12:34 p.m. ... Notably, every CosMc’s order is massive—because after waiting in a drive-thru line like that, who wouldn’t want to get the full experience?" (The Takeout)

Progress, right? But, did you catch that there are four drive-through lanes? The soldiers and workers at that McDonald's in Arizona in 1975 could only dream.

• Fun fact I had to include here somewhere in this article: I did my two-week Army Reserve annual training at Fort Huachuca one year, and I'm almost positive I went through the original McDonald's drive-through, although I didn't realize its significance at the time.
• Additional fun fact: Fort Huachuca is less than an hour's drive from Nogales, Mexico, so a fellow reservist and I decided to head there for an evening—blithely unaware until we showed up at work the next day that there was a general order prohibiting anyone assigned to the base from crossing the border. It would not have been cool to get court-martialed on annual training, but luckily we weren't caught.

Anyway, I find it's interesting to remember how McDonald's got into the drive-through game to begin with, and maybe a little bit inspiring to think about how solving a small problem can sometimes lead to a much bigger opportunity.

To celebrate, maybe even check out a McDonald's drive-through yourself, if you haven't been in a while. Bonus points if you're wearing camouflage when you do it.

7 other things worth knowing today

• Thousands of people in Japan spent the night in evacuation centers after a powerful earthquake. At least six people are confirmed dead, with the toll likely to rise in the coming days. Dozens of buildings have collapsed in several towns, trapping an unknown number of people beneath the rubble. The 7.6-magnitude quake struck at around 4:10 p.m. local time Monday. Tsunami warnings were issued but later downgraded. (BBC)
• New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued an order requiring bus operators to provide 32 hours notice before dropping off migrants bussed from red states like Texas and Florida, so that the city can prepare for their arrival. However, the surprise element seems to be a big part of the political strategy for sending the migrants to begin with, and so bus operators are now dropping off migrants at New Jersey commuter train stations, where they continue on into the city. (The Hill)
• Roughly 3,200 private venture-backed U.S. companies went out of business in 2023, representing north of $27 billion in investment. Here's a list (partial, obviously) and an examination. Takeaway: If you run a business, even if it's struggled a bit, you're ahead of these folks! (TechCrunch)
• Gaston Glock, an Austrian engineer who created the flat-nosed, plastic-body handgun carried by military and police forces around the world, glorified in films and rap lyrics and decried by gun-control advocates as one of the growing weapons of the streets, died Dec. 27 at age 94. Mr. Glock gradually disappeared from the public eye, even as the 9mm handgun he crafted built a global presence. Currently, more than 65 percent U.S. law enforcement carry Glock pistols. (The Washington Post)
• The quintessentially British fish and chips dinner is endangered. Why? Supply chain snags are driving up the prices for fish and chips. As many as half of the U.K.’s “chippies” could shut down. (NBC News)
• Relatively balmy temperatures and scarce snow have upended traditional winter life in Minnesota, disrupting routines, canceling wintry events and leaving many anxiously hoping for a return to bone-chilling normal. The unusual season is, in part, because air currents that deliver freezing temperatures to the state have shifted north this year with the El Niño weather system, a natural warming condition in the Pacific Ocean. Climate change has also contributed, says Pete Boulay, a climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. (WSJ)
• Yet another reason to like Dolly Parton. A 48-year-old dad and lawyer named LeGrand Gold recently learned that his Stage 4 colon cancer had become terminal. He wrote a list of 11 bucket list items, and thought one of them -- "meeting Dolly Parton" -- would be impossible. But after Gold’s wife, Alice, posted his wish on social media this month, Gold awoke to a call from an unfamiliar phone number Friday at his Utah home. (The Washington Post, YouTube)

Thanks for reading, and a special welcome to all the new readers who subscribed to Understandably since the last edition of this newsletter! I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you bright and early tomorrow. Also if you'd like to become a sponsor, here's the link for more info!​