As usual, we’re coming at you with a lot of topics this week. We discuss the ill-fated submersible in the North Atlantic and discuss another world record. Chris informs us of something else we need to be fearful of. We also touch on an interesting thread Chris found on Reddit: what is a luxury today that once was viewed as common? And finally, the head of the Harvard medical School morgue was, allegedly, selling body parts!
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5. Credits
As usual, we’re coming at you with a lot of topics this week. We discuss the ill-fated submersible in the North Atlantic and discuss another world record. Chris informs us of something else we need to be fearful of. We also touch on an interesting thread Chris found on Reddit: what is a luxury today that once was viewed as common? And finally, the head of the Harvard medical School morgue was, allegedly, selling body parts!
1. Topics
2. Additional Resources
3. Merchandise/Support the Show
4. Contact Us/Follow Us/Rate/Subscribe
New episodes every week!
Listen, rate, follow, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts!
Follow us:
5. Credits
This week, millionaires lost at sea, charging people to drive, a new world record, ocean bears, luxuries, and stealing body parts. Welcome to Subpar Talks. Hey everybody, welcome to Subpar Talks where we have conversations about everything. I'm Jeff.
Chris:And I'm Chris.
Jeff:Thank you again for joining us and of course, here's our standard disclaimer. Listener discretion is advised. We like to curse from time to time, maybe a lot, and depending on the episode, we will touch on some mature subject matter and we inject our humor into a lot of this stuff. So if that does not set well with you, then maybe we are not for you. But for everybody else, settle in because here we go with this week's topics. OK, I gotta get this off my chest. I've been seeing for months, I don't know, people on Facebook, in Texas, talking about how they can't wait for the summer, looking forward to the summer, can't wait for warmer weather. All that shit.
Chris:Yep.
Jeff:Well, guess what, assholes. It's here. This is what you were waiting for. My God. Walking outside, sweating when you're not supposed to, opening the door to your car, it's like opening the door to an oven.
Chris:It is.
Jeff:You can't even breathe. You burn your hands on your steering wheel and this is what they all wanted.
Chris:It's ridiculous. I see. That's what I don't get. I like being able to go out and, you know, to be able to do outdoor activities. Let's just say that I like being able to do outdoor activities. I like being able to swim in the pool. Now it needs to be warmer to swim in the pool than it does for other outdoor activities. Mm-hmm. I like all of that, but, We are just excessive here about all of it. It's ridiculous. The other day I walked out my front door to empty my vacuum cleaner container, just to empty it into a plastic bag. I was probably, I, I couldn't have been out there for even a minute just to do that. As soon as I walked out the door, it just slapped me in the face. Like, holy shit. Yeah. What is, I mean, it felt like I walked into a steam room. The, the humidity was horrible. Yeah, I know. And then when I came back inside, it felt like it was freezing because Right. You know, I had been perfectly comfortable inside, but after being outside exposed to the moisture, the heat, and I come back in, After that short amount of time and it felt so cold. Yeah. I'm like, and I didn't go outside for the rest of the day, why would I? Well, no. Why would you want to? Yeah. I don't know why anybody wants to. Jesus Christ. I don't understand. So anyway, all you people who wanted it, here it is. You can celebrate. Expose your sweaty armpits by raising your arms. So I was out in Lubbock this past weekend. Mm-hmm. West Texas. And for those who don't know the difference here, the, the eastern part of Texas can certainly be a whole lot more humid. West Texas is just notoriously dry. Yeah. On the days where we had near a hundred degree temperatures, maybe hitting a hundred. Our heat index here in the Dallas area was 120 to 125. Yep. At the same time, in Lubbock with nearly the equivalent temperature, your heat index was barely over a hundred. Right. And we had 70 something percent humidity one day while Lubbock had 13%. Oh my God. So when I was in Lubbock, it was hot. I mean, when you hit a hundred degrees, hot is hot. Mm-hmm. But there's hot and then there's miserable. And. I was outside under a tree, so in the shade and was pretty comfortable, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. Tempera. Tempera. You tolerate that temperature. Yeah. Yeah. But the humidity, my god. Yeah. It was so bad. You walk outside and my glasses fog up. Yeah. Have you been following the, the aftermath of the submersible thing, whatever we call it, searching for the Titanic. So I followed the fact that they were searching for it, you know, that it was missing. They thought that there was X amount of oxygen left, or on this time clock, all of that. Yeah. I didn't know. I, I know a little bit, uh, it was a tourist
Jeff:thing, right? It was$250,000 to ride down in this thing.
Chris:Wow. Well, and the c e o of the company was on it too. So it was him and I think, was it three other people? And I guess there was four of them. And I guess the
Jeff:pilot of it, or Yeah, there were, that's what you call, I know there were five total.
