Fast Food - Porter

1a) I remember sitting in the passenger seat of my mother's car as she drove away from Eastpoint Mall. I must have been about six years old, because I remember becoming very excited when I saw the McDonald's playground, a large purple Grimace shaped steel cage on a spring that kids would step into and shake the bars to cause him to wobble back and forth. I remember that The Hamburglar sat on top of the slide and the Fry Kids were stuck into the sand on pikes. I think I can remember that during one of my visits to this playground, I first discovered there was a causal relationship between bright sunlight and sneezing. Oddly enough, the food itself is long since erased from my memory-- perhaps because after almost twenty years, the food hasn't changed in any discernible way, but the playground has become displaced in my life.

2a) In the introduction (p4, para 1) we are told that "in 1975, about one-third of American mothers with young children worked outside the home; today almost two-thirds of such mothers are employed. This fact relates to my experiences as a young child-- my mother was a single mom who worked two jobs to support me. Later in the same paragraph, it is said that much of the familial budget that used to go toward food (to be prepared traditionally by the mother or father in the home) now goes toward fast food.
On the same page (para 2), it is said that 96 percent of the world's children can identify Ronald McDonald; second only in recognition to Santa Claus. This also relates to my experiences as a child-- I was directly 'lured' to the McDonald's I so loved mostly by the recognizable figures of Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Hamburglar, and the playground they inhabited.
In regards to the ubiquity and uniformity of the fast food experience (p10, para 1), in that "the whole experience is transitory and soon forgotten", I am also reminded of my childhood experiences-- the food itself, while temporarily satisfying, has remained so consistent, uninspired and bland that I can barely remember any individual experience actually eating at the restaurants of my childhood, and have a clearer memory of the promotions, happy meal toys, playgrounds, commercials and other marketing I was exposed to.

3a) I am interested in the moment the fast food industry began working with toy manufacturers, movie studios, and other famous brands to increase their consumer base. I would like to discover the single "Eureka moment" that beget the industry as it is today; completely tied to and inseparable from the images and products they "synergize" with.

2) Schlosser combines the personal and analytical to illustrate the real-world effects of the fast food industry on the people and players involved, as well as to give his reporting a more dramatic and human touch-- we care more about the sometimes bland topics being discussed because of the effects they have on the people we're reading about. Also, by telling a story about a person or group of people, Schlosser can structure his facts and figures into a chronological order that is tied to the events his subjects experience- this again provides a structured and measured pacing that the reader can more easily digest, while embuing both with the familiar "dramatic arc" that is so crucial to good storytelling.
Schlosser's story about Elisa, the pubescent McDonald's worker, who is old enough to work, but young enough to be easily controlled (like most of the younger workers in the fast food industry) illustrates this tactic, as does the story of Greely, CO and ConAgra, two entities linked (for better or worse) for dozens of years, and the dozens of political policymakers and corporate officers dealing from the bottom of the proverbial deck.
Using this same technique, I could focus on the persons responsible for introducing "synergy" into the fast food industry, it's effects, and the controversies surrounding both, using historical stories with dramatic interest.