Debate: Subway

By Jake & Glenn 

The fast food submarine (AKA: hoagie, grinder and hero) sandwich shop Subway has long been a point of contention between Glenn and myself. As a gift he once received $1,000,000 worth of Subway gift certificates and ate at Subway for nearly every meal. Although he was a gift card millionaire, his personal finances were not so robust. His only choices were to eat at Subway or pick rotten fruits and vegetables out of the heaps of trash lining Missouri's streets. Now Glenn has become a successful entrepreneur and has the resources to eat at more upscale nosheries like Quiznos. I grew up dining at Subway, and my childhood eating habits have stuck with me. Subway is an integral part of my life, much like alcohol and heroin are to yours. Now, here's the debate:

Jake: While I rarely eat at restaurants, and practically never eat fast food, I have to say that Subway is by far the best restaurant on Earth. They have many fine choices, which is more than I can say about Little Caesar's (which has only three choices: cheese, sausage and pepperoni). As a pescatarian, I have limited choices at nearly every restaurant which I dine, so for Subway to have even two choices for me is jaw-dropping--and they have three (seafood, veggie and tuna)! Let us not forget that Subway also lets you choose what goes on your sandwich while the sandwich crafters assemble it. It gives you all the benefits of making your own sandwich without any of the hard work and you get a conversation. Better yet, the discussion is mostly one sided with you bossing around the teen around while they listlessly make your grinder. Whenever I feel like I have lost control of my life, I like to imagine myself at Subway demanding some teenage girl to add more tomatoes to my sandwich, even if it is more tomatoes than common sense should allow, and she can't say anything to me because I'm the customer and I'm always right. No other restaurant fills you with that sense of power while having you do so little work.

Glenn: I'm completely in favor of dominating teenage girls, but good luck on getting more tomatoes on that sandwich. Those girls, and the rest of the underclass who comprise Subway's work force, receive strict instructions on how many tomatoes to give to slack-jawed idiots who came in looking for a "sammich." You can ask for more tomatoes in the same way we can ask for god's forgiveness and you'll get the same result: nothing. I too recognize the appeal of a veggie delight sandwich. Unlike my opponent, I am fully committed to animal rights and will not rest until animals can serve alongside me in the United Stated Armed Forces or in the jury box during a celebrity's criminal trial. This means I do not eat them. If I walked into a Subway with a plan to order a veggie delight, I would be shocked to see live animals in their backroom being murdered by undocumented workers from Mexico and other countries below the United States. Subway serves only the freshest meat, which means the stench of death permeates the air. The decor matches this stench, as most Subways look horrendous from the outside and inside. As a gay man with an eye for interior decorating, I would like to redesign all Subways.

Jake: I agree with you to a degree about the decor. The inside of Subway has not been updated since I was a child eating steak and cheese subs. Now that I am an unsuccessful adult, I mainly enjoy dining in ultra-modern eateries. Yet, there is a charm to the ornamentation of the innards of Subway that takes me back to the days where I could do anything with my life instead of nothing. In a way, eating at Subway is a substitute for the anti-depressants I so desperately need but cannot seem to afford no matter how much plasma I sell.

I also agree that Subway uses only the freshest of ingredients, and unlike you I see this as a positive. I enjoy eating fresh food, which is why I have an herb garden. Much like Subway, gardening gives me the solace that I cannot seem to find in a bottle or needle. I would actually go as far to say that instead of giving junkies methadone, we should just take them to Subway. Afterall, it worked for Jared.

Glenn: I'm glad you brought up Jared. What a fucking phony. He's going around telling everyone he got thin because of Subway, but he never mentions the fact that he had his stomach stapled as well. Surely eating a veggie delight helps you lose some weight, but not as much as whatever it means to have your "stomach stapled." Subway was one of the few restaurants allowed on the island of Guatanamo Bay in Cuba and I understand why. Subway's food does to my stomach what Presidents Bush and Obama have done, using that island, to the rule of law in this country. One time I ate a Subway sandwich and then woke up in Yemen while imprisoned. And this was under Obama! Losing my civil liberties doesn't taste good and neither does much of Subway's bread, which is as stale as Paula Poundstone's comedy routine. At Subway I usually ask for a "little" lite mayonnaise but end up with so much that I can barely force myself to eat the sandwich. But at least I'm still eating, unlike the prisoners at Guantanamo who went on a hunger strike to protest their conditions. I'm not that brave.

