August 27, 2019

Lowe’s Exec In Trouble for “Small Hands” Gaffe

Joe McFarland, a Lowe’s executive paid $4 million per year, is in trouble over his description of a power drill:

McFarland, wearing a camouflage vest and seated in front of a sign that said “Lowe’s LoweDown,” went on to tout the features of this week’s spotlight item: “The thing is compact. It fits anywhere.” And a customer profile: “Some of our Hispanic pros with smaller hands, this is perfect for them.”

Well, that was stupid, and McFarland heard about it instantly. Still, I know you’re wondering: do “Hispanic pros” really have small hands? Naturally I’m here to help:

According to the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the formula for hand size in men is:

Hand Breadth = (Height – 86.783) + (.195 * age) / 5.122.

For a 35-year old, this suggests that the average Hispanic male has a hand breadth of 17.4 centimeters compared to 18.9 for white males. That’s a difference of a little more than half an inch. So McFarland may have been impolitic, but he wasn’t wrong. Perhaps we should send a $99 DeWalt 12 volt cordless drill to Donald Trump?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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