Chris got a new toy, life was weird in the 1980s, we talk about a midair explosion of sorts, and we read some listener emails.
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Chris got a new toy, life was weird in the 1980s, we talk about a midair explosion of sorts, and we read some listener emails.
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, Chris has a new toy, how did we not end up on a milk carton, diarrhea in the air, and listener feedback. Welcome to Subpar Talks. Hey everybody. Welcome to Subpar Talk, where we have conversations about everything. I'm Jeff.
Chris:And I'm Chris. Thank you again for joining us. And yes, before we get going, here is our standard disclaimer. Listener discretion is advised for this podcast. We are going to curse from time to time and depending on the episode, we are going to touch on some mature subject matter and we inject our humor into a lot of the stuff. So if that is not your thing, then maybe this is not the podcast for you. But for everybody else, you know what you're getting into if you've been here before. So here we go with this week's topics. You sent me a picture of a Rubik's cube that you had just gotten delivered from Amazon. Yeah, I did.
Jeff:And you said, uh, that may be the last time you ever see it all put together. So why'd you get a Rubik's Cube? What is this about? Are you reliving the 80s?
Chris:Probably in a lot of ways. You know, I don't know. I have come across it one time or another. And seeing people talk about it. And I was like, you know, I think I probably still have one packed away in the attic somewhere, but that's a whole other thing to find it. And I was on Amazon buying something else and I had added a Rubik's cube to my list one time, just. Put it on there like, well, I'm not going to buy it now, but maybe sometime. So I was buying something else and I was going to get it today. If I added something to it, a minimum of 25, I was like, oh, well, let me see if this will push it over the limit. And it did. All right. So I got it same day. Even better. So first of all, I opened the box. And I swear, this is not the same size that it used to be, but it is an actual Rubik's cube. I mean, this is not an off brand. It's got the brand and everything, but I swear it's smaller. I think they're ripping
Jeff:us off. You think? I think so. I think it's cause your hands were tinier in the 80s. Well,
Chris:that's always possible, yeah. And I thought about that, like, am I really just remembering it wrong? I don't know. Maybe it is the same sort. I mean, it's, it's 3x3, and get this, they have some that are bigger than this. I had no idea when I looked up a Rubik's cube and it came up with some that were bigger than three by three.
Jeff:Oh, I thought you meant just bigger, like fatter squares, but you mean more squares, more squares. Oh
Chris:God. That's, I mean, I can't even grasp this one to the concept of it. Nevermind putting more on there.
Jeff:I'd, I'd do
Chris:well to solve a two by two,
Jeff:so. I would too. Hey, that's what we need, a remedial
Chris:Rubik's Cube
Jeff:for the simple minded. So have you, uh, have you started working with that one? Yeah, I
Chris:worked with it. I messed it up. Yeah, it's all fucked now. And it took, it took everything I could do just to do that. It looks so nice when you take it out of the box. Yeah. And all the sides are the correct color and it's all pristine. And then, yeah, you just, yeah, deflowered and
Jeff:now not.
Chris:So yeah, it's all, everything is messed up and of course I can solve a side. But then I look and go, Oh, well, let me see if I can do this side. And then in order to get the other side, you fuck up the first side. And I just don't, I don't get it. Something's missing.
Jeff:That's when I throw it against the wall. Yeah. So what was the world record? We talked about that. It was like three points, three points. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris:Like, I can barely pick it up in three seconds. I mean, you talked about how the guy studied it and everything he's looking at and I'm I'm doing that too. We are clearly not seeing the same
Jeff:thing. No, I know it. I know it. Yeah, I had one of those when I was young and I messed with it just every once in a while, but I could never. I could never exert the kind of patience that's needed to figure it out, I just didn't want to.
Chris:Uh, I, well, I guess I wanted to, I didn't want too bad enough, and I don't know, sometimes I wonder, well, OK, this is what I wondered, because again, I haven't actually done anything with one of these in however long, since I was probably 10 or 12 years old. And so, I wondered, would I be able to, I mean, kind of analyze it differently than I could as a kid? Like, as a kid, I'm just sitting here turning stuff, like, ooh, can I, can I do this? Can I do that? Can I get all the colors on one side? Well, yeah, I could do that. And now I'm looking at it like, huh, OK, I kind of know, understand more how it works. Is that going to help me? So far, not.
Jeff:Yeah. But
Chris:I just thought some years ago, and I just kind of put it off and put it off that I think Before I'm gone, I would kind of like to be
Jeff:able to solve a Rubik's Cube. It's on your bucket list. Yeah. Hey, do you play checkers? You ever play checkers? I like
Chris:checkers. Yeah, I used to play. I would play growing up. And I've, I've played probably just a handful of times as an adult. Uh, I played with my kids sometimes, but it's, it was never something I just did all the time. I like it though.