Chris:Yeah. Yeah. So that's about all I know is you know, the number of people there, there was X amount of oxygen looking for them and. I, I would keep up with, you know, have they found it
Jeff:yet? So I do know that people in this industry, there's a whole industry of submersible vehicles, whatever you call'em, and they had warned this company that there were problems with this particular craft, but they didn't pay attention to him. I know one guy who was like the whistleblower, he got fired for. Trying to tell them that there were problems with it and all of that really, that these people plunk down 250,000 bucks to go down to the Titanic so they can see the Titanic for themselves. It's about 13,000 feet down from the surface. Mm-hmm. So we're talking, what is that? Two and a half miles and a half miles, two and a half miles down pitch black. I, I, this goes to show you just because you have a lot of money and these are multimillionaires, if not billionaires, who can afford to do this type type of stuff. Just because you have money does not mean you are smart. I'm sorry, objectively, that is a dumb thing to do. I don't care how, how fascinated you are with the Titanic or the ocean or whatever. It's stupid. Yeah. I mean, plenty
Chris:of people have done it before, but I don't, I wouldn't do it if they paid me$250,000. No. Never. Me having to pay for it, that would scare the shit outta me. Yeah. I feel like it kind of like I feel about space if I knew that I had a hundred percent chance of safely getting there and getting back. Mm-hmm. And I would also say, If I could just like be, be put out, you know, tranquilized or something, sedated until I'm in space or tranquilized until I'm staring at the Titanic, yeah, maybe I'd be OK. Well, I would be OK with that if I knew I had a hundred percent chance of survival, but, right. Can you imagine what I mean? I, I don't know. I, I don't even know. I mean, cuz now, you know, we know that they found the wreckage. There are no survivors. Right. And I just, I can't imagine what that would be like when it all goes bad.
Jeff:So I, when I first learned about this, everybody's thought was OK, they're just gonna slowly run out of air, and what a horrible way to die. And then I saw a, an engineer. I think this person was an engineer. It doesn't matter, but they were explaining they might not even be alive at this point. Like this was after the first day that we really learned anything about it. He said they might not even be alive because when you get down two miles under the surface of the, the water, the pounds per square inch is over 5,000. So if something happened, which it looks like this did, they were crushed instantly. Right. Which, yeah, you would have to hope it was immediate. Yeah. I guess that if it was immediate, that's better than just going out slowly, slowly losing oxygen. That would be horrible.
Chris:Yeah. You would, you would hope that, that, you know, something for a very split second. But that's what I wondered, like, would they have known that it was failing before it failed? Or was it just an
Jeff:immediate implosion? I dunno, did they hear a noise? What? What was that? I
Chris:don't, yeah. Oh, look. Or it'd be more like, what was that? Yeah, a leak. So I saw a story the other day that New York is going to start charging people for going into downtown to reduce congestion.
Jeff:So if you drive beyond a certain point,
Chris:Yeah, and that's my first issue with it is they said into downtown, but they actually said south of 60th street, well, 59th Street borders the south end of Central Park. So basically, yeah, that's not, that's Midtown. If you go anywhere on the south side of the island, You'd be getting charged for that. Yeah, and they wanna start it in like is, I'm trying to remember if it was 25. It is 2024 or 2025. And it's not cheap. They're talking like 15 to$20.
Jeff:Oh my God. Yeah. Wow. OK. So do you know if they charged for bridges there, like driving across the bridge? Most
Chris:of them, but I think, um, I think the 59th, well they used to call it the 59th Street Bridge. It's also the Queensborough Bridge. Mm-hmm. And now it's, um, it's named after one of their mayors, I think the Koch Bridge, I think is what it's called. Um, that
Jeff:sounds familiar. Yeah. I
Chris:think it's free, but I don't know about like, um, the Brooklyn. Bridge. I think you can go on the Brooklyn Bridge for free. Well,
Jeff:I remember hearing that about London and what I heard about London was kinda like with New York City. I know they were going to charge people, but I don't know if it had taken effect yet or if they decided to nix that or whatever. So I think you're gonna start to be, to see that become a lot more common.
Chris:Yeah, I think London was one of the ones that was mentioned in the article. It mentioned, um, at least three or four or foreign cities. This is the first city in the US that would be doing this, and Los Los Angeles said they're gonna be watching how it goes in New York because they would like to do it too.
Jeff:I just think the residents of those cities are gonna take it two very different ways. Because you can get around easily in New York without owning a car, but in la holy hell, yes. What are you gonna do?
Chris:That could be, I know that could be horrible. I really don't know that much about the mass transit in la. I don't, I mean, they obviously have buses, but they don't have any kind of like monorail or subway or anything, do they?
Jeff:Uh, it seems like they might have a subway, but it's not very extensive. But I don't know, maybe I'm confusing that with another city. Yeah. You know, we've talked about this, but the, the Seinfeld episode, it's the limo when j uh, Kramer and Elaine are waiting on Jerry and George at the street corner. Right, right. And, and Elaine comes up, she's in a cab and gets out. And he says she took a cab and she says, yeah. And he says, how much do you make? And of course she doesn't wanna tell him or whatever, right. I never really got that until I was in New York City for the first time, and there are people in cabs sitting still. They're just sitting in the road while the meter's running. I'm like, holy hell. You can get out and walk. That's right.
Chris:Well, and you remember in, uh, the Puerto Rican Day, Parade episode. She does get in a cab and they're sitting, she gets out. Yeah. And starts walking, and then the cab starts moving. She gets back in the cab, then she gets out and they keep going back and forth. But yeah, that just sucks. Yeah. If you're sitting going nowhere and you're paying,
Jeff:I know. I, I just, I was shocked. Like people just sit there in the cab and you're just paying money to sit there. Yeah.
