Subpar Talks

E63 - Questions, Spice, and Talking Texan

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This week, we tackle some thought-provoking questions. And what does the world need? A new hottest pepper, of course. And finally, we try our hand at talking Texan. 

 Hosted by Chris and Jeff

  

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Jeff:

This week, questions to make you think, we have a new hottest pepper, and we try to talk a little Texan. Welcome to Subpar Talks. Hey everybody, welcome to Subpar Talks, where we have conversations about everything. I'm Jeff. And I'm Chris. Thank you again for joining us, and of course, here we go with our standard disclaimer, listener discretion is advised. We are going to curse from time to time on this podcast, 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 is not your thing, then perhaps we are not for you, but for everybody else. Sit back, settle in, and get ready, because here we go with this week's topics. Okay, so two weeks ago, we talked about the philosophy professor at that New York University who, he got suspended, right, for what he Yeah. Uh, you know, said, and if you're curious as to what he said, go back a couple of weeks and listen to that episode. But anyway, we have, uh, I think more philosophizing to do here because I ended up on this website and maybe this happens to you, but you, you, you're looking at something and then you, you end up on some other website and you don't really know how you got there and then you start reading that and

Chris:

yeah, I love going down the rabbit holes. Yeah, it

Jeff:

is, it's a rabbit hole for sure. That's what happened here and I ended up on weareteachers. com and it's philosophical questions and they had a bunch of different categories and I've got like 10 here and I thought we could roll through these and I think some of these are kind of fun to think about, others are a little more weighty, I guess you would say. Mm hmm. But. Yeah, so here we go. Do you feel like philosophizing? Absolutely. If it was possible to live forever, would you want to?

Chris:

I don't think so. I think at some point you'd just get worn out.

Jeff:

Wouldn't you? I would think so too, yeah.

Chris:

I think that, and also, if everybody else that you know isn't also living, then you're going to experience a lot of loss.

Jeff:

A lot of loss, I thought about that. And what condition am I going to be in? What is that?

Chris:

Sometimes I'm barely making it as it is. Right.

Jeff:

So, yeah, am I just going to be shriveled up? And, uh, what is the condition of the world gonna be like, like in a hundred years, two hundred years, and am I, am I allowed to just off myself and end it after like two hundred years or something, or do I just keep going and going, so yeah, I don't know that I would do that. I

Chris:

would like to think I could get out if I wanted to.

Jeff:

Alright, number two, what is the biggest issue in our society right now? Ooh. If you had to pinpoint one thing.

Chris:

Man. That's tough. And

Jeff:

by the way, I've looked at these, but I haven't really thought about them at all. I don't really know. I have a lot of problems with, I got a lot of problems.

Chris:

I know! We have so many problems. I mean. Yeah. I'm gonna talk about poverty, homelessness, violence. Yeah,

Jeff:

there's a lot. There's probably something there. If we solved that problem, then other problems could get solved. I don't know what that might be. Maybe a lack of empathy. People just not caring. Maybe that would do it. I don't know. Maybe that's naive, too. I'm not sure.

Chris:

I don't know. That's a good point, though. You're not talking about addressing any of, well, you are, but like all, any of the things that I just said, it's not about attacking those. It's saying, Hey, there's a bigger underlying issue. Yeah. Is yeah. If people just don't care about the homeless people or the poverty, then nothing's going to get done.

Jeff:

There's a lot. In this country, um, that is, I don't know if this would probably help it too. And I don't know how you solve this or even if it's a problem to be solved, but out of sight, out of mind, like if you're living in a gated community in a, you know, a million dollar house, how often do you confront poverty, crime, homelessness? Yeah, it's just, uh, you don't know about it, or you can just put it out of your mind because you never witnessed it, so you don't really see those as major problems in society. Very

Chris:

true. I was just about to say that specifically related to the crime aspect, or violence, is if you're not in an area where you're subject to that, then you have the attitude that it always happens to somebody else. You know, it's not here, so why do I need to be that concerned about it? But that's true for all of those things.

Jeff:

OK, next, do you think it's important to conform in society?

Chris:

To an extent, but that's... OK, I do like to blend in, as in, I don't want to be that standout person that everybody's looking at for whatever reason. I don't feel that need and I don't want that. So there is some degree of conformity that I have, but at the same time, you know, we would never get anywhere if everybody did that. We need those people. I'm okay not to be one of them, but I'm okay that we have some of them that are like, hell no, I'm not doing that, you know, just because everybody else's that doesn't mean I have to. And you get people like that and it can promote good change.