Jeff:Yeah. So I've started playing online. I did it a couple of years ago and kind of fell out of doing it. And I've, I've resumed that, but. Holy hell, you can get humbled really quickly by people, because the website I go to, it's got like, it ranks you. Are they playing actual people? Yeah, they're actual people, yeah. And you're a novice starting out, and then I think it's amateur and intermediate, advanced, but it goes all the way up to like grandmaster, and... Wow. Yeah, and you can play anybody on any level. But of course it knocks you down a level. So the farthest I've gotten is amateur, but then I'll play somebody, you know, who is really good and then it knocks me down and it's a humbling experience. No, I was just wondering that cause I never really played checkers as a kid. Do you know how to play chess? No.
Chris:And that's another, okay, there's another bucket list thing. That's another thing I'd like to be able to do. And I don't really care about being a great chess player. I just want to know how to play. Where if somebody said, Hey, do you want to like, if somebody asked me right now, Hey, do you want to play a game of checkers? Sure. I could sit down and play checkers. Do you want to play a game of chess? Sure. I'd like to be able to sit down and play a game of chess. That's all. I don't have to be some master person at that either.
Jeff:So I think of chess as like, um, I don't know, not an, I don't know what the right word is, uh, a wealthy person's game, like upper, upper class, kind of just fancy, I don't know, that's kind of seen that way. How I think of it, but then in New York city, you could be in somewhere outside of subway stop and it's just people on the street. These people look homeless, like, or do you have a home, but he's got a chess board and they challenge people. And of course they do it for money. And, and, uh, I would never do that. Cause I don't know what I'm doing with chess. I've played like once or twice ever.
Chris:I have played a couple of times and it was with people who are trying to teach me, but that's the thing. I didn't stick with it long enough to remember, well, number one is to remember which moves, which pieces can make, and then once you know that, okay, how do I use that to develop a strategy? Right. And that's, that's where I need to go with it, but I would like to.
Jeff:Did you watch The Queen's Gambit on Netflix?
Chris:No, but I saw, I saw the previews for it. I thought about
Jeff:watching that. So my wife watched it and, and, uh, when it came out, I saw a bunch of people talking about it on social media and how good it was and, and all that. But I held off on it because. I'm going to watch a series about chess. Like, I don't, I don't want to say that, like, how is that going to be exciting? But anyway, I was in a bookstore recently and the Queen's Gambit is a novel. I didn't know that. So I picked that up.
Chris:You're going to read a book about Chaz
Jeff:Wright while watching the movie? OK, OK, here's my, here's my thing with, you know I'm this way, but when I see a series, I hear about a series or a movie, I immediately go to IMDb and see what it's rated. Like, is this going to be worth my time? And so, I've got an app on my phone called Goodreads, and it's where people rank. Or rate books. And the Queen's Gambit had a really good rating and so I picked up the book and read it, but it was, I had to fight through it just to get to the end because holy hell, I can see if you really like chess, you'd be into it because the author talks about all these different strategies and this move and that move and what happens with this and all that just goes on and on and on. And anyway. It was a, I didn't really enjoy it, but after I got done with it, I thought, okay, I'm going to watch the series now. And I got through one episode and I was done. Like I was just, I can't take it. Yeah. So
Chris:how is it rated on IMDb?
Jeff:Do you know? Uh, that's a really good question. Let's look that up in real time. I was wondering if it's,
Chris:uh, if it's rated better than the book.
Jeff:On Goodreads, they do out of, uh, five stars, so if something is over four, like, that's a really, really good rating. The Queen's Gambit on IMDb is an 8. 5. Jesus. Wow. That makes me think I should pick it back up, but holy hell, I couldn't, I couldn't get past the first episode. Well maybe you know
Chris:too much now,
Jeff:cause you read the books. That is true, yeah.
Chris:I don't know if I can do it again.
Jeff:Right. Do you have any other, do you have anything else from the 80s? Besides your Rubik's cube?
Chris:Well, we're talking about checkers and chess. I was thinking about doing that growing up. And, uh, one of the things that happened when I was a kid, I think I talked about this on here before, but our mutual granddad being cousins that we are, he sent me home with some electrical wire. A light switch and a plug one time because I had all this curiosity about electricity and he had like built his whole place and wired everything and he was all excited to show it to me since I had an interest. I mean, nobody else was interested,
Jeff:so. He sent you home, uh, a home electrocution kit. That's what he gave you. Yes, he
Chris:did. And here's, here's where it goes up a notch, is as I was in my room, assembling all of this, and I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I thought I did. But I quickly found out that I didn't, for example, I wired the light switch on the wrong end of the cord, so it didn't even do anything. All I wanted to do was turn the plug on and off with the switch and I put it on the wrong end of the whole wire, so it didn't do anything. Well, I found that out when I had it sitting on my carpet and I leaned back and felt a vibration going up
Jeff:my arm because
Chris:that electricity hadn't turned off. And that was right about the time that my mom walked in my room. Now she sees... All this wire laid out across the floor with a plug and a switch and was like, well, what are you doing? I said, well, this is kind of what I'm doing. And I, I didn't tell the whole story and I didn't let her see everything, but she saw enough. I was like, okay, we'll be careful. And then she left the room
Jeff:too late.