Chris:But taxis are expensive anyway.
Jeff:Yeah. Well now they're gonna become more expensive if that policy goes through.
Chris:OK. So that was one of the things that was in the article is talking about the, the uproar from taxi drivers, Uber drivers, things like that. But they said that, um, they would be charged. I think in some cases it was gonna be like once a day. Mm-hmm. And I think that's what it is. They would be charged like once a day, but then after they do it, 10 times in a month, then they start getting a discount on that, so. Mm. And that's the way it should be because that's part of the mass transit, you know, is Right. OK. You're not owning a car, but you're taking a taxi and, you know,
Jeff:toll roads and, and paying for stuff like that, paying to go across a bridge and all that traditionally has been more common in the northeast. Right down here where we are. I mean, toll roads were few and far between, but now there's so much more commonplace. There's a lot
Chris:of them in Texas.
Jeff:Yeah, there are. There didn't used to be. Well, it's gonna be interesting to see what happens there in New York and yeah, as you said, with LA it's gonna be a, a cue for other cities to start looking at that stuff. It will,
Chris:it'll be very interesting. But like you said, I mean, there's, there's so many other ways. Maybe not so many ways, but there are good ways to get around. Yeah. I mean, you take the subway, there are bus, I mean, I don't think about it a lot, but New York City actually has a good bus service. Yeah. It will be interesting. But I, I, the thing that that caught my attention probably the most is. When they said downtown, I thought literally like lower Manhattan. Right? But they're south of 60th. That's, that's the whole southern part of the city
Jeff:that's gonna affect tons of people. Millions. Wow. Yeah. Have you ever solved a Rubik's
Chris:cube? I have not. And do you know, I've actually put that on a list of something I wanted to be able to do. Yeah. Like I think that's a bucket list thing. OK. I just want be able to do it.
Jeff:Uh, did you ever own one? You owned one, right? Oh yeah.
Chris:I owned one. I did a whole lot with it.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah, I just kinda looked at it. Yeah, so I didn't know if you'd solved one or not. I, I have not. I mean, when I first got it, of course you play with it for a little bit and then you realize this, this is not gonna happen. And so I just, yeah, set it on a shelf and then that was that. I don't even know if I'd have the patience to do it. I would like to say that I have done it, but I don't think I could handle the process anyway. I'm bringing that up. And I don't mean to keep harping on Guinness Records. We talked about Guinness Records a couple episodes ago, and then, You brought up the underwater guy setting a record, but holy hell, I saw this on Twitter. A guy just set a new record for solving a Rubik's Cube. Yeah. 3.13 seconds. No way. Yes.
Chris:OK. How
Jeff:I, I don't know. I've the, uh, the video's there. I'll dig it up and post it in the episode notes. It is nuts. If
Chris:I knew how to solve one, I couldn't solve it in my mind that fast. No. Nevermind. Physically do. I don't even understand how that's physically
Jeff:possible. I don't either. I've seen these people do it really fast and they look at it and, and they're allowed to pick it up and like study it and they look at it, but when they're looking at it, it looks like they, they've never seen a Rubik cube before. Like that's how intent they are. They're looking at like, what is this? And they set it down. And then they pick it up and then the clock starts and he just fiddles around. It just looks like he's fumbling with it in his hands and then sets it down. Yeah, and it's done. What the fuck? I don't know. It's like a magic trick. It is like a magic trick. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. Some, some
Chris:slight of hand business going on there. It didn't really solve it.
Jeff:I know it, but that was crazy. 3.13 seconds. You wouldn't think anybody could beat that, but who knows?
Chris:Wouldn't think anybody could beat whatever was the record before that,
Jeff:right? Yeah. What was it? Five seconds Losing? You know what I
Chris:saw one time was, and, and this wasn't about speed. I have no idea how long it took him, but that's not the point. The guy was juggling Rubik's cubes and solve them while he was juggling them.
Jeff:Jesus
Chris:Christ when they slowed it down where you could see it, and when it dropped into his hand, he made one turn before he had to throw it up again. And he would do that with each one. Every time they came down was a single turn back up in the air, single turn back up in the air, and he got all three of them solved.
Jeff:That's insane. It's, and how much practice does that take? Was he socially awkward?
Chris:How would you not have to be? I mean, I got other things to do.
Jeff:I know it. He's just sitting in his room solving Rubik's cubes and then he decides he wants to juggle and then it, you know, no juggling different items and holy hell, it had to take forever. But no, he's gotta be really socially awkward.
Chris:Well, and see, just like the guy who's, who's setting that record for solving it, is. You're juggling, which is one thing. Then you've got to see the cube well enough to know this is the move that I need to make. Right? You've gotta catch it correctly in order to make the move and then get rid of it. And you're trying to solve three of them, not just
Jeff:one. Just one. Yeah. I don't even understand. That's, that's nuts. I
Chris:don't either. No, I, I'm definitely not in that ballpark.
