McDonald’s has faced many challenges over the years: anti-globalization activists, unions, obesity concerns, Morgan Spurlock nearly killing himself. But who’d have expected the simple hedgehog to take a swing, from England of all places, and hit? As you may have heard, “hedgehogs have finally humbled burger giant McDonald’s ... forcing the company to redesign its killer McFlurry ice-cream containers,” Reuters reports. Apparently, hedgehogs seeing a cool, creamy treat could get stuck in the containers and die of starvation. As you can imagine, this upset people. OK, it upset only one person. But she happened to be the chief executive of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (members of which pride themselves as much on their abundance of spare time as on their devotion to all things hedgehog), and she pestered McDonald’s about it for five years. Eventually, the efforts “prompted ’significant research and design testing’ to develop new packaging” (as though it took a laboratory of scientists to shrink the cups by an inch or so). All the same, this is an event worth celebrating; this is a triumph, not only for the common man (woman) bravely opposing the multinational juggernaut but for anyone whose irrational hobbies brighten long stretches of unemployment. Come to think of it, I wonder what else those British hedgehog people have had a hand in. Great photo from YesButNoButYes.

—Posted by David Kiefaber