Chris:So anybody that didn't grow up in the eighties, that's the eighties right there. Yeah,
Jeff:it was, it is.
Chris:You are, you are to be self sufficient, independent, figure it out. Subpar Talks, LGBT, subpartalks. com, www. independentjeff. com, www. independentjeff. com, www. Be home at a certain time and you expect everybody's okay because they're in the neighborhood. Like what could possibly go wrong in the
Jeff:neighborhood? Yeah, I know. It was crazy. I remember encountering kids on my street in my neighborhood. I didn't even know where they lived. Like, where, where did you come from? Yeah. How are you here? Cause I know you don't live on my street or even a couple streets over. So where are you from?
Chris:Just take the bus in for the day.
Jeff:Right. Just random kids that show up. But no, that's what it was. We're the latchkey generation, right? Yeah. I mean, my sister and I would get home before my parents got home and I guess they were just assuming that she was, you know, and she was, but that she was with it enough to Make sure that we didn't die or anything. You know, or that we didn't get kidnapped or who knows what.
Chris:Oh yeah. I remember coming home, coming home to the empty house and I would forget my key. That was the thing I always got yelled at for is forgetting my key. Cause I'd sit outside forever. But sometimes, you know, what else am I going to do? I, I walk home from school and then I'm just sitting there waiting for somebody to get home. It's not like you had keypads on the garage door like you can have now. Yeah. And. I had no key for sure as hell. Wasn't a smart lock
Jeff:So you just
Chris:sat there on the So I would sit out there, but every once in a while I would try a windows. And there was a particular window where if you jiggled it a little bit, you could just jiggle it. You could loosen the lock. Yeah. And I could loosen that and open the window, take the screen off, and climb in through the
Jeff:window. did y'all have a burglar alarm? We
Chris:did, and I would know that I was going to set that off, but... And it was monitored. Yeah. Yeah. It was monitored. So they would call, but that was before alarm companies would charge you for false alarms.
Jeff:So
Chris:yeah, you just tell them the code and yeah, and that was it. And then it was all good.
Jeff:That's the eighties, ladies and gentlemen, right there. Different time. Yeah. We would just go out and I mean, I had to be home, you know, when it started getting dark, that's when I would have to be home and. I can't imagine doing that now with my kids. No,
Chris:no way. I used to go, there were times where I'd go out after dark, like to go ride my bicycle or something. Add a light on my bicycle. I wouldn't let my kids do that now. No.
Jeff:No way. I
Chris:mean, at the time they were growing up at that
Jeff:age. Here's the thing though, were there not more child abductions in the 80s than there are now? You know, I don't
Chris:know. I mean, now you've got Amber Alerts and stuff like that, where you actually know about these things going on, but it seemed like there were a lot that were happening back
Jeff:then. Yeah, but they still kept letting us go out and do whatever. I mean, remember the milk cartons? There's always a kid on the milk carton, you know, and then you get the thing in the mail. Have you seen me? And it'd be some poor soul who disappeared 15 years ago or something. That's
what
Chris:I was going to say too on the milk carton. None of those people were recently gone. They've been gone for years.
Jeff:I know it. I
Chris:guess they're like, oh, well, these people were kidnapped years ago. That doesn't happen anymore. So it's okay for you to go out.
Jeff:Yeah, maybe. What a weird time. They don't still do that, do they, on milk cartons? I don't think so.
Chris:I haven't, I haven't, uh, seen it on a carton in a long time.
Jeff:You know, my wife, for her, uh, for one of her grad school projects, she was doing an analysis of the Amber Alert. And the Amber Alert, it started in Texas and then other states. Patterned. They're same thing after what Texas was doing. And then, uh, I think it was George W. Bush signed it into law, uh, at the federal level, but my wife did a study on the efficacy. Like, is it actually, does it actually help? And it doesn't do anything like Amber Alerts do nothing. Yeah. There's no correlation between Amber Alerts and kids being found, but you, you might think, well, then why do we, then why do we have it? Right. But can you imagine a politician in Congress or state legislature standing up and saying, uh, let's get rid of the Amber Alert. We don't need that. Right. So it's with us forever. They
Chris:can say a bunch of other shit, but they, they wouldn't say
Jeff:that. Well, she told me, and this is a funny story, but she's in, uh, like a coffee shop doing that, that paper, that project, project that she was working on, and an Amber alert went off on her phone and everybody else's phone. And what does everybody do? They just immediately turn it off. Yeah. Yeah. They just immediately turn it off and then go back to doing what they were doing, which maybe that's part of the problem. People don't pay attention enough. I don't know. It
Chris:is. Oh, I'm sure. I mean, I don't know. It always makes you wonder, could you have enough information or be in the right place at the right time to help find somebody? But you know, I'll look and the very first thing that's on there is like the city. If the city's not in my backyard, then, oh well. And if it is in my backyard, then I go, oh wow, that's close, and, and then that's the extent of it. Yeah, exactly. Like, oh, I better go get in my car and go start searching for them. I mean, yeah, what am I
Jeff:going to do? And how does that work? Is it set up by the state? Because if it's set up by the state. What are we going to do? Somebody's missing in El Paso. Like you'd be better off contacting somebody in LA if somebody's missing in El Paso, like what good does that do us? Yeah. Anyway, child abductions, happy topic.