Jeff:Let me ask you what you think about this. So speaking of Twitter, I saw this on Twitter, somebody went on a rant. Most of Twitter is just a cesspool of stuff, but I thought this was interesting. This person says, dear Walmart, target and Home Depot and all other stores that have have self-checkout, you are almost exclusively self-checkout. Now, the last time I was there, you had a lady stopping everyone at the exit checking her seats. I didn't choose to participate in that nonsense, so I just skipped the exit line and left. I heard her saying, sir, sir, as I kept walking and raised the receipt above my head, leaving the store, You can either trust me to do self checkout or you can put your cashiers back in place like it used to be. I'm not interested in proving that I did your job for you. You want me to be a cashier with no training, then that's your problem, not mine. Don't audit me for a position you refuse to employ any longer. Wow. I think that's a pretty good point, right? I think it is
Chris:a pretty good point. The very first time I ever encountered anybody checking receipts. Was at Sam's and I never understood why they did it because that was prior to self checkouts. Exactly. Like somebody already checked me out, now you're gonna check the receipt when I'm walking out the door. Yeah. And I actually had a situation one time where I had paid I needed to, to pay separately for, um, to have two different receipts. So I walked out the door only showing them one receipt. Yeah. And so I walked out the door with probably 50 to$75 worth of stuff that I paid for. Mm-hmm. Just on a different receipt that they never looked at. So they have no idea what they're even seeing on the
Jeff:receipt. That's my thing. Like they, you could have a cart full of stuff that you just bought and you're going by them and they come up and look at your receipt and yeah, it's got a bunch of stuff on it. But then they're not checking. They can, they couldn't possibly check that what you have on your receipt is gonna match what you have in your cart. It's stupid. It is. I don't like getting stopped. I mean, I see the people there and I don't make eye contact, cuz if you make eye contact with'em, they're probably gonna wave you over and say, you know, Whatever. Let me see your receipts. So I just put my blinders on and move on. Well, the other thing
Chris:that's bothering me about that is, and not the checking receipts, but the self checkouts in general is prices are still going up. Like, where are we saving by not having. People check me out. It's not saving me
Jeff:money. No, it's saving them
Chris:money. Yeah. It's maybe putting more money in their pocket, but like now Exactly. Now I'm doing their job. Yeah. And I'm getting nothing for it. Right. Except standing in a longer line. So. If you go to the ocean, how concerned are you about sharks jellyfish, things like that, that you expect to find in the ocean? Do you think about it a lot,
Jeff:going to the ocean? Uh, the jellyfish thing usually doesn't concern me that much because they have the warning flags out and they'll be able to, you know, the lifeguards and, and they can generally tell you when jellyfish might be a problem. I do think about sharks, but not a lot. I mean, it's just so rare. Yeah. I did see a dolphin once, but I, I didn't know it was a dolphin at the time. I saw a fin sticking out of the water and I freaked out and started yelling. Shark abort. Yeah. But no, I don't, it doesn't concern me that much. I'm more concerned now in the ocean with getting some kind of flesh eating bacteria or God knows what, you know. Brain eating amoeba. Yeah, there you go. That too. Yeah. So why do you ask, was there a shark attack? Well,
Chris:I've got a, I, I've come across a new fear that we need to be concerned about. Oh, great. Um, in Florida, a black bear swam out of the Gulf of Mexico onto the
Jeff:beach. What the hell?
Chris:Yeah. How did it get there? Well, it was in Destin, Florida, which you know, is a very popular place to go. Yeah. So there's all kinds of tourists
Jeff:out there. Redneck Riviera.
Chris:Yeah. Wow. So I had no idea about this, but I, in reading this article, it said that there are actually, they estimate about 4,000 black bears in Florida. I didn't even know black bears really lived in Florida at all. Nevermind that many. They said that some of them are around the coast, but that this time of year, it's not uncommon to see that. And I'm like, this is the first time in my life I've
Jeff:ever heard of it. Same here, just swimming in the water.
Chris:Yeah, and it was, uh, they've got a video of it. Somebody took a video and all these people crowding around it, and it said that at this time of year Cubs that they'll start to venture out from their mom and are looking for other places to go. And they said sometimes they will get out there and swim to some of these little adjacent islands. That are the, the barrier islands right there at Florida looking for something to eat too. My God. But I've never seen anything like that. It is so baffling. Like, until I read it and, and they, you know, were actually saying, yeah, this is a thing. And it happens. Like, um, I'm just out here swimming and a bear pops up. Do I really need this concern?
Jeff:No. Well, hell, I It is probably only a matter of time before they, well, I do know that black bears are starting to make their way into Texas. Like they've seen them in like really far northeast Texas. Yeah. Cuz they have'em in Arkansas. Yeah. So, wow. They're coming
Chris:northeast Texas that's coming
Jeff:in on our territory. I know it is. I don't know if they're coming in through the Gulf though. Might be getting it from both ends.
Chris:Yeah. Well that's Texas 40.
Jeff:I saw this on, I think it was Twitter. Somebody posted a video of this. These people saw a grizzly bear. They're in Alaska and there's a river there, a stream, and the grizzly bears just walking through this water. The people are all laying down. Somebody's videoing it, but they're all laying down. And people, I think this was on Facebook and people were commenting like, yeah, if it's brown lay down, I'm like, what the hell is that? And then somebody had the complete saying below, I like this. So if you confront a bear and you can't like get away or whatever, if it's black, fight back. If it's brown, lay down. If it's white, good night, you spend no fucking chance of the polar bear. No, no, no.