Jeff:

Yeah, I like the way you stated that. I think I'm the exact same way. I, I don't want to be noticed. That's the worst. Like if I, if I walk into a room and everybody turns and looks at me, no, I don't want that. I don't want to stand out. Yeah, I don't want to stand out like that. But I tell you what, I'm going to sound like an old person here, but as I've gotten older, I've learned to appreciate more the people who are their true selves, individuals, and they're not conforming to whatever it might be. They're being their own person and they're comfortable in their own skin and they're doing their own thing. And to me, those individuals are a lot more interesting than a lot of the people you're going to find, you know, who are doing pretty much what everybody else is doing. And I'm doing pretty much what everybody else is doing. And like you said, I'm okay doing that, but I'm glad that those other people exist for

Chris:

sure. Yeah, and I think, to me, it makes a difference, too, about why those people are doing what they're doing. Sometimes, you know, especially with younger people, you see it more out of rebellion. Yeah. And with, and with older people, it is more of what you just said, is that they're more comfortable with themselves. And it's like, hey, I know who I am, I'm not like these other people. And I'm going to be myself. Like you said, they're comfortable with that. I like that better than I do the rebellion part of it.

Jeff:

Is there a point where it's acceptable to just not care anymore?

Chris:

Probably. Depending on what it is.

Jeff:

Well, I see, uh, you know, old people out and about and it's like they put on the first thing they saw in their room, you know, it's like a, like, like coveralls, like a big old, you know, like one piece, whatever, a big onesie, a big onesie. That's what it is. And they just go out and about and they clearly do not care. Like their hairs. If there's anything left of it is going in 50 different directions. They just don't give a shit anymore. When is that acceptable? Because I kind of admire that too.

Chris:

See, I look at it and go, what the fuck? Do you own a mirror?

Jeff:

It's got to be, uh, it's got to be a relief to just not give a shit what people think.

Chris:

No, I see what

Jeff:

you're saying. I don't know that I'll ever be that way. Like, I do care what other people think.

Chris:

Yeah, I will never be that way. Well, and, OK, so here's a question. Is this about they don't care what other people think? Or they don't even care what they think? Like, I don't care, I don't care what I look like. And so, never mind what

Jeff:

everybody else thinks. Yeah, I think it might be both. I think it might be both. And I always see that, I see posts like that on Twitter or whatever, it's like, don't bother yourself with what other people think. It's like, how the fuck can you do that? Yeah. You're around people all the time. How can you, how can you have the attitude? And I guess some people really do, but I certainly don't.

Chris:

I definitely, I care, but I try to, I don't know, care to an extent, I guess is what I would say. There's gotta be some limit there, otherwise you're just like... Letting your life be directed by everybody else. And then maybe you're not really happy.

Jeff:

Okay. Uh, the next one, do humans treat animals properly or do we need to improve?

Chris:

That depends too. We need to improve. We definitely need to improve. I always, I always had a, I say always, as I got older, and I think we've talked about this before, I had a problem with the circus. You know, yes, it was cool to see, but then I was like, Ok, nothing that's happening out there is natural. Right. None of this behavior is ok to those animals. So what got them to do that?

Jeff:

And then I've heard things about the circus where, like, the training that the elephants go through, or whoever, is just brutal.

Chris:

It would have to be. Well, and then I think about the zoos, like the zoos are for us. They're not for them. And how horrible would that be to just be caged up all the

Jeff:

time? Yeah, I think that's ultimately what I have a problem with is when I, when I look at this question is animals that are cooped up where they clearly don't want to be cooped up like dogs, dogs, they're not. Cooped up, they're loyal to the, you know, their humans, their pack. And, and they want to be there. They're, they're happy they're there and cats will hang around if you're feeding them, so they clearly want to be there too, but stuff you got to put in a cage, that can't be a good existence, right? It can't be same with fish. You know? That's true. And then, I don't want to think about this too much because I like meat, and I like chicken, but the horrific treatment of stuff that ends up on our plate, again, I think about it too much, but that's not good treatment. Not by any stretch. No, it's

Chris:

terrible. At least the chickens never get very old. True. They're like, I think they're like six weeks old.

Jeff:

Yeah, it's a horrible existence for only a short time. For a short time.

Chris:

Yeah. Um, speaking of the treatment of animals, it's kind of funny, um, so my boss was in town last week from Finland, and some people here took him to a rodeo, and I said, so how'd you like the rodeo? And he said, well, it was OK, but I would say there was some stuff that was kind of inhumane about it. And then he said... Because, I found out why the horses buck like they do. He said, that just doesn't seem very nice. Like, yeah, not so much.

Jeff:

Yeah, and I gotta say, every time I see a story, or I see a video, where a bullfighter is gored by a bull, or charged, or whatever, I kinda, kinda say, alright, good on the bull. Yeah. Yeah. It is karma. OK, this statement, or this question, is kind of depressing to me, but I want to see what you think about it. What do you believe about this statement? Quote, everyone dies twice, once with their body, and again the last time someone mentions their name.

Chris:

Oh, wow.

Jeff:

Yeah. And here's why it bothers me. There's going to be some point. Where people will not even know who you were. That's

Chris:

right. They're not going to know

Jeff:

who you were. Yeah. And unless you do something spectacular like Da Vinci or Edison or who knows, you know, anybody who's invented something or whatever, or you're really evil, like Hitler, people are not going to know who you are. And that's kind of troubling to me. I'll just be forgotten.

