I looked forward to family vacations as a young boy, even though it meant sharing a cramped, cold-vinyl backseat with two bullying older brothers, because it also meant a stop at the local McDonalds for an on-the-go breakfast of Egg McMuffins. For reasons that defied my picky appetite at that age, I loved the gooey mass of faux cheese, burnt egg and buttered muffin. And was that bacon in there, too?

So it was with a measure of sadness that I learned the inventor of the Egg McMuffin -- the man who made speedy, delicious family roadtrip breakfasts possible -- has perished.

At 89.

(Seriously? 89? The guy who invented the most unhealthy meal in America lived to be 89? Wow.) With our yuppified, montessori-waldorf organic leanings, we have yet to let our nearly 2-year-old sink her ankle biters into an Egg McMuffin, but I have a feeling that will be remedied soon enough. Here's to you Herb Peterson, who made speedy family getaways possible.

[AP photo]