Chris:Those things are massive. Yeah. I mean, a grizzly bear is too, right? Are grizzly bears brown? Are they not
Jeff:black? No, they're brown. OK. Yeah. Yeah. So I've heard black bears, like unless they're, unless it's a mother with their cubs, Uh, or they're just starving. They're not gonna, they're not gonna attack you. When we were in Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains, we stopped and we're gonna walk on a trail, and there was a sign at the beginning of it that said what to do if you encounter a bear. And they have black bears there. And I pointed it out to my kids. I was like, haha, look, if we see a bear do this thinking there's no fucking way we're gonna see a bear. That's ridiculous. And I swear like a hundred yards into the trail, oh, there's a bear. And people were gathered around taking video of it and pictures and all that. And there she did have cubs. There were cubs with her. So I was like, all right, well that's the end of that. Yep. Let's make a uturn back up. Yeah.
Chris:I would love to see one like that, but I know it would scare the shit outta
Jeff:me. Yeah, well imagine if you're just minding your business in the ocean. In
Chris:the ocean. And one pops up, man. Oh mama.
Jeff:So you brought this up a couple of episodes ago. I think it was. About a Reddit thread. It was what do people see as a luxury today that used to be commonplace? Oh yeah. And I thought that was really interesting because we, as we talked about, it usually goes the other way, right? Like something that used to be a luxury now is commonplace. You know, prices go down, whatever, uh, life's just generally easier than people had 50, 75, a hundred years ago or whatever. So I thought that was interesting. Can you think of anything off the top of your head before I get into some of this? Because I couldn't really, so I
Chris:couldn't either. And one thing, so this was a completely separate thing that I came across and I realized I wasn't thinking about it in the way that I think the question was posed. I was thinking about it more the way you and I kind of discussed as you think I. Technologically, yes, things become easier and, and with that technology, you know, things are expensive to begin with, they get cheaper, et cetera. I mean, think cars even, you know, who could afford a car in the beginning when they're driving a horse and buggy, but we got the assembly line, got cars cheaper, et cetera, et cetera. And here we are. But one thing that I came across, and I think we could put it in this category is houses. It is getting much more difficult. Yeah. For people to buy houses. OK. Yeah. And if you want a house and some people don't, that's fine too. But if you want a house, that's a sad thing. If you literally can't see yourself. Being able to get into that. And the article that I saw said 75% of homes are becoming too expensive for middle income buyers.
Jeff:Jesus Christ. Yeah.
Chris:Wow. Well, and if you look at what home prices are doing everywhere, and see, I never used to think about that so much in Dallas because I knew. That Dallas was different than a lot of the rest of the country for, we have a lower cost of living compared to other major metropolitan places, but our housing was even less than that. Mm-hmm. We, we were, we were below the, the norm in terms of that, and with all the people that have come in here in the last 30 plus years, 20 to 30 years. And probably given a whole lot of other factors, the, the cost of houses here has just soared. And other people in other parts of the country probably wouldn't think it's that big of a deal. But it is a big deal when you're seeing, you know, two, 250% increases in Right. You know, five and 10 years.
Jeff:That is, that's a depressing stat. And the fact that so many people put this on here is amazing. But the thing I don't get is houses are still being built. Yeah. Like somebody's buying these and they're not just little shacks. I mean, we're talking huge houses. Who are these people? How are they affording it? Maybe they're up to their eyeballs and debt. I have no idea. But it's amazing that, that we know housing prices are going up. And people continue to pay for that. Yeah. It's crazy.
Chris:That is what I wonder about a lot is just how much debt people are taking on, you know? Are they, yeah. Just, and, and that's, it's that quote again, you know, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Right? Are they, I mean, yeah, maybe they're taking on debt that, that they can pay right now, but at what cost? Yeah. And that, that's something I, I realized as an early adult, maybe a late teen, late teen, early adult, when you talk about whether or not you can afford something, it's a longer term question than do you have money for it right now? Mm-hmm. Because very true. I could pay for a lot of things right now that I also might. Say, I can't really afford. Mm-hmm. Meaning if I pay for it right now, I'm gonna have to sacrifice something down the line that's more important than that thing. Yeah. That may be retirement for one. I mean, are you saving money for retirement or are you saving money for emergency expenses? Those kinds of things. And what's gonna happen when these people are up to their eyeballs in debt? And then that emergency happens, they don't have the money. Mm. And you know, you go bankrupt, whatever you can't afford your house you for, you're foreclosed on. I mean, those things happen all the time. And it just makes me wonder if, if that's what's going on in some of those situations because you can't imagine that that many people are earning that
Jeff:much money. So here's another one. I, so somebody mentioned, uh, products without a monthly subscription. Oh, OK. Yes. But man, so many things have changed in that regard. And we've talked about this before, but you're talking about where you used to pay for a landline. Well, now you got your cell phone, you're paying for that service, and then internet. Like there's stuff that people just didn't use to have to pay for, right. I mean, I consider the, I don't, I don't consider phone luxuries on, maybe the internet is not a luxury either, but it's just different. I don't know. I don't know that I would necessarily put in that category, but I thought it was interesting that somebody brought that up very much. Somebody else mentions retirement strategy built into your job. So pensions. Pensions used to be a really common thing, and those have all but gone away except in just a few, um, industries.