Chris:Okay. So I saw this article the other day and the very title of it. Just made, made me laugh and scared the hell out of me. We, we talked recently about amusement park disasters, tragedies, whatever, and how you might not want to go back to the amusement park after that. This thing will make you not want to fly again. Uh oh. So, it says, Delta flight diverted after passenger reportedly has diarrhea all the way through the airplane. All the way through it. All the way through the plane.
Jeff:I don't even know what that means, all the way through the plane. I mean, it can't be good.
Chris:No, it can't be good. That is a quote from the pilot to air traffic control.
Jeff:That's even better. I know. That's awesome. So this was a
Chris:flight that originated in Atlanta, Georgia, and was going to Barcelona. So it was about an eight hour flight. They were two hours into it. It said they were over Virginia. And for some reason, this is weird. They turned around and went back to Atlanta. Like, why didn't they just land in
Jeff:Virginia? Because of the diarrhea? Yes.
Chris:So, the pilot said there was a biohazard on board.
Jeff:Well, yeah.
Chris:So I'm guessing this, I mean, when you say all the way through the plane, I'm guessing this person, like, got out of their seat, was going to the bathroom, and things didn't go well.
Jeff:Oh, that's amazing. A diarrhea diversion. But
Chris:can you imagine being on that plane? No. And whatever has happened, it's bad enough that they want to take the plane all the way back to Atlanta. They're gonna fly it. Two hours back to Atlanta instead of six hours on to Barcelona. I mean, damn.
Jeff:Wow. I know. I wonder if, uh, if they did it because it was an international flight? Are there different diarrhea standards for an international flight versus domestic? I don't
Chris:know. Like, how, well, that's just it. Like, how long can you be in the plane like that? Because why didn't they just land in Virginia? I don't know. Or somewhere around there. Why'd you go all the way back
Jeff:to Atlanta? That makes me wonder, are they concerned about some communicable disease? Like Ebola, or who the fuck knows what? Oh, I could totally see
Chris:that. Or um, what's the other one?
Jeff:Ebola's where you bleed out your butt.
Chris:Yeah. Or as a... What did Jesse on, on Breaking Bad said is where your, what did he say? Your intestines slip out your
Jeff:ass or something like that. Yeah, something like that. I tell you what, speaking of books, this is a, it's not a novel. It's a true story called the Hot Zone about Ebola in monkeys in Virginia. And that'll scare the shit out of you. Oh
Chris:man. In Virginia.
Jeff:Yes, yeah, that was a really good book, and man, some of the stuff in there about Ebola, that'll freak you out. Well, I
Chris:don't think I could, no, I don't need, I don't need more ammunition.
Jeff:You can add that to your nightmare list. Yeah, no kidding. Man, diarrhea all throughout the plane.
Chris:Diarrhea through the plane. Then in a, uh, a related article. So, we could just talk about the atrocities that go on in the airline industry, period. I mean, obviously, that is... A completely unfortunate thing and nobody could help it, as in, the airline. Maybe the person could, I don't know. But the airline didn't have any responsibility in that happening. But I saw where, um, I think it was United was apologizing to passengers for making two passengers sit in seats that had been covered in vomit on the prior flight.
Jeff:Oh, gross.
Chris:So does that mean it wasn't cleaned up well? Were these people on that flight too so they knew that this happened? I don't know. But like, what the fuck is going on in the airline industry that they allow these kinds of things to happen? I don't know. That you would make a passenger do that? I mean, where did customer service go?
Jeff:So I wonder what happened with the person with diarrhea. Are they, are they liable for anything? I don't see how they
Chris:could be. I mean, cause then that makes me think, see, that right there just made me think of how lucky you are to get on a plane and get off without incident. You could have that, you could have somebody vomiting. You can have all kinds of diseases sitting around you, and I've had flights where, you know, people are sneezing and coughing and whatever, and then the next day, I'm not feeling great. I'm like, well, obviously, that's where it came from, but that's minor, I mean, I consider that minor compared to some of this
Jeff:other stuff. Yeah, you know what's crazy? Can you imagine sitting in that environment and then somebody smoking? That used to be totally allowed. Oh, yeah.