Chris:

It is. And think about how quickly it can happen, too. Yes. I mean, it's about two, probably. Two, maybe three generations. Yeah. And I mean, who do we talk about? Our grandparents. Yeah. That we would have known. And so maybe we talk about those grandparents to our kids, who'd have been their great grandparents, but are our kids going to continue talking about their great grandparents? Probably not. I don't talk about my great grandparents, I mean, hardly, well, I did know one of them, but that would be the only reason.

Jeff:

Yeah, but for the most part that doesn't happen. Most people don't know their great grandparents or have very, you know, faint memories of them. Yeah. And really couldn't tell you much about them at all.

Chris:

So you're talking three generations at the most, which means within what, 70 to 100 years after you die? Yeah. That's, that's

Jeff:

it. That's it. Next one. Should everyone have to be an organ donor?

Chris:

No. You shouldn't have to. Cause then you're forcing me to do, you're forcing me to do it. I think, morally, it's a great thing to do. Yeah, but morally, ethically,

Jeff:

both, I guess, yeah, kind of both. So the reason I included this is I recently saw this about Singapore. Singapore has a law that like the default position is you are an organ donor. Like you're, you're on the list. You're an organ donor, so your organs will be donated when you die, unless. You like sign something and say, I don't want that to happen. But if you do that, you're put down on the bottom of the list for people who need an organ transplant.

Chris:

Yeah,

Jeff:

that'll make you think twice. That will make you think twice. What do you think about that? I think I might like it. That's

Chris:

fair. I think that's fair. Like, hey, if you don't want to give up, why would you expect somebody else to give up?

Jeff:

Yeah, I think I like that. So I don't think I'm in favor of, hey, you got to be an organ donor. I'm in favor of like they do it. The default is, yeah, you're an organ donor, but if you don't want to, then we're going to put you down on the list. And if you need a new, whatever, sorry, you know, you didn't want to give your organs to anybody, so. Right. Why should anybody give up theirs? And how many

Chris:

people would change their mind or want to change their mind? Can they change their mind? Yeah.

Jeff:

One time decision. That's it. I know.

Chris:

Well, because then you think if you need an organ, are you necessarily qualified to be an organ donor later? I don't know that. And I don't mean the organ that was donated to you, but let's say I need a kidney. And so I get a kidney, but after I die, could they use my heart, my, you know, some other organ, and I don't know if they can, if you receive, if you've already received an organ, but that's what I'm saying, that would make you wonder, like, can I change my mind and say, oh, since I need something, yeah, I'll be a donor, right? Or does it even matter?

Jeff:

I wonder how long they've been doing transplants. Do you know? Like ballpark? Are we talking like 50 years? Or has it been more recent? Wasn't the first heart transplant done in like, late 60s?

Chris:

I was gonna say 50s or 60s. So, unfortunately, that's a little longer ago.

Jeff:

Yeah, again, I'm thinking 60s. I'm thinking like, oh, that's 40 something years ago, right?

Chris:

No. I know. OK, here we go. 1954. The first heart

Jeff:

transplant?

Chris:

No, the kidney was the first human organ to be transplanted successfully. Oh, well, successfully. Successful. Yeah.

Jeff:

Poor bastard. Yeah.

Chris:

Before that. So I, I actually just talked to someone recently who donated a kidney. And I was like, so

Jeff:

they slap it on the table,

Chris:

took it right out. So I was like, so the person that that kidney went to, they didn't like neither one of their kidneys were good. They had like 5%. Functionality. Oh, wow. Total. So, I mean, they were bad, bad off. But anyway, I was like, so what? They take those two kidneys out and put this new one in? They're like, no. They actually put the put, give them a third kidney.

Jeff:

Yes. They leave them in. I didn't know that. Yeah, I read that not too long ago. Yeah. Isn't that wild?

Chris:

Yes. They said they like tee it off where? The one kidney, or I mean, two kidneys feed the bladder on one side and then one kidney on the other, and the, the functionality then of the two bad kidneys might improve a little bit because of the good kidney that they got. So then they're working on better than one kidney's worth of. Functionality. That is amazing. Which means then they're better off than the person who donated the kidney I know. Yeah. Who's now just working off of Wine

Jeff:

That seems kinda wrong, but yeah. Yeah. It's true. Okay. What makes something, and, and there are two questions here. The two that I have, they're kind of closer related. What makes something right and something wrong? Ooh, that's heavy.

Chris:

Yeah, that is heavy. Well, and we've kind of talked about this before, I mean. I think religion drives a lot of people's opinions on that. For sure. And, and so I would say from that, whether you are religious or not, a lot of your determination of right and wrong is still driven by that because of all the other people in society that are getting it from that.

Jeff:

I was going to say, my answer to this now, and I'm not quite sure what it is, but my answer to this now is going to be very different than it was 30 years ago. Even less than that, because yes, it was based on religion. So why don't you lie? Well, because God says not to lie, you're supposed to tell the truth. Uh, why don't you curse? Because the Bible says you're supposed to have, you know, clean language or whatever the hell it says. Whatever the fuck it says. Don't commit adultery because the Bible says not to. Like, it was all based on stuff in the Bible. And now, if you don't believe in that anymore, then what does that leave you with? And I don't know. It's different for every type of quote unquote sin, every wrong that there is, I think. I mean, Why don't you lie? And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I think, but it's okay to lie sometimes, right?

