Don Gorske, Legend
So what word or phrase comes to mind when you hear of a man who has documented proof that he has eaten 30,000 Big Macs in his lifetime?
Weirdo…
Something off about that boy…
He must be single…
All of those are legit responses, but isn’t that what makes Don Gorske’s story AWESOME?!!! (He is happily married by the way.)
The math on his achievement is as follows: He has eaten at least one Big Mac every day since May 17th, 1972. There have been only 8 days since then when he hasn’t eaten one, and those were days where he physically couldn’t leave the prison where he worked. It had nothing to do with weddings, funerals, birthdays… he got in his Big Macs on those days!
Yes, Gorske is a weirdo. You know who else is, the person who has NEVER eaten a Big Mac. And I know several people who claim that proudly. Look, we are all weirdos. Some of us train all year in sleet, snow, and rain to run 26.2 miles. (I said “some of us”, not “all of us”!) Some of us work hour after hour trying to make our lawn look better than our neighbor’s. Some of us collect Pez Dispensers. Why do we do these things? Because it’s a challenge, because it makes us happy, because it makes us odd in a fun way. All of those apply to Gorske. He is to be applauded, in the same way that the person who staggers over the Finish Line on Boylston Street is applauded. 30,000 Big Macs! Oh, and Gorske’s not done. He says he hopes to hit 40,000, which he calculates will take him 14 more years. (He is not wavering from his eating routine and is not planning on increasing his daily intake.)
Look, 100 years from now no one will know who Don Gorske is, or what McDonald’s was. But so what? For some random, crazy reason Don Gorske set out to do something no one in their right mind would ever think to do, and he’s been more disciplined at doing it than anyone else could possibly be. I love it.
For the record I have never had a Big Mac. I have no interest in pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, or “special sauce”. Baconators on the other hand…
More wisdom next week.