Chris:I can't imagine that. Yeah. And like, being in the back of the plane made it OK. Right. I mean, it did contain it a little bit, but... Nothing like it should have been. So I saw something else related to airlines and, and see here again, this just goes on to, to talking about the way they treat their customers was where an American cabin can reach 90 degrees before it's considered too hot
Jeff:to board. Oh my God. Yeah.
Chris:And so there were passengers complaining about this, obviously saying this was already too hot and I'm thinking, yeah, 90 degrees in a metal tube and you're sitting there packed in like sardines waiting to get air moving. So there are three airlines, Delta Southwest and United Airlines do not set a maximum temperature for boarding. And said Delta made headlines in July for keeping people on a plane for hours in more than a hundred degree heat. See what is happening
Jeff:there? That's absurd. It's ridiculous. That should not be allowed.
Chris:American just got fined and I, I think it said it was the largest fine that there's been. It was 4 million for the amount of hours that they've kept passengers. On the tarmac in, you know, in the plane without going anywhere, but I'm like,$4 million. How does that
Jeff:hurt them? It doesn't. And guess what they're gonna do to ticket prices? Yeah, exactly. It's uh, Well, that's a larger topic, I guess, but yeah, they shouldn't be allowed to do that. And I've, I've sat, I know you have, you've sat on planes. It seems like, holy fuck, are we ever going to take off? Like Jesus Christ, you're just sitting there and sitting there and sitting there. Yeah. It just takes forever. I can't imagine. Sitting there that long, if it's that hot,
Chris:that's terrible. No, I can't either. Not if it's hot like that. I think the longest I ever sat on a plane was three hours and part of it was for storms, but again, I think now, and I think this was before the whole bill of rights thing, the passenger bill of rights. Um, I think they wouldn't typically wouldn't do that now. But, we were out on the tarmac, and they started a movie. And the movie ended and there was still time before that because they didn't, they didn't think we were going to be there that long. So they hadn't started the movie yet. Yeah. So we were out there for all this time before they started it. Then the whole thing ran and then there was still time before we took off.
Jeff:You know, that reminds me, I'm sure the airlines have changed this now, but this has been, uh, this was probably 10 years ago. This guy and I think his, his wife or daughter, I don't remember, they were, they were scheduled to fly to, I think they were going for skiing, so that Aspen or whatever, so they're scheduled to go to Aspen and their flight got canceled. Like, this is, or postponed, either one, the flight that they bought tickets for did not happen when it was supposed to happen. And he argued and haggled with the airline people, why can't I get my money back? They said, no, it's a non inventable ticket or whatever. So this guy is an attorney. And he sued the airline for breach of contract. Yeah. He said, when I bought my ticket, that was a contract for you to have this plane ready to go at such and such time and to take me to where it's supposed to go for this amount of money. And you didn't fulfill your end of the bargain. So I'm suing you. And he won. Well, I guess so. Absolutely. So, now, I would imagine the airlines, like, they've put something in the fine print that says, this is not a contract, blah blah blah, who knows, whatever, but I thought that was a pretty cool thing. That is a cool thing.
Chris:See, I wish I, you know, we talked about this, about what people will sue for, and while I get their reasoning for suing for certain things. I can't imagine being the person who would actually carry that through, but I applaud some of those people who are willing to carry it
Jeff:through. No doubt. I mean, I don't know what the airline was, but can you imagine, like, you're going to sue American Airlines? Right. Holy shit. And I
Chris:wonder how long that took.
Jeff:Yeah. Right. Yeah. Exactly, they have an infinite supply of legal, uh, uh, legal team and, and money to spend on it. They could just drag it out for who knows how long.
Chris:Well, and, and yeah, that, that's the whole thing. I mean, you gotta weigh all of that because, well, do we pay the guy the, what's it going to be? 500? I mean, 1, 000, whatever, for whatever his ticket was, or do we drag it out? But if they pay, then... Other people may jump on that and go, Ooh, I'll do that too. And then how many people do they have? So yeah, unless or until they have put some wording in there to protect themselves, they could also just have an incentive to fight it, to keep other people from doing the same thing. But man, if I thought I could get somewhere with that, I'd sue people right and left because I'm getting screwed right and left.
Jeff:Oh yeah, I was just getting fucked every day, every which way. That 90 degrees thing reminds me, I heard about, I heard this on NPR several years ago, but they were talking about kids and recess time and like, you know, recess time in America has gone down for kids that don't have as much recess time and that affects, you know, their learning and all that. Yeah. Um, but then they were talking about during the winter, how it can be difficult for some kids to even go outside. And they were talking about how different states handle. Oh, is it too cold to go outside, you know, for recess? And I know in Texas, it's left up to the district. So the district, the school district decides what that temperature is going to be. It's usually like 40 degrees, something around there. But they said in North Dakota, North Dakota has a statewide rule. Their temperature is zero, so if it's less than zero, the kids don't get to go outside. I thought
Chris:that is crazy.