Chris:Yeah, that's, that's very uncommon
Jeff:now. Yeah. Somebody says, imagine getting a good paying job and knowing you were going to do that job for 30 years, make enough money to buy a home, raise a family, and then retire with enough money to pass down to your kids. Jesus Christ. That sounds like a fairytale.
Chris:It does though. I guess you could call that a luxury
Jeff:now. Yeah, I guess so. Somebody also mentions, uh, activities. Carnivals concerts used to be way less expensive than they are now. That's a great point. I can't tell you the last concert I went to, but I have looked into prices for concerts for people coming through that I wanted to go see. And you see prices even in the nosebleed, and I'm like, well, we're not doing that. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Yeah.
Chris:Well, you know what part of that problem is, is Ticketmaster having a virtual monopoly on all of that. Yeah.
Jeff:Sons of bitches. Yeah. Yep.
Chris:Right. That cuz honestly, that has changed it a lot. Back in the seventies, even early eighties, there were multiple companies that would sell through venues. Yeah. And now they're all but
Jeff:gone and. Another issue. And I know that sporting events, so you could lump that in there too. Scalpers, is that politically correct to still say thinking on the Seinfeld episode? Yeah, but uh, I think they call themselves ticket brokers now, but they buy up tons of tickets and then they can just charge you bend over prices if you wanna go. Ankle grabber? Yeah, ankle grabbing prices. Uh, the thing is PE it's kinda like houses. Like they're getting the money. Like people are still paying it. Yeah. It's just crazy to me. Thank you to credit cards, I imagine. Yeah. Like last time Paul McCartney rolled through, we looked to go, looked into go to see him. Like how cool would that be? Go see Paul McCartney and yeah, we would've ended up paying almost 500 bucks for two seats. I mean, I'd like to see him, but not that bad.
Chris:I didn't know
Jeff:he was on tour. Well, this has been a couple of years ago. Yeah. He's gotta be, I don't know how old he is. He's gotta be pushing 80, I would think he's, yeah, I
was
Chris:gonna say he is gotta be up in his seventies.
Jeff:Yeah. Isn't it crazy like, I bet if you look at the life expectancy of rock and roll people, pop stars, it's gotta be less than the average, right? It has to be, yeah, that's a hard life dru and drugs and alcohol abuse and whatever else. But then you have people like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger that just keep going on and on.
Chris:Isn't that amazing? We know all of the things that we're supposed to do to take care of ourselves. They don't do it. And they don't, and then they, they just go on, they look like shriveled prunes, but yeah, they're still, they're still out there.
Jeff:Yeah. Oh, wow. Somebody put privacy. Ooh, privacy is a luxury. I could see that. It definitely used to be a lot more common. I mean, now you got cameras everywhere.
Chris:Yeah, but that does make sense. I mean, it's certainly not a normal thing. How about retiring at all? I know it. I mean, I've thought about that. Nevermind the pension. We're talking about it as though, oh, you don't have a pension, so now it's on you to save and be able to retire. But that assumes that you
Jeff:can, I know. This answer made me laugh. Somebody put uninterrupted videos.
Chris:Oh
Jeff:yeah. So back you used to gather around kids. They used to have videos on YouTube and you wouldn't be subjected to ads. You just watch the video all the way through and now, god damn it, you just, yeah. Gotta put up with the ads sons of bitches. Yeah. Somebody put eight hours of sleep. Yeah. And then he edited his comment, said, I'd like to add, I'm not a parent. I'm just fucking miserable.
Chris:I like that. Sounds pretty
Jeff:common. Yeah, it does. Oh, here's an interesting one. So somebody said lobster. Oh. Said lobster used to be a poor man's food. Uh, she says in her childhood, her mother talked to an old man who had been poor in his youth. He told her how he would wait until the middle of the night to go throw his lobster shells into the sea so that no one would know. He had to resort to eating lobster. Wow. And I know, and I was like, what? And somebody commented, said, yes. Lobster meat, turning rancid fast, if not stored properly. Is what it comes down to. Once people figured out how to store it, keep it fresh and all that, then it became not a poor man's food. It was like a luxury thing, but I never knew that. And somebody says, yeah, lobster. They used to serve lobster to prisoners a lot back a long time ago. Isn't that strange?
Chris:I've never heard that. That's fascinating. Well, that's pretty cool to think about that subject in that way. Come up with, with some answers that actually make a whole lot of sense.
Jeff:Yeah. And real, uh, really quickly here, another thread that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I think was, uh, another Reddit uh, post. But what do Europe Europeans have that's common that Americans see as a luxury? And this is a really long thread, but I'll boil it down to two things basically, cuz these dominated. Vacation and healthcare. That's what it boils down to. Yeah. Yep. Uh, vacation. We're talking mandated vacation, like you have to take it and you get paid. That's in the law. And then of course they have universal healthcare.
Chris:Isn't their vacation commonly like four weeks or something like that?
Jeff:Uh, I think it's, yeah. It's pretty standard I think in like France. And so it's probably similar in other European countries. It's like 30 days paid vacation a year and yeah, I mean you, I, I have, I'm assuming you get to choose how you wanna break that up. Yeah. Somebody else mentioned, uh, like a slower pace. And of course that's gonna depend on where you are in Europe, but they mentioned Italy and I didn't know this till we went to Italy. They have a, a siesta, I mean, I don't know what they call it. I know they call it a siesta in, in Latin American countries in Spain, I'm assuming. Observe it, observes it, but yeah. At like noon. Yeah. Everybody, they just shut down. Like they close up their shops and go home. Yeah. So bizarre. I'd
Chris:like to close up my shop at noon. I'm out.
