Since 1979, the Wall Street Journal has paid tribute to the wealthy and powerful with a little woodcut-style half-column portrait on its pages. Today, perfection has been attained. Ronald McDonald, the costumed creep who has long terrorized children who only wanted some chicken-feet nuggets and a gun toy, got a WSJ "stipple."

Stipple is a word that means many things to many people. It is a common street drug term, and it serves as a kind of not-quite-illegal codeword when you want a certain sex act from a prostitute. But at the Wall Street Journal, it has always meant one thing and one thing only: A stipple is a vertical portrait thumbnail-sized pixelated black-and-white "hedcut" image that vaguely looks like that one Instagram filter.

Today, "Ronald McDonald" joins an elite crowd that includes Sarah Palin and the reggae artist Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. Welcome, hamburger clown. Welcome.

[Images via Wall Street Journal, H/T: Elise Foley.]