I’ve been remiss in not extending my condolences to the family of Jim Delligatti. He died in late November at the age of 98.

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, it should.

The man stands alongside Edison, da Vinci and Franklin as one of history’s greatest inventors.

Jim Delligatti invented the Big Mac.

Yes, Virginia, this is the man who, in 1967, poured gasoline on the slowly smoldering fire that was American obesity and set it aflame. He’s your prototypical firestarter.

Delligatti’s legacy is impressive indeed. Each year, McDonald’s sells 550 Million Big Macs. And, that’s just in the good, old U.S. of A. Mickey D’s sells billions more worldwide.

Just imagine the number of calories Big Mac enthusiasts are shoveling down each year!  Guessing that the average Big Mac packs about 550 calories, my fuzzy math adds up to some 550,000,000,000 calories absorbed annually. Now, there’s a legacy.

I find it amusing, and alarming, that Delligatti lived for another 49 years after inventing the highly addictive Big Mac.

Assuming he ate one of his precious Mac’s every week for his remaining 49 years, Delligatti consumed more than 17,000 of those “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun bastards.” Sorry, that last word was mine.

Anyway, multiply those 17,000+ all-beef parties by 550 calories and ya gotta believe the coroner’s were confused as to whether Delligatti died of natural causes or committed the slowest suicide in history.

There’s so much more to be said. I think I’ll end by suggesting that, while McDonald’s may boast that billions and billions have been served, Delligatti alone can say he’s played a personal role (passively or otherwise) in accelerating the deaths of millions and millions.

R.I.P. Jim Delligatti. The man who brought obesity to the masses.