Chris:

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Like who doesn't when it comes down to, for example, protecting someone's feelings. Right. You know, Hey, do I look good in this? Whatever I'm wearing. Yeah, it looks great. Yeah.

Jeff:

Um, but then, you know, why don't you lie under most circumstances? Well, you know, 30 years ago it was because God says not to, but now it's like, well, if you, if you lie here, then, you know, people aren't going to trust you. And, you know, there's, there's all sorts of issues with that and just whatever. I don't know. It definitely gets more complicated if you can't just fall back on a religious. text to say, well, it says not to. So then that's that.

Chris:

Yeah, it does. Because the religion part makes it so black and white.

Jeff:

It's black and white for sure.

Chris:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're, you're doing the wrong thing because it says it right here and you're going to hell because you did the wrong thing. So then do you want that? All right. But. You know, then, I've heard other people talk about it, like, and you and I have mentioned this too, is If you are only doing the quote unquote right things because the Bible says do this or don't do that, are you really a good person anyway? Because, you're only, yeah, because you're only doing it out of threat. It's the threat of being punished. And how about saying, I'm gonna do the, you know, the good thing, the right thing, because it's the good or right thing to do, and how that gets determined is all, I would say that even is different in different circumstances, because you could say, well, is it OK to lie in this circumstance? Well, if it protects somebody's feelings, you could, you know, come up with your own justification for that. Mm hmm. But then... You know, is it okay to kill somebody? How about that? Well, if it's just out of anger, then you could be like, well, no, because you know, you're taking their life and all that kind of stuff, but what if you're doing it in self defense? Does that change things? To a lot of people it does.

Jeff:

What if you're doing it proactively? Killing them proactively? Yeah. What if you knew the person that you're going to kill was going to kill 10 people? What if you knew they were going to shoot up a school? Yeah. I mean, I think it's okay to take them out. I mean, if I knew that... But the Bible says thou shalt not kill.

Chris:

Right. If I knew that for a fact, then yeah, I would say, yeah, what's the difference?

Jeff:

Okay. And then the next one, again, as I said, it's closely related, but what makes a crime a crime?

Chris:

Yeah, very closely related. I think, um, I think a lot of our laws get based on the, the welfare of society. Yeah. You know, is there a harm to other people, society as a whole, things like that. And I think that's a lot of where the good or bad, right or wrong can come in. Did I, am I causing any harm? Am I doing something that's going to bring about some kind of badness to somebody, something, some environment, whatever?

Jeff:

Uh, my first, I think this was the first class of, of my criminal law course in law school, one of the first things the professor said, he asked, What is a crime? Mm-Hmm. And we went like, I swear it felt like 15 or 20 minutes where we were shouting out answers, saying, Nope, nope, no, no, whatever. And finally you said a crime is whatever a legislature says is a crime. That's it, It's like whatever they said is against the law. That's what it is. And it kind of makes me think. Two weeks ago, talking about the professor, and he said, OK, for those of you who didn't listen, so here's what he said. He said, uh, if a man has sex with a willing 12 year old girl, that's not morally wrong, although he said it should be criminalized. And you and I were talking about this, like, how does he not see that as a moral wrong, yet it should be criminalized? And so where's that line? Because we have some laws that are clearly, I would think the vast majority of people would say immoral, like murder, uh, but then we have other things that are clearly not immoral, but I think it's still good that they Are laws, right? They're, they're made into a crime. Like, right. I don't know. I mean, there's a bunch of'em. Like, we don't want people running Running red lights. Running red lights, yeah. Yeah. Jaywalking. Um, there's a bunch, as you said, whatever's good for society. It's interesting though, what, where that line is and what legislatures have decided is not good.

Chris:

It really is. And talking about those people who don't conform, it's really interesting when they come along and try to move that line. Yeah, yeah. Like, is the line in the right place?

Jeff:

Yeah, absolutely.

Chris:

Those kinds of conversations just fascinate me. To talk about the whys and the hows, and well, who decided this, and should it have been decided, and OK, so it's been this way for hundreds of years, thousands of years. Should it be changed? I mean, think about, think about homosexuality being a crime, has been for thousands of years. And now that gets challenged.

Jeff:

I just thought of this, like in my religious upbringing and I, maybe it was this way for you, but you weren't supposed to drink, no drinking, no smoking either, because there's a verse in the Bible that says you're supposed to treat your body as a temple, right? And I thought about George, his mom saying, came home and he's treating his body like an amusement park. But that was the verse in the Bible where you're not supposed to do anything like harmful to your body. And I remember even thinking as a kid, well... We put other stuff in our body that's clearly not good for it, so what is that line? I don't know, just, I just thought about that.

