McDonald's Cannily Limits Access to the McRib This Year

Fast-food giant McDonald's is playing coy with its cultishly beloved novelty sandwich the McRib. CNBC reports the ostensibly beloved menu item — which attained pop-culture immorality in a 2003 The Simpsons parody — will not receive its usual nationwide roll-out, instead appearing only in select markets in 2014. Despite a rather involved promotional website listing the "101 Reasons to Eat a McRib," a McDonald's spokesperson tells CNBC that not all locations might elect to deal with the crowds: "We're letting the restaurants determine if this menu item is one their customers will enjoy." Could fewer McRib-serving locations give McDonald's a taste of Cronut-like lines?

The faux-rare McRib is only available year-round in Germany, and as a result, fans are known to count down the days (and sometimes make fan videos) until each year's re-release. And just as a reminder: All this fuss is generated for a sandwich that allegedly looks like this in its pre-cooked form.