Jeff:I'm out. See you later. Yeah. So very different. Would you like that? Would you like a siesta here if we did that? Take a couple hours? I'd like
Chris:the time. Doesn't mean I'd necessarily take the nap, but Sure. Who wouldn't want to, you know, work for three to four hours, have a couple hours off, and then work another three to four hours, you know? Yeah. What else is common in some of those countries is eating dinner later?
Jeff:So, OK. I was gonna say, in Italy we, like, we didn't know about that whole siesta or whatever they call it. And uh, so we were just doing our thing at one o'clock, two o'clock in the afternoon and around six o'clock we're hungry. So, OK, let's go eat. And I mean, you just looking at us, we don't look like, we're not Italian. Like a lot of people look like us. And we walk into the restaurant and the host there starts speaking to us in English. And I was like, how did, why did he speak to us in English? And then I look around and there's not a goddamn soul in the restaurant except us. We're the only ones. It's like, really? You gotta be American. It's Italian, it's not right.
Chris:That's funny. Yeah. But yeah, I never really thought about it. That could definitely be a contributing factor to eating later. Hey, they took their siesta in the afternoon. Now they come back to work. They don't stop working then till maybe six. They go take their time off for a little while before it's dinner time.
Jeff:And you know what you do at dinner time? You know what
Chris:you, that's what I thought. Talk about, about you,
Jeff:about your day. Oh man. I just saw this. This is disgusting. I saw this in the New York Times this morning. Harvard Medical School morgue managers sold body parts according to federal prosecutors. He's been arrested. Wait, what? Body parts? Well, OK, here
Chris:we go. You're selling off of dead
Jeff:people. The manager of a morgue at Harvard Medical School has been charged with selling body parts from donated cadavers. And allow, so here's the answer to your question, and allowing buyers to come to the morgue to choose which parts they wanted.
Chris:Choose. Choose what the hell. OK. So you know, whenever you have certain surgeries and I'm thinking, I don't know, I remember hearing about people that have had an A C L tear or something like that and they have to have surgery that they might use a cadaver acl. Yeah. But, but does that have to be dealt with differently than just the random person showing up in the morgue? I mean, can you just say, I. I want the ACL out of that guy, you know?
Jeff:How does that work? I don't know. I have no idea. Did he just rip it out and slap it on the table?
Chris:I dunno. Can I have that kidney? I mean, what about the whole idea of like, if you're gonna be an organ donor, they have to keep you on a machine until they harvest those organs and then they have to be put in the recipient, like right soon.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah. It's gotta be quick.
Chris:So I think that's what confuses me. Like how do you get this off of the cadaver and it's still
Jeff:viable. I don't think they were looking for it to be viable. They're just collecting. Yeah. So I read it, this woman, some woman runs, uh oh, I don't remember the name of the store. Uh, creepy something or other like that in Maine. And so she was, Like she had a brain of a person that she had on display. They've charged seven people, I think, total. Wow. But yeah, I don't get it.
Chris:So if you donate, now here's this too. If you've donated your body, what difference does it make? What happens to you after that? Well, I guess cuz it's not getting used for the intended
Jeff:purpose, I guess so. So that's what I was wondering if the people have donated their body or, or whoever the family, whoever was in charge of the decision. They said, OK, we want Harvard Medical School to have this body. What exactly is the crime? I mean, obviously the, the guy running the morgue is not authorized to sell this stuff, so. I was wondering what they were charged with. The charges are conspiracy, so they were all these people were working together and interstate transport of stolen goods. So I guess he didn't have a right to sell'em. And then of course they didn't have a right to buy'em. So that's what I
Chris:was gonna say. It could be like theft.
Jeff:Yeah, it's just particularly creepy because it's body parts. I did read also, I just thought of this, reading this, there were two stillborn babies that were supposed to be cremated and he didn't cremate it. He sold those to whoever. Wow. I know. That's some twisted shit right there. It's very twisted. It reminds me, uh, George Carlin. This is when he was a lot older. This might have been his last standup, but he was talking about necrophilia, how humans are so fucked up like no other animal on earth will fuck a dead, whatever it is. Yeah. Like a rat will do disgusting shit, but it's not gonna fuck another rap. But humans look at a some, some people look at that and somebody just died. Hey, let's fuck'em. Yeah. Man, what the fuck? I don't know. There's some very twisted people out there. See, I don't get that. Mm-hmm. I don't understand people. No.
Chris:Well, and that's illegal, right?
Jeff:Yeah, it is. Yeah. Oh, what's that charge? Um, I think it's, uh, descr. Desecration of a corpse or something like that. Yeah. OK.
Chris:So you're still protected after you're dead. All right.