Jake: Whoa, I think you are taking this a bit too far. I know that if I could not eat Subway I would commit suicide by lighting myself on fire and suffocating from all of the oxygen in my lungs burning away. Subway simply makes life tolerable. Whenever my boss yells at me for misfiling the Johnson report (this is a euphemism for accidental and unintentional anal sex), I picture a 12 inch submarine sandwich from Subway sliding down my throat--and the mayonnaise is the lubricant that allows this to happen. The teen sandwich creator probably thinks your request for a "little lite mayonnaise" was a comedy bit, because who would want just a little of anything? I always order the largest size of everything I purchase, which sometimes can be a problem when it comes to buying $800 suits, but is amazing when I'm watching the latest hit movies on an IMAX screen. Doing things in moderation is for people who think small. My motto/mantra is: think big, live big, live forever. Subway is just one peg in that plan, but if you removed it, my life would topple over like a Jenga board during Michael J. Fox's turn.

Glenn: Insults towards Parkinson's victims aside, you have revealed the reason you stand so adamantly in defense of Subway: their footlong sandwiches. Spending $5.00 for twelve inches of food might sound good in theory and the growing corporate profits of Subway certainly indicate people's willingness to participate in such a program. However, we must keep in mind how many better sandwiches are available in this great country and not let the five dollar price tag blind us like NY Governor David Patterson. Off the top of my head, I can name three better sandwich places than Subway. They are W.G. Grinder's, Quizno's and Blimpie's. The last time I was at Blimpie's, I got a delicious "blimp" sandwich, with vegetables as exotic as avocado and squash. The last time I saw an avocado at a Subway, he/she was ordering a veggie delight ("avocado" is a new slur for hermaphrodites). Afterward I was fellated in the bathroom by a male Blimpie's employee. I've never been fellated in a Subway by a man or woman and wouldn't want such a beautiful act to happen in their disgusting bathrooms. Fuck Subway and fuck the thousand sandwiches I've eaten there since November 2008.

One Year In Texas Talk 10-06-10

By Nate



One Year In Texas Talk is an answering machine we have set up to our OYIT hotline. Please call in and leave an anonymous message. If we deem it worthy, it will show up in this weekly piece. Tell us what's on your mind. It doesn't even have to pertain to the website!

No rights for sinners

Yeah, I was calling in because we have to stop the liberal indoctrination that's going on at college campuses. You know what they're teaching at college? That homosexual marriage is a human rights issue. That's ridiculous. Being gay is a sin. You don't need special rights because you're committing a grotesque sin. Wake up people. They're just homosexuals.

Stop the presses

Now, I don't know if this is true or not, but I saw on the History Channel that aliens may have built the pyramids in ancient Egypt. So why is everybody getting so upset about illegal aliens building our garages? All aliens are alike and nobody is going around complaining about the pyramids, at least not that I have heard.

Gas, Grass or...Mass!?

I have a problem with local teens sticking forks in my lawn at night. When I wake up the next day there are about 100 plastic forks sticking in my lawn and overnight they froze there and are really hard to pull out. I don't know where they got this idea, but it is reprehensible. I work hard on my lawn, I mow it about every 9 or so days. I think we need to send these kids to church and let the lord work them over. Maybe then they would have some respect for other people's property.

Don't put this on the Computer

I see the university has hired a bunch of Asian faculty and Hispanics. I wonder how many of those can speak good English. How many times do students have to deal with teachers that can’t speak English? I’ve had the wonderful experience of having to deal with a doctor at the med center who had to repeat everything he said twice just so I could understand a single word he said. We should not have people working here who do not speak good English. And don’t put this on the computer. Put it in the paper.

Chapter and Verse

Regarding the caller who suggested Barack Obama is not baptized, I call his attention to Page 208 of ‘The Audacity of Hope’ in the chapter titled ‘Faith,’ in which Obama describes being baptized at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He wrote ‘I felt God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to his will and dedicated myself to discovering his truth.

Rebel yell

I think I am finally starting to figure out President Obama. Since he has a ax to grind with America and America’s past, the reason he won’t help any of the Southern states with the immigration problem is because they were rebels during the Civil War. He is not going to help anyone whom he sees was against his African-American side.

With child

I work with this girl who at one time was a real go-getter. Now she can’t push a broom to sweep the floor and cannot lift anything. Why? Because she is pregnant. In my opinion, if you can’t push a broom to sweep the floor, then you should be on bed rest. If you can’t lift anything, stop lifting the cigarettes to your mouth.

The Bible says

There’s a danger with the government controlling our health care as well as our pensions. In Revelations, it says unless you belong to a certain persuasion, you will not be allowed to compete in commerce. In other words, you will do what you’re told, or you will not trade or eat or be taken care of. Once the government has the ability to sway your votes, you’ll be compelled to do what they say.

America's Chickens are coming home to roost!

AMERICANS claim to be serious about education. However, when a suggestion is made to extend the school year to equal that of other advanced nations in the world, the public will come up with every excuse in the book not to do so. To me, this illustrates that the children rule the roost.