Chris:

Well, and that's why gluttony, I mean, gluttony can be more than just food. There you go. But, it certainly applies to food, and being one of the Seven Deadly Sins is like, well, what if you're just morbidly obese? What have you done to your body?

Jeff:

Speaking of that, I need to watch the movie Seven again. I haven't seen that in a long time. It's a great movie. It is. That is fantastic. Mess you

Chris:

up,

Jeff:

too. Yeah, no kidding. Um, alright, last one here. Have you ever had any paranormal or strange experiences? that you couldn't explain. Hmm.

Chris:

I don't think so. I don't really think I have.

Jeff:

I'll just say this upfront. I don't believe I don't believe in, in ghosts. I don't believe in spirits, none of that stuff. I think everything can be explained somehow, but there was one time where I was at somebody's house. And I had a friend who was sitting at a desk at a computer and I was just standing behind him. I don't know, I was doing or whatever, but we had been talking and I'm just standing behind him. And then I hear a sound and it went like this,

Chris:

like that.

Jeff:

And he, he turned around and looked at me. And I was like, what? And he said, why'd you do that? I said, I didn't do that. And then we both freaked and we ran out of the room. So I don't know, still, you know, what in the world that was. But it was freaky. You know, it was, uh, it was... disturbing at the time, but that's the only experience I think I've had that would

Chris:

qualify. Yeah. No, I can't think of anything like that. And I'm sure if something had happened, I would remember it. I've always had, you know, sounds or whatever that you wonder, what was that? Where'd it come from? Why did that happen right now? Whatever. But yeah, I'm sure those things could have been explained one way or the other. I think one thing that disturbs me From that standpoint of, I don't know if spirit's the right word, but if you, if you think about like uh, Einstein's premise, energy and mass are interchangeable, then what happens to the energy that we have when we're gone? Where does that go? Good question. All you got, our mass is still here, but we are more than just mass. We've got that energy and what happens to it? And I think, well, could that energy have hung around? Does it do something? And I'm not saying I believe in that either, but it's just been an open question to me. Like. It's just what happens and are we ever going to know? Are we ever going to know? No. Well, I say we, I don't mean we like after we die, are people on earth ever going to know or are they, is there ever any way that they could figure anything out like that? Well,

Jeff:

okay. I'm saying no, but. Who knows if humans are still around in like 500 years, a thousand years, who knows what advances they will have made. And I, you know, I don't know from what I know now, I just, it'll forever be unknown.

Chris:

Yeah. You know, and we've talked about the talking about advances and we've talked before about the advances that we've had just in the last, you know, 100, 150 years compared to 150, 000 years before that. And I think about, holy shit, what advances are there going to be just in the next 50 years, 100 years, that's going to be so exponentially more than what we've done in this last 50 to 100 years. It makes me panic to know that I won't get to experience it. I know, yeah. That I wanna know. Yeah, we're gonna miss out. Yeah, I wanna know, what is it, what are we gonna be able to do? What are we gonna have? I mean, think about the people that died even 40 years ago. They never experienced cell phones. I know. And so, like, just in that short amount of time, look how the world has changed just from that standpoint, and the internet, and computers, and, and they didn't, even 40 years ago, they didn't experience those things, and that scares the shit out of me. Like, what are, what are we gonna have that I don't know, and I wish we had, and, it's crazy.

Jeff:

I know it. It's troubling. Well, hey, maybe there is something after we're dead and we can just float around and find out what's going on. Mess with,

Chris:

mess with people's technology. Well,

Jeff:

definitely. See? Is

Chris:

that what's happening when your computer glitches? You have to

Jeff:

restart your phone and God damn it, it's another spirit.

Chris:

I know.

Jeff:

Do you like spicy

Chris:

food? I do when I can stand it. And standard as in, I want it to be enjoyable. I don't like pain.

Jeff:

Yeah, I can handle a little bit of spice. I don't like sweating through my meal. I don't want that. No. That's a miserable experience. Not to mention what it's going to do to you when it hits your stomach and starts working its way through tearing through your intestines. That reminds me, have you seen the movie Along Came Polly? No, I haven't seen that one. It's got, uh, it's got Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston and Philip Seymour Hoffman in it. Uh, and he's, they're all good in it, but Philip Seymour Hoffman is hilarious in it. But anyway, he's uh, he's got, Ben Stiller's got Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and uh, he's meeting Jennifer Aniston, Polly. And, uh, she suggests the restaurant and he wants to be, you know, he wants to, to date her. He likes her. So she mentions the restaurant and it's called Al Hafez and they show him and he's got this plate of just shit, whatever. I don't know what it is. And he's just pouring sweat and he's just, his bowels are just disintegrating. Discharging.

Chris:

Yeah, they're going to discharge.

Jeff:

Um, and, you know what, I just thought of this, uh, at Thai restaurants, usually it's like this, like they have different levels, like they'll ask you how you want it prepared, and like, one is like the absolute hottest, and then usually it goes to like three or four, but there's, that's not a standard. I've been at some Thai restaurants where I order three and it's like nothing, and then I order three at another one and I'm, I got the whole sweat going while I'm eating it, so, yeah.