Jeff:If it's five degrees, get your little ass out there. You're fine. We're gonna do something now we haven't done before. We're gonna mention some listener emails. Alright. Yeah. I figure this is a good, uh, good opportunity, a little shout out to these people and they took the time to email us through our website, subpartalks. com. So uh, yeah, here's a select few and see if you email us, you're going to get a shout out. So. Thank you to the emailers, and don't worry, we won't use last names. So, this is from Emily. Emily says, I just wanted to express how much I love your podcast, exclamation point. It's become a regular part of my week and I can't get enough of the discussions you two have on various subjects. I've learned a lot and laughed while doing so, so thank you to Emily. See, doesn't that warm your heart? Yeah, it
Chris:does.
Jeff:That's nice. This is from Robert. He says, I've told so many family members and friends about this show. I'm a devoted listener. Keep up the good work. And then he says, OK, this is funny. He says, P. S. Love the show. And in parentheses, he puts Seinfeld reference. I think that's a reference to P. S. Love the Cabin when John Cheever led her to, uh, Susan's dad after he talked about his orgasm. What do you say, my orgasm is, I fear it has left me a cripple or something like that? Oh, yeah. Kind
Chris:of funny that, uh, his sister was a cripple. I never thought about that. I didn't either. It's
Jeff:common courtesy, you come in, you
Chris:wipe your wheels.
Jeff:That's awesome. OK. And we have one from Sandra. Sandra says, I greatly enjoyed listening to your podcast and I wanted to express my thoughts on something you discussed in episode number 48 regarding Elton John. I'm also a big fan of him, uh, of his as a singer and performer. He is truly remarkable. Additionally, I wanted to mention that the movie Rocketman, which portrays his life journey, is both fantastic and deeply touching. I highly recommend it, congratulations on your podcast, as I am a devoted fan and believe you are doing an excellent job. Have you seen, uh, Rocketman? Very cool. No,
Chris:I haven't. Have
Jeff:you? No, I haven't. And I'm wondering, uh, yeah, thanks, Sandra, for the email. I'm wondering if it's like, uh, Bohemian Rhapsody, which was about Freddie Mercury. Did you see that movie? No, I didn't. That's, that was a really good movie, so if that's anything like that, then, yeah, I'm on board. So... I'm gonna put that on my list for sure. Might be.
Chris:Yeah, I heard Bohemian Rhapsody was good.
Jeff:Um, this is from Julia. She asked a very good question. Whatever happened to Mark the Asshole? Have you heard from him since he lectured you on space?
Chris:No, I think we sent him to deep
Jeff:space. I think we did too. Maybe, uh, we're just not good enough for him and he, he left us, but we haven't heard from him. Probably not. Yeah. OK, Katie. Hey guys, on an episode a long time ago, you said to email you with questions. I don't remember saying that, but that's fine. I'm taking her word for it. Yeah. Uh, so here you go. I hope you answer, answer these, but if not, I love the show anyway. Yeah. Let's answer these. Number one, what made you decide to start the podcast? So I think we've talked about this, but it's been a long time. Yeah. You want to relay that story?
Chris:Well, we used to have multiple conversations when we were in public places. And as we were having these conversations, other people like the waiters, the bartenders, people like that, kind of get in on our conversation. They were listening to us. They would chime in. And I don't know, at some point I just said, Hey, do you want to do a podcast? Like people are interested in listening and we want to keep talking about these things. What if we just put it out there to the universe and see what happens? So
Jeff:there you go. I think we were at Denny's when that conversation happened. Yeah, we were. Uh, number two, do you have a favorite episode or topic? Oh my God, that's hard. I don't know that I have a favorite episode. Um, it was fun listening to the top, uh, or the, the first 50, whatever that was called, uh, Um, Best Of, The First 50, that was fun, but I don't know that I have a favorite topic.
Chris:I don't either. I don't think I could say a favorite topic. I really enjoyed these, I mean, I like all the shows that we've done where we had these defined topics going into it. But I really like some of them, which was kind of more like today, where... We just kind of come on and start talking about whatever's on our mind. And that's, I mean, that is the, the true basis for where this podcast came from is. You know, we just meet up for dinner, go out for drinks. What do we have to talk about? And whatever we talked about was it. And that's kind of the way the podcast came about.
Jeff:Uh, number three, what has surprised you most about having a podcast? I would say just off the top of my head, uh, it's a lot of work. There's a lot of work that goes into it. And I can say for myself, like I do put work into it, but there's more to be done that I mean, it's tough if, if this is your only, if this was our only thing, then I don't think it would be that big a deal, but obviously this is not our only thing, right? There's a lot that goes into it.
