Back then? Never. They’d give you coffee in the cup and let you fill your own thermos. Was only not that many years ago where Starbux and similar would let you do your own filling, and even discount you a nickel or whatever for saving them the cup. But back when that happened? No way.
The same principle can be applied here as far as lights, though. Glued-shut, dumbed down, keep muggles from burning themselves and starting fires in their houses.
Hell, my bone-stock S2+ that I left tailstanding on high for maybe 5min or so got so hot I couldn’t even grab it long enough to turn it off. Had to use some cloth as an “oven mitt” of sorts to do that. And even then I couldn’t pick it up without said oven mitt for quite a while.
Yet people here rear up on their hind legs and wail loud’n’long if any mfr even tries that.
That knife cuts both ways.
If I were high up at McD’s, I might’ve would’ve taken the same approach as they. If you’d try to “help” or try to “be nice” by paying her bills, you’d essentially be admitting guilt. Not morally, but legally. And any idiot who chokes on a chickwich can later sue them, and expect to have all his medical bills paid. “Slippery slope”, once you set the precedent.
I don’t recall if their coffee cups back then were labelled "CAUTION! HOT HOT HOT COFFEE! BEWARE!", ad nauseam, but if not, they’d be “liable”, and if so, they’d be laughable. Same like the cape warning to keep some lackbrain from leaping off a garage expecting to fly.
Sure, we laugh at the idiot warnings that are on, well, everything nowadays, but it’s specifically to keep some sue-happy putz from not dealing with his own stoopidity. If someone jumps off a garage whilst wearing a cape, I’d say pay your own bills, and learn from the experience. Instead, they sue, and are rewarded. “Nobody warned me the coffee was hot!!” Ummm, really? Calling it “hot coffee” isn’t enough of a clue?
Bags of peanuts on airplanes. Labelled, "WARNING! Contains peanuts!". Uhh… duh? If you have a peanut allergy, the big honkin’ label calling them “peanuts” isn’t clue enough? They need a “prominent” warning elsewhere reminding people of that? Yeesh, no wonder Chock Full O’ Nuts had to come up with an entire ad campaign telling people that their coffee doesn’t contain nuts. :person_facepalming:
So yeah, “hot coffee” should be pretty explanatory.
And if we don’t want dumbed-down lights, we really can’t fault McD’s for that.
And just as an aside, I don’t eat at McD’s any longer, not since I heard that (as I understand it) they’re one of the very few FF places that does not use “cruelty-free” chickens.
…. Sad. 