Chris:

Duh. Yeah, that's a frustrating thing, but I always, anything like that, I start on the low side. Yeah. Better safe than sorry. I'd rather be unhappy with it because it's not spicy enough than the other way around. Definitely.

Jeff:

The reason I ask is because we now have a new Guinness record for the hottest pepper in the world. Well, that's what we need. Yeah, I know, yeah, that's exactly what we need. The previous record was the Carolina Reaper pepper, and, uh, peppers are measured, I guess anything spicy is measured in Scoville units, have you heard of those? Yeah. That's, yeah, so. That's how you measure how spicy something is, and I'm not exactly sure how they do it, but whatever. Uh, the Carolina Reaper pepper was 1. 64 million Scoville units. Mm hmm. This new pepper is 2. 693 million. Oh

Chris:

my gosh. Yeah.

Jeff:

Just for comparison, a jalapeno... Is between 2, 000 and 8, 000, which I can eat, I can eat a jalapeno maybe two at a meal. And I'm talking about just a slice, of course, not the whole damn thing. But I can eat a couple of those and I'm, I'm okay. Like I do need to like drink some water, eat some chips or whatever when I do it. I can't imagine putting something that hot in my

Chris:

mouth. I can't either. And I don't even understand why. Why would you? I, um, I ate something one time that was called Satan's Blood. Oh, Jesus. And I don't know, I think I looked it up one time after that, and it was some insane number on the scale, but it was, I was at work, and this guy came in to me and said, Hey, we've tried this. Do you want to try it? Well, his face was red and his eyes were kind of watery. I was like, okay, I will. And so I go over there and they had little salting crackers and they put a dot of it in the middle of the salting cracker. And I was like, wait, really? That's it? That's what caused. You to have the problem that you did. He was like, yeah, okay. So I ate it and right after I ate it, I started tingling. And then for me, when I eat something hot, the top of my head gets hot, you know, like you're going to sweat. But it's like a chimney. So, I started getting hot and needless to say, it escalated from there. But I found out when I was about five minutes into it. My face was red, I had tears running down my face. I was drinking, I don't remember if we had milk. Subpar Talks, LGBT, subpartalks. com, www. independentjeff. com, www. independentjeff. com, www. independentjeff. com, It had already been 15 minutes. Oh, so I wasn't seeing the worst of it. Oh man. Oh my God. It got so bad. That's horrible.

Jeff:

Yeah. How long did you feel

Chris:

it? At its height? About 15, probably 15 to 20 minutes. And then I know I continued feeling it after that, but after that it was like, OK, I can deal with this. There was a time where I was like, what the hell am I gonna do? How do you ride this

Jeff:

out? So, Ed Curry is the guy who invented this. He is the founder of Pucker Butt Pepper Company in South Carolina. Um, he's describing, so Pepper X is, uh, the name of this new pepper. He's describing eating it. He said, quote, There's an intense burn that happens immediately. Then your head kind of feels like, oh no, what's going on? And then your body just starts reacting. You get it in your arms, you get it in your chest. It has no real throat burn like the Reaper, but that comes on later when you're in pain.

Chris:

Later. That's, that's what you need is just to have it worse later.

Jeff:

Yeah, exactly. So, with your thing, I think that would freak me out as much as the pain itself is how worse, how much worse is this going to get and how long is, am I going to have to deal with it?

Chris:

That's what I was afraid of. So, I came across this article. Those called Texans that are unique to the Lone Star state. Alright, so we have our opinions about Texas.

Jeff:

Yeah, this isn't really gonna make it much better. You know, I've taken those quizzes before. Maybe you have too. Like how Texan are you? And I'm not very at all. Like I just, I don't, I definitely don't check all the boxes when it comes to the Texas stereotypes, but I'm interested in this list. Yeah.

Chris:

I've said very few of these, but it is interesting. All right. So the first one. Is all hat, no cattle. Oh

Jeff:

God. Yeah. I've heard that. I hate that. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris:

So that's just like, you're talking a big game and you've got nothing to back it up.

Jeff:

It's like all bark, no bite. Yeah. Yes, exactly.

Chris:

I've heard it plenty. I say plenty. I don't know. How have I come across it? Because people that I know personally don't say it. I've probably heard it more on like a show or something. I've heard, uh,

Jeff:

yeah, I've heard like politicians say that. Like, I know Texan politicians love to throw that around because it shows how Texan they are. Yes. They're trying to out Texan their opponent or whatever. Right.

Chris:

OK, the next one, Bless Your Heart. Now, it made a distinction here about that because that is also just a generally a southern phrase, but it was pointing out That the Texan version of it, different than just the, the Southern part, is more of the, the jab at somebody, like derogatory, it's like a, bless your heart. If you say it in just the Southern way, it's like, oh, you poor thing. Like you're, you're kind of taking pity on them. I

Jeff:

always took that to mean, uh, at least when I heard it, um, not necessarily taking a jab at somebody, but more or less saying. This is all I'm going to say about that, and I really don't give a shit, either way, what's going on with you. So, bless your heart. Like, that's, and then that's it. Like, whatever. That's kind of how I took

Chris:

it. Yeah. And I think, yeah, so, this says, bless your heart, can mean an expression of pity, like, I'm sorry to hear that. However, half the time it's used as a condescending, two faced sort of insult. For example, if a Texan meets someone rude, boastful, or otherwise entirely out of touch, The person might have a slow head shake and a bless your heart coming their

Jeff:

way. I've never heard it used that way.

