Daily Bafflements

• This, on the heels of the NLRB’s ruling: McDonald’s restaurants in South Florida are speeding up the production line. They’re handing out timers to drive-thru customers, and offering coupons if food isn’t ready in sixty seconds or less.

• Marketers, as you were. A study in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that when it comes to provoking empathy, fiction and fact work equally well. Pacific Standard summarizes: “People incorrectly believe they will have a stronger emotional reaction to stories that are based on fact.” But study participants “reported equally intense emotional reactions when they believed the story was fictional as when they believed it was real.”

• Have exactly forty-two minutes? According to VQR’s handy read-time estimator, that’s how long it will take you to read this piece on Confederate reeanctors and their “anachronistic . . . locker-room banter,” by Jesse Dukes. 

• Yesterday, the Spurs hired Becky Hammon, and became the first NBA team to put a woman assistant coach on the payroll. But not without praising her “interpersonal skills.” Statement from head coach Gregg Popovich: “Having observed her working with our team this past season, I’m confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs.”