Chris:Yeah, I, that's exactly what I would say too. It's, it definitely takes more time and effort than I would have thought of. But it's, it's worth it. And, you know, we're not doing this for what we get out of it in terms of, you know, anything tangible. It's more just doing it because we enjoy it, but it is work, but it's nice to, to be able to listen to the finished
Jeff:product. Right. That's what I was going to say. The finished product makes it worth it for sure. Uh, number four, have you ever thought about having a guest on? We've kind of flirted with that idea. Thought about it. Yeah.
Chris:It's a question of who, when, why, what are we going to
Jeff:talk about? Here's my thing. I might like to have a guest on, but that in and of itself sounds like a lot of work. Not talking to him. I could talk to that's fine. I can, I can come up with questions to ask and, and we can have banter or whatever. It's the whole setting it up. That sounds like a lot of work. Yeah. And so maybe that's been a deterrent for me. I don't know.
Chris:It'd be fun to, it'd be fun to try sometime. Yeah. Get the right person for the right topic.
Jeff:And, uh, finally she says, for each of you, what is your favorite Seinfeld episode? Oh my god. Oh man. That's tough.
Chris:That's tough. Yeah, I can't even come close to picking that.
Jeff:You know, um, several years ago I wrote for a website where you could just write on different topics if they selected you to write stuff. You could just write on different topics, and I would like, once a week I would write something. And... Why don't I know this? Oh, I, you probably did at one time, because when I say years ago, it's been like 15 years ago plus. Really? Like, it's been a long time, yeah. Anyway, I remember I wrote the top 10 Seinfeld episodes. Really? Yeah, you want to guess what I had as my number one? Take a stab. The contest. It was not the contest. I think the contest was either two or three. Yeah.
Chris:I don't
Jeff:know. It was the outing. The outing. Oh, that's a good one. The outing. For the uninitiated, that is the one where the reporter from NYU and then a bunch of other people think that Jerry and George are gay and that they're lovers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It is not. Yeah. OK. Well, that's a good example of how. People say that phrase, not that there's anything wrong with that, and they don't even know where it comes from. Like, it's just entered our lexicon. Right. Yeah. Such a good episode. OK. And then I have one more email. This is from Jackie. Jackie asks, uh, you guys have talked some about different jobs that you've had and that you worked with the public some. I'm just curious as to all the different jobs you've had and how you've gotten to this point. I hope you read this on the show. I don't know if this is a Seinfeld reference or not, but she put a double exclamation point. Double exclamation point. I'm gonna assume that it is. As long as there's no
Chris:picture of anybody on the toilet.
Jeff:The what? Well, OK. I mean, I can list my jobs. I OK. Let me talk about my first job I had, because there was an incident. At that one. Oh, uh, I don't think I've talked about this on the show. I know you know about it, but I think our listeners will enjoy it. I was working in a sports apparel shop at a department store, which was in a mall. And that department store was Montgomery Ward. I doubt if anybody listening now even knows. Maybe there are some people who know what Montgomery Ward was. It's now long gone. But anyway, this sports apparel shop was inside there. And one night, and this is my first job, so I got it when I was 16. And at the time this happened, I was 17. But it was really slow on a Tuesday night, 830 maybe. We closed at 9 o'clock. And I'm standing behind the counter and this guy comes up to me and he says, how you doing? And Hey, I'm a good customer service rep. I said, Hey, how are you? Can I help you with anything? And he says, I got a pistol in my pocket and I want you to give me everything you got in that, in that drawer. And so I immediately freaked, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm sure my face turned red. I know my face got all hot and my hands are shaking and so I opened the drawer. He picked the worst goddamn night to rob the store because it was so slow. He got out of there with like maybe 30 bucks, 40 bucks, something like that. Like it was super slow. Yeah. Tuesday night. By far the slowest night of the week. And I asked him if he wanted it in a bag, you know, cause at the end of the night, you got to put the cash in the bag and then turn it in. And, uh, he said, yeah. And so I put the bag on the counter and I was going to put the cash in there and he said, no, no, that'll take too long. Just give me the cash. And I gave him the cash and I. Backed away from the counter and he said, now get on the floor. And my thought was, I'm not going to do that because that's when they shoot you. Like I pictured in my head being shot, like execution style, right? So I just kept backing away from the counter. And, uh, he just took off and of course we called 911, the cops came up there, they dusted for fingerprints, didn't find anything, but yeah, that was that. So I quit the next day. You quit the next day? Uh, it might've been like a few days after that, but once my, once I told my parents, like they were like, you're not working there anymore. Yeah. And I was fine with that. I mean, it was whatever. I didn't want that to happen again. My boss was like, Oh, that's just a one time thing. It's not going to happen again. You're going to be all right. Fuck no. I'm not losing my life over this shit. No. I remember telling that story at school and I said, the guy said he had a gun in his pocket and everybody wanted to know, well, did he actually have a gun? Well, I don't fucking know, but I'm not going to find out like, Hey, what am I going to call his bluff? Prove you have a gun. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Anyway, that was my first job.