Chris:

That's funny. Well, it's kind of like a, wow, you poor, you poor bastard.

Jeff:

Poor bastard. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris:

All right. Third one is Coke. And I didn't know that that was so much a Texan thing as it could be a Southern thing, but

Jeff:

I thought that was more Southern.

Chris:

It says, although Texans seem, tend to say Coke, they don't always mean a Coca Cola, cause it could refer to a carbonated beverage. So obviously, we go ask for a Coke, and what's the common thing that'll come back to you is Pepsi OK. Pepsi OK. Yeah.

Jeff:

So there's that. Yeah.

Chris:

Um, alright, the next one, number four, is corn fed. Oh, I've heard that, yeah. People in Texas may refer to corn eating horses or corn fed boys. I've heard that. Talking about people, we're talking about people, right?

Jeff:

Yeah, just, uh, not too long ago, we were behind a car. that had an Iowa license plate. And I asked my son, I said, look, uh, do they look like they're from Iowa? And he said, well, what does a person from Iowa look like? I said, well, they're going to be white for sure. And they're, they look corn fed and he laughed you guys. So what does that mean? I said, well, they're going to be, you know, kind of beefy, hardy looking like.

Chris:

Yep. So this says, corn fed boys, which tends to mean that the person or critter in question is big, tall, buff, broad shouldered men are often referred to in this way. Yeah.

Jeff:

There you go. There you

Chris:

go. All right. Number five. Fixin to. Oh

Jeff:

yeah. Yep. I said that growing up, but I've, I've long since ditched that from my vocabulary.

Chris:

I'm not sure if I've completely ditched it. I would kinda like to think that I have, but I would have, other people would have to tell me. I don't know if I still say that or not. I'm gonna pay attention now. Alright. Alright. I'm fixin to say number six. Alright, this one is, is kinda funny. You'll, you'll hear it. It's J E E T, J E T, as one word. Jeetjet? Jeetjet? That's a question. Oh, jeetjet. Yes, did you eat yet? That's a, that's a little extreme,

Jeff:

but yeah. That's when I would shake my head and say, bless your heart.

Chris:

Yep, exactly. You can't talk,

Jeff:

right? Can you? Did

Chris:

you eat yet? Did you eat yet? Yeah. Yeah, that's, that one's rough. I definitely don't do that. I run it together. I mean, everybody runs words together. Yeah. I'd say, did you eat? Did you eat yet? Jew, Jew.

Jeff:

Yeah. Jew, J E W.

Chris:

Okay, it also mentions this as a, kind of a corollary to it, um, the phrase may be fall, may be shortly followed by squeet, or squeet, squeet, squeet,

Jeff:

squeet, oh no, I don't run that together. Jesus, that's terrible. Somebody said that to me. I'd ask

Chris:

what? Yeah, what the fuck are you talking about? Alright. Uh, the next one, what I think this is number seven, might, could, the phrase, might could in a Texas conversation is one of those slang terms that are actually longer than the original. When a Texan says, I might could get that done or I might could do it. The phrase is a stand in for maybe, like, maybe I could, I might could get, I might could, I don't say that. I don't

Jeff:

either, I don't think I've ever heard that, Micah. You know what I have heard though? Used to could. Oh, yeah. It's something you can't do anymore, but I used to could. I used to

Chris:

could.

Jeff:

It sounds so stupid when you bless your heart like that. Right,

Chris:

right there. Yeah. OK, so this is one I'm sure I've heard, but I don't think I really knew what it meant. Panhandle rain. Do you know what that

Jeff:

means? I've never heard

Chris:

that. No. All right, so it is referring to the panhandle of Texas, so we're talking far northwest, Amarillo, Lubbock, all of that. It is referring to the dust storms that they get. Oh, wow. OK. The massive dust storms that come through is panhandle rain. I've never heard that. I have heard the term, but I didn't know what it referred to. And then here's some other things. This is funny. It says, I've heard this before. It's so dry I'm spitting cotton.

Jeff:

Oh yeah, I've heard that. Heard that

Chris:

one. Many times, yeah. Um, that's a real toad strangler. I've heard it as a frog strangler. I've never heard that. Referring to a, a downpour of rain. Oh, OK. Just so much rain it would strangle a frog or a toad. Huh. Okay. Uh, this is funny. Hotter than a honeymoon hotel, referring to hot weather. I've never heard that. Cold as a cast iron commode, referring to cold weather. I've never heard that. But it paints a picture, doesn't it? Yeah. That'd

Jeff:

be damn cold. Have you heard the expression colder than a witch's tit?

