• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, December 11, 2014

Get your totally disenfranchised vote in now on CNBC’s “which item should be cut off the menu” poll as McDonald’s follows through on expectations to shed excess items by saying it will slice eight items from its menu next month to speed up service. 

“The fast-food giant is also reducing its number of extra value meals from 16 to 11 as it seeks to turn around its U.S. unit, it said at its investor meeting Wednesday,” Katie Little reports.

(On the same page, CNBC’s Landon Dowdy reports on the latest Grant Imahara myth-busting video out of McDonald’s. This one debunks the presence of “pink slime” in Chicken McNuggets, showing “lines and lines and lines” of real workers with sharp knives separating white meat, dark meat and skin on a Tyson factory floor even as Amy Steward, Tyson’s Principal Meat Scientist, answers Imahara’s probing questions about the oddball stuff that pops up in Internet searches.)

“Executives also said the chain plans to study every ingredient in its products and review different cooking and holding techniques to improve the quality of its food,” Julie Jargon writes in the Wall Street Journal.

“We must and will win with our food,” new McDonald’s U.S. president Mike Andres said “two days after the company reported the steepest monthly same-store sales decline in the U.S. in more than 14 years,” Jargon reports. 

Andres also said “the cuts will clear the way for future food innovations, which could mean adding new ingredients or customizing individual orders,” on a call with investors that also was monitored byCNN Money’s Katie LoBosco. 

“But don't worry, McDonald's stressed, classics like the Big Mac and the Quarter-Pounder with Cheese aren't going anywhere,” she writes.

What’s really to worry in Oak Brook headquarters?

Well, “as Fortune reported last month in an article detailing McDonald’s chronic problems, the restaurant’s menu has 121 items today, a 75% increase from 2004, citing industry consultant Aaron Allen,” Fortune’s Phil Wahba reminds us.

“The pared-down menu is part of what Andres, who returned to McDonald’s in August to stem the U.S. sales slide, called the chain’s effort to regain its ‘burger leadership.’ And the idea is for McDonald’s to be more nimble to changes in customer habits.”

Yesterday, “Andres conceded that McDonald’s problems were such that the company had to move decisively,” Wahba continues.

“We are not going to re-energize this business by taking incremental steps,” Andres said.

On the call, CEO Thompson “sought to reassure investors “ that the “changes will help strengthen the chain's appeal as it fights to hold onto customers,” writes the AP’s Candice Choi. “The discussion … came after the company earlier this week reported yet another monthly decline in U.S. sales [4.6% in November].”

“Thompson has conceded McDonald's Corp. has failed to keep up with changing tastes,” Choi continues. “One of the problems is that people are increasingly moving toward foods they feel are fresh or wholesome, and the image of fast-food burgers and fries doesn't exactly fit that bill.”

Fret not, ye of little taste for the lean.

“It’s not like you’re going to miss [fill in your favorite item here, which may or may not be getting cut], McDonald’s says, as four out of five of its sales come from a small set of items on the menu,” observesConsumerist’s Mary Beth Quirk.

“It helps operationally, yes, but it simplifies the menu as well,” said Thompson on the call.

As for that CNBC poll we mentioned in the lede, 33% of an unknown number of consumers were voting Wraps off the menu this morning (“take that, you wannabe health freaks!”), with Premium Quarter Pounders not far behind (27%). Filet-o-Fish was still in the race at 21%. Salads (12%) and Grilled Chicken sandwiches (7%) seemed safe — at least in the minds of those of us who mindlessly clicked on the meaningless bait and were treated to videos for the “IBM Cloud” and what it could do for our business.

Who needs bots to waste time and money?