Chris:Man, that would be really scary, especially your first job. That's a horrible first experience.
Jeff:It is. Terrible. No, I've worked. I would usually get a job in the summer. I worked, uh, oh, I talked about that with the guy dying at, uh, RPS. I worked there in the factory loading trucks, unloading trucks. Yeah. I was a valet for a while. Uh, oh God, I worked at Sam's Club for like a month. That was one of the worst things ever. Yeah? Anyway, what about you? Mine
Chris:wasn't so varied. I got a job when I turned, right after I turned 16, at a tennis center. So it was a retail shop, but there were tennis courts, so we had lessons and leagues and all that. There were some tennis instructors where you'd book. Private lessons for them, class lessons, all that kind of stuff. And then people would come in the shop and buy stuff and all that. You having your story there, I just realized what a prime target I was for something like that and nothing like that ever happened. When I say a prime target, I mean, because this, this tennis center was on a road where there was nothing else on that road and it was, it was down in a little kind of valley and after, after classes and everything were, was over, I was the only person there doing closing duties and, and cleaning up and all of that. And anybody who knew that place would know that. So. Wow. It's kind of crazy that nothing ever happened, but anyway, I worked there from 16 to like 18 and a half when I went to college. Um, when I was in college, I had a telemarketing job for a little while that I did while I was in school. Um, but only for like part of one semester. And then I came home and got a, what was really a temp job and then like just doing some office clerical type stuff until I started working at Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems. And that turned into where I was doing actual, um, computer work, programming and stuff like that for like the three and a half to four years until I got out of college.
Jeff:I remember, uh, talking to my dad once and I, he went through all the shit that he had done, like his first job to what he was doing at the time. And I just remember thinking, holy shit. That's so much stuff. Yeah. And then I'm thinking about me now and I'm like, well, it's kind of the same stuff. Like that's life. That's what you do.
Chris:Yeah. Oh, I didn't talk about donating plasma. I mean, that wasn't a job, but I did it for money.
Jeff:There you go. How much would you get?
Chris:So you get. I think this was right, was like 10, and, and you would get what I'm gonna say if you did it twice a week, so you would have to keep up this, this um, frequency. In order to get the maximum amount, but it was 10, 15, 10, 20. Okay. So that's what 35, 55 over two weeks. So then it was 110 over four weeks. And you would get another bonus at that time. I think I could get around 150 a month.
Jeff:And were you, uh, like suffering any ill effects from this? Were you like bruising or couldn't get out of bed or?
Chris:No, I was fine. Cause when you donate plasma, they return your red blood cells. So they only keep the plasma. And so basically. You just have to rehydrate yourself and you know, your body just remakes the electrolyte part or whatever you've lost that way. Yeah, no, I didn't have any problems with it anyway. Yeah. If I could get a hundred and it was at least 120, 120 to 150 a month, man, that was a lot of money.
Jeff:Yeah, it's spending money. Plus some. That is another episode. If you like this kind of stuff, then this is your type of podcast and you should absolutely without a doubt follow us on whatever platform you listen to podcasts on because that way you're going to get new episodes delivered to you. Automatically every Tuesday when they drop. And while you are there, we would really appreciate it if you would rate us. And if you wouldn't mind, go ahead and type something in the review. It doesn't matter what you type. We're going to read it, but the way some of these apps work is if you write something, then that makes it easier for people to discover the show. We have a website, it is subpartalks. com, that's how all these wonderful listeners got in touch with us, and you can do the same. Go there, email us, leave us a voicemail if you want. If you want to make suggestions for topics we should cover on future podcasts, uh, you should do that. If you want to ask us questions, there you go. Uh, you can do that as well on there. We are on social media. On X, we are at Subpartalks. On Facebook, we are Subpartalks. If you want to follow our personal X, Twitter, whatever the hell, uh, you can do that as well. Everybody knows what app we're talking about. On there, I am at Independent Jeff.
Chris:And I am at Chris Bradford TX.
Jeff:And last, but never ever least, share Subpar Talks on social media with your friends, family, colleagues. Get the word out to anybody you encounter because the more people we have listening to this show, that makes it easier on us to get this content to you each and every week. And thanks again to those listeners for emailing us. It's always nice to get stuff from listeners, even when they're not the nicest people like Mark, the space expert. Absolutely. Keep it coming. Absolutely. Without a doubt. All right, that's an episode wrap, and we will be back next week. Until then, so long.