Chris:

No, wait, I don't think so. I've

Jeff:

heard that. I heard that in a movie. Yeah. I don't know what that comes from. I've heard that in a couple of movies, one from when I was young and then I've heard it again since, and I don't know, I don't know where that comes from. What the hell it means. I Why is a witch's tit cold?

Chris:

I don't know. That doesn't sound good. Uhuh, do you know something I heard on the office and I can't believe that this was on tv, honestly. Now that was a nine o'clock show, so they definitely got away with things on there that they couldn't have at like seven or eight. But you remember, um, so what's his name? He's the, the sales guy who was not on there very much, but he was the, the nasty. He was the one, Todd Packer, Todd Packer, yeah, he, there was a Halloween episode and he said something about why witches didn't wear, didn't wear panties or underwear or whatever he said is so they can grip the broomstick.

Jeff:

I remember that line now.

Chris:

I was like... Holy shit, how'd they get away with that? That's funny. Yeah? Uh huh. OK, so number nine on the list is tank. What do you think of when you hear tank? So, and we're talking Texas, so not just your common.

Jeff:

I think a tank is if it's used, I think what's going to be on this list is a tank is like a small pond on a farm. A tank. Yep. Yeah,

Chris:

that's it. Yeah. It says is known in Texas as a pond, usually man made used for watering cattle. Yeah. The tank, that's, yeah, that's how I know it is. Like it's where the cows would drink from. Right. It says tanks are also used for fishing and occasionally swimming. That's horrific to

Jeff:

me. Yeah, I know that's, that's

Chris:

worse than a lake.

Jeff:

I know it. Who knows what's gonna be in a tank? No,

Chris:

that's just on a farms standing water that cows have been into. And yeah, you're gonna have snakes and who knows what else? Yeah,

Jeff:

when you said tank, at first I thought you said taint.

Chris:

That was, uh, that was another thing that was on the office. I had to look this one up.

Jeff:

Grundle? Rundle? Grundle. Oh, Grundle. Yeah, do you know that? I don't know what that

Chris:

is. No. It's like, taint. I had never heard it. Michael said it about Toby. Said something was worse than Toby's Grundle. It's like, what is that? And then, it's like, what the

Jeff:

fuck? Grundle sounds like a name. Sounds like the name of a witch. Yeah. He called tits

Chris:

wrinkles. Wow, I don't remember that. That's funny. OK, and number ten, that's a whole nother can of worms. Yeah,

Jeff:

I've heard, I've heard that. And, and does it actually say nother? Another people say

Chris:

another. Yeah. Whole nother can of worms. You hear her Just a whole other can of worms. I have said that other, not another but that's a whole other can of worms. It's kinda like we don't need to go there. That's open up a whole different

Jeff:

subject. Yeah. We'll deal with that later.

Chris:

Yes. Off the table it says. Refers to a tangent or something entirely different from the topic at hand. Yeah. Hearing that in a conversation may be a good cue that someone needs to get back to the main subject.

Jeff:

That's interesting. So a couple of those I've never heard before or a few, but

Chris:

no, I, yeah, it was a little educational to me too. Maybe that's because, you know, as you said, many times, Dallas is different. Right. And this is where we grew up. So, I could see some of those things being more classic, stereotypical Texas. And that would probably be more like West Texas, Southwest Texas. Yeah.

Jeff:

Yeah. I agree. So much more common there. All right. There you go. 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 every single Tuesday when they drop. And while you are there, we would really appreciate it if you would rate us, and of course we would like it if you'd give us five stars. We have a website, that is subpartalks. com. There you can email us, you can leave us a voicemail. If you want to make suggestions for topics we should cover on future episodes, please go ahead and do that. We are on social media on X. We are at Subpar Talks on Facebook. We are Subpar Talks. If you want to follow our personal X accounts, you can do that on there. I am at Independent Jeff.

Chris:

And I am at Chris Bradford TX.

Jeff:

And we have some other social media links on our website. You can check those out. And last, but never ever least, share Subpar Talks on social media, get the word out to your friends and family and colleagues and whoever else you encounter, because the more people we have listening to this show, the easier it is for us to get this content to you every single week. And speaking of X, I just saw this before we started recording. Elon Musk bought it for 44 million dollars, or billion dollars, and uh, it's now worth 19 billion. Alright.

Chris:

That

Jeff:

sounds about right. So, yeah, so he's slowly running it into the ground. So what did we do? We answered questions. We had some good questions.

Chris:

I

Jeff:

like those. Makes you think, for sure. Yeah. And then, uh, the hottest pepper in the world, Pepper X. Pick one of those up. Not even a chance. No. How much? How much to take a bite of one? Oh my gosh. There's a price for everything.

Chris:

It's gotta be, it's gotta be plenty. It's

Jeff:

gotta be I can retire tomorrow type of money?

Chris:

Probably so. Well, cause I might not make it, you know, it might just liquefy your insides.

Jeff:

It'll be like instant Ebola bleeding out of your butt. Alright, that is an episode wrap, and we will be back next week. Until then, so long.

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