Jeff:Oh, that came up in some case. And the state law, depending on which state you are in the law is different. And I don't remember where I heard this, but it was some true crime case where a guy did fuck a corpse, a woman who had died. Mm-hmm. And they, I mean, they have proof that he had sex with her corpse. And they tried to charge him with rape and he was found really guilty on rape, and he appealed that decision and said, it's not rape. She was already dead, so his conviction was overturned, but I'm like, hold on a second. If somebody's rape, they didn't consent, so exactly. Obviously a corpse cannot consent, so how can it not be raped? But it just depends on the state. I thought that was interesting. No, I
Chris:think that's a great argument that you just made, that it's all about consent and Right. I don't consent for that to happen to me after I'm dead or before.
Jeff:Honestly, though, I don't really care. Like I'm not gonna know about it.
Chris:Yeah. I'm not, I'm gonna know about it, but knowing right now that it's a possibility, I'd prefer that it not.
Jeff:If anybody's planning on violating me after I die, please don't tell me about it now. Just I wanna remain in the dark.
Chris:So Texas just passed a law or passed a bill that was signed into law to do away with vehicle inspections? Yes. I don't get that. It makes no sense to me.
Jeff:So when we moved to Michigan, I was inquiring about all that. Like, OK, I need to get a driver's license and all that shit you gotta do when you move to a new place. I asked somebody, where can we go to get the car inspected? And they looked at me like I was speaking another language, like they didn't even know what I was talking about. And turns out you don't have to get your car inspected in Michigan. I was like, huh, that's weird. But then I read when Texas was passing this law, that we were one of only like 13 states that, uh, that required it. Seriously. I thought it was, yeah, I thought it was a lot more common
Chris:thought everybody would have to do that. I did too. So are people not just driving junk down the
Jeff:road? Well, that's the concern I have is at least when you're going to get your car inspected, like you know that it's at least fit to drive on the road and now, We're gonna have more pieces of shit than we already do. People driving on bald tires and who the hell knows what else? Yeah, that concerns me. And somebody else brought this up, I didn't think about this, but when you get your car inspected, they verify that you have insurance, you have to show proof of insurance. So now we're gonna have even more people on the road who don't even insure their cars and hoping they get away with it. But what happens when they get into an accident? You're fucked.
Chris:Yeah, I think you still have to show your insurance to, to get your registration though, don't you? To get your tag. Uh
Jeff:oh. Well, under the old system, you had to show, you had to show that to the people inspecting the, to the inspection, and then they gave you the form that verified it. So I don't know how it's gonna work now. So
Chris:maybe they'll do that with Reg. They better still be checking that. Yeah, because there's still people driving without it, even when they're checking it. Right. I mean, I guess they go get insurance for the day and you know, or that one month or whatever, just to get their registration and then cancel it.
Jeff:Yeah, maybe. And uh, this is a new law in Texas too, and I know at least a handful of states already have this, but they're gonna start charging. Electric vehicles, 400 bucks to register each year. Why? Well, I had the same question. At first, I thought, well, it's our asshole governor who, you know, they want to, you know, they're, they're beholden to the oil industry and all that, so they're trying to stick it to, uh, you know, electric vehicles, renewable energy and all that. Yeah. But it seems like a pretty valid argument that. We who have gas vehicles, we're paying a tax every time we fill up at the pump and that gas tax goes to road construction, maintenance and all that. And so electric vehicle car owners are using those same roads, but they're not filling up with gas, obviously, so they're not contributing to that. So I can kind of see it from that standpoint. OK.
Chris:Yeah. Yes,
Jeff:that makes sense. Have you ever failed the inspection test?
Chris:Yes. I know I had a problem with my horn one time.
Jeff:What? What was the problem? It just didn't honk. It was a loose wire. Yeah. Oh. All right. There you go. That is another episode. If you like this stuff, then this is your type of podcast and we are your type of people, and you should absolutely, without a doubt, follow us. On whatever platform you listen to podcasts on. That way, you're gonna get new episodes delivered to you every single Tuesday when they drop. And while you are there, go ahead and rate us. We would be really happy if you'd give us five stars and while you're there, go ahead and type something. It doesn't matter what you type, but the way these apps work is if you type something there, then that's gonna make it easier for people to discover the show. We have a website that is Subpar Talks dot com. There you can email us. You can leave us a voicemail. If you wanna leave suggestions for topics we should cover on future episodes, please do that. We will always take those into consideration. We are on social media on Twitter. We are at Subpar Talks on Facebook. We are Subpar Talks. If you wanna follow our personal Twitter accounts, you can do that as well on there. I am at@independentjeff.
Chris:And I am at Chris Bradford, tx.
Jeff:And last, but never, ever least, share Subpar Talks on social media. Get the word out to your family and friends and colleagues and whoever else you encounter on a daily basis. Because the more people we have listening to this show, the easier it is on us to get this content to you every single week. And there you go. Don't know what we talked about again. I know we just got done talking about cars inspection. Yeah. Rubik's Cube. Yeah, there was a lot there. Final thoughts, concerns, questions.
Chris:Watch out for bears in the ocean. We have a new threat.
Jeff:Reminds me of uh, not to keep Har on George Carlin, although he is one of the greatest ever, but he had the bit where. You can utter a sentence that you're guaranteed has never been uttered, ever in the history of mankind, and that's gotta be really close. I don't know. Watch out for bears in the ocean. Think tank might be one of them. Yep. All right. That's an episode wrap and until next week, so long.