The Needle and the Damage Done...by texting and cell phones?

Today we were going to a meeting and we were going east on Mitchell Avenue. Right on 26th Street, I just happened to look out the window as a passenger and there, laying very plainly on the grass, was somebody’s used needle. That was absolutely the stupidest thing that people could do. But they are drug people, so that’s why they don’t have any brains. Children could pick that up and get germs from it. And if you have HIV, you can give it to those kids because they’d play with the needle. That is absolutely ludicrous. Texting is a problem, yes, but the cell phones are worse. If you can’t walk and chew bubble gum, how do you expect to drive a car and talk?

Jumping into a Pile of Leaves Should be Against the Law!

By Jake 

While One Year in Texas's world-famous autumn themed week may be over, there are still many great topics that have yet to be discussed and the season itself is far from over. For instance, nobody wrote an article about the hot new fall TV line-up, which is nearly tragic in my opinion. Yet, I am not here to talk about which shows I give cheers or jeers to. I am going to write about something much more serious: jumping into piles of leaves.

The question I am here to answer is simple: should jumping into a pile of leaves (which you did not yourself rake) be a federal crime? After scouring through endless amounts of academic literature, I believe I am finally able to give a definite answer: yes, it should be punishable with a minimum of three days in jail. Not a harsh punishment by today's standards, but tough enough to get the message across.

The scenario is as old as leaves and rakes themselves. Leaves are raked into a pile, you turn your back to get a bag to properly dispose of them and when you turn around there is a child in mid-air about to cannonball into your neat pile of foliage. Then with a mighty crinkling, the leaves are once again scattered about your lawn. All of that work and what do you have to show for it? Nothing but crippling back pain and a stress-induced heart attack. This is the reason this oft overlooked crime needs to be met with a more severe punishment than chasing the neighborhood children around while waving a broom. What are you going to do with the broom anyway? It is not a weapon.

I have already told you my proposal for a punishment, but perhaps I should elaborate in order to pad this article a little. Who writes an article with only three paragraphs anyway? Not me, that's for sure. While spending three days in jail seems harsh to an adult who has been enjoying the mouth-wateringly fruity taste of freedom for decades, a young hooligan (and let's call a spade a spade, these children are nothing but common street thugs) has barely experienced even a grocery market free sample sized taste of freedom. They will probably meet the punishment with a snippy remark like "I can do three days in jail standing on my head, grandpa." Being only 27 years old, this is a very offensive name to be called and may send you into a rage induced frenzy. You can use this extra energy to clean the garage like your wife has been nagging you about for the past several months. This is called positive redirection and a street urchin like our leaf jumping antagonist knows nothing about it. They are pure scum.

Sure, there are some precautionary measures one can take to insure that their pile of leaves remain piled and not jumped upon or scattered about. But why should we, the taxpaying Christian citizens of America, have to lower ourselves to hiring an armed guard to stand watch or installing an electrified fence around our leaf piles. We already have to lock our doors to prevent bears or rapists from coming into our houses and eating our cereal or raping us, respectively. Do we really need all of this hassle? I am sick and tired of having to lock my door and I'm exhausted from raking my leaves for hours on end, then re-raking them when some snot-nosed little dickhead needs to have a playdate with my perfectly constucted heap of leaves. Please call your senator and tell them to pass this law immediately or you will be sending them your leaves and they can deal with this

Life with Mikey (10-04-10)

By Mikey 

I'm lucky that I have good eye sight, but my wife can't say the same. Hopefully our son gets his eye genes from me, otherwise he's going to be a four-eyes like his mom.



Little Caesars might be cheap, but it's not worth the $5. Just go to Dominos like a normal person.

I refuse to buy a new rake, and my rake only has 3 teeth left on it.

My son needs to spend more time reading and less time drawing pictures of Donkey Kong. I blame myself, though.

Hotcakes are not that big of seller these days. Everybody wants crepes.

There are too many rap songs about shooting and not enough about sharing. Let's teach the kids something, Snoop Dogg!

People are too obsessed with getting tattoos these days. Everybody is going to look like a mural by the time they die.

You know what I'd like to try on a hamburger? Avocado.

Whatever happened to arcades?

Pennies are worthless. Let's just do the world a favor and get rid of them already.

Chicken noodle soup does not cure illness, but it is delicious. Still, just give me medicine if I'm sick.

Americans need to drink more tea. I'm not going to, but as a whole I think we should.

I just spent the last two hours bidding on John Candy memorabilia on Ebay.

Somebody tell me why we aren't shooting our garbage into space.

Howie Mandel is a comic genius.

It's tragic that Houdini died from being punched in the stomach. He should have drown or something.