September 4, 2011

The 16,230 calorie sandwich.

Step-by-step photographs.

(I was just reading somewhere the other day — are you still allowed to say that in the Google era? — that the reason Americans are "so fat" is that our sandwiches are too big.)

71 comments:

AmPowerBlog said...

Actually, that didn't look that appetizing. I've never liked hamburger on pizza.

The Crack Emcee said...

are you still allowed to say that in the Google era? — that the reason Americans are "so fat" is that our sandwiches are too big.

Yeah, you can say it, but that doesn't make it so. Say our sodas (and beers) are too big and you might have something, but, not because our businesses give us value for a dollar.

I have a friend who splits every meal in two, taking half of it home. Anybody can think that wants to.

Anonymous said...

It's obviously far more than one person can eat. More likely it's enough for ten people to share.

Peter

Carol_Herman said...

That doesn't work for everybody!

First, you'd have to be in the mood for pizza.

And, you'd have to want bacon. Which not everybody wants. Let alone after breakfast time is over.

And, the pan's too small.

Who would do that ... knowing the mess that follows?

Better to bake a cake.

Anonymous said...

Restaurant meals have inflated to such large portions due to competition for customers. Look at the prevalence of buffets. When my wife and I visit restaurants we split a meal, and have plenty.

Humperdink said...

I wanted to lose weight. I bought a pocket size book that listed the calorie content of every food, including every fast food menu item. It is surprising the calorie content of some foods (e.g. salad dressing). Another example - ice cream at Mickey D's is low in calories. Get a hot fudge sundae at the same place and you are cooked.

If you monitor everything you ingest and alter your intake, you will lose weight. I went from 213 to 175 in 9 months.

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ndspinelli said...

It's almost all processed food. That is what's killing us. Look @ people's grocery carts in supermarkets..not Whole Foods, just regular supermarkets. It's virtually all processed food. Everyone should take a trip to Italy to see how to cook and eat. They love to eat more than anyone. They eat a lot, but they are the most trim country in Europe. We are what we eat.

Unknown said...

@Sixty: WTF? What is your beef? I don't see anything in Crack's post to set you off that way.

wv: lyzesumi

I didn't think lyze was her first name

Sorin said...

Good PCT hiker food when you stop in town to pickup your box.

Beta Rube said...

With college football in full swing, the NFL starting Thursday, and the Brewers heading to the post-season, this is a very important and timely post.

I always like it when the professor does public service stuff.

The Dude said...

My bad, Crack does have a mother - good job, Jess.

Anonymous said...

I suspect that GOP candidates are generally bigger (heavier) than POTUS. I suspect this is yet another resin why GOP will lose. Their voters will have a hard time getting to the polls. Everything counts, this is the mantra of the Obama-Biden WH.

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeff in Oklahoma said...

I was just reading somewhere the other day . . . that the reason Americans are "so fat" is that our sandwiches are too big.

(More) proof of the MSM, nanny-state, group-think; fault always lies with someone/something else.

Whatever happened to the concept of individual responsibility?

kjbe said...

There's a local diner that we dinner at, about once a month. They have great pies. We love these pies. Some times we each get a slice. Sometimes we split one, but most often we skip dessert. I guess, mostly, we know when to say when. I would never in hundred years have thought to put this thing together. Yikes.

Anonymous said...

Jeff, have you eaten out lately? The helpings are big, very big. Too much sugar, etc. Look at the spoons, they are big too. The sandwich-bread is bigger too.

Go to any clothing store in America, any store. You will find very little choices for "S" [small]. Everything is now medium, large, x-l, xx-l, etc. If you want "S", you are forced to keep looking.

We are becoming a Fat nation. Soon our voters will be fatter and fatter. They will have a hard time walking to a polling station.

This is major strategy for the Nov. 2012 defeat of GOP.

Ann Althouse said...

"Yeah, you can say it, but that doesn't make it so."

What I'm asking whether you can still say in Google times is "I was just reading somewhere the other day"!

I would normally fish out the article where I read it. Failure to do that makes it seem as though maybe I didn't read it or maybe "so fat" isn't a quote.

ricpic said...

Our ice age ancestors gorged themselves when food was available and semi-starved in between. We're programmed that way. But now it's gorge daily. Ergo rampant fatness. Those who stay slim owe it more to the right genes than to the virtuous behavior they're always complimenting themselves on. Cause they also gorge.

Ann Althouse said...

"ice cream at Mickey D's is low in calories"

What really saves calories is: once you know that you know it's not worth eating at all. Calorie total at McD's: 0!

Ann Althouse said...

"With college football in full swing, the NFL starting Thursday, and the Brewers heading to the post-season, this is a very important and timely post."

Who hit for the cycle yesterday? I know, and I was watching live.

ndspinelli said...

Kottaras..our Greek God!

SGT Ted said...

They might as well blame the size of the spoons.

The reason Americans are so fat is because they keep shoving food into their cakeholes.

SGT Ted said...

actually, when i go to shop for work pants, there's plenty of size Xsmall, Small, X large and triple X, etc. Size medium and large are usually bought out.

Humperdink said...

@Ann 'What really saves calories is: once you know that you know it's not worth eating at all. Calorie total at McD's: 0! "

My lunch time fare consists of a going to the hot food section of the local supermarket and getting a small piece of hot meat/poultry, salad or fruit. Then to McD's for an ice cream cone for desert. I never eat McD's hot food. Even their small burger is high in C's.

edutcher said...

The size of the sandwich has nothing to do with it.

Americans are fat because they won't get off the couch or out from behind the computer.

Ann Althouse said...

"Kottaras..our Greek God!"

I like to call him "George Chakiris." Remember George Chakiris?

edutcher said...

Yeah, Bernardo in "West Side Story".

I think he died of AIDS.

Earth Girl said...

In the 60s, when I was in high school, I remember laughing (ie, a huge guffaw) at the size of sandwiches twice:

1. My first Burger King Whopper

2. My first NY deli sandwich

Ann Althouse said...

" I never eat McD's hot food. Even their small burger is high in C's."

When I'm on a long interstate drive, I always pick McDonald's. Clean bathrooms. Good coffee. And a quarter-pounder-with-cheese is a fine meal to take back into the car so you don't lose any time. It's easy to eat and it sustains you. It's a whole meal, with the right number of calories for a meal even if you are on a diet: 510. You could eat 3 meals a day of that and lose weight. 2 meals of that and it's a very low calorie diet. It's that other stuff that you need to avoid!

Ann Althouse said...

"I think he died of AIDS."

He's not even dead!

Now, I just realized I had conflated George Chakiris with George Maharis... after futile efforts to find video of him in "Route 66."

I loved that show!

Michael Haz said...

The "Eat This Not That" app for the iPhone is a hand list of restaurant food calories, with lower-calorie choices listed foe nearly every item.

Ann Althouse said...

We should revive "tea sandwiches." Goes along with the Tea Party.

Ann Althouse said...

"The "Eat This Not That" app for the iPhone is a hand list of restaurant food calories, with lower-calorie choices listed foe nearly every item."

I want to make a response app to that called "Go ahead and eat that." You get to eat the thing you want, and it posts the calorie count for that, but then you've got to fit everything else you want to eat that day (or the next day) into a total count, and it keeps you honest.

Bayoneteer said...

That's an entree meant for a group meal not a simple two slices and some fillings type sandwich for one.

Humperdink said...

@Ann Yes, you would lose weight if you only 3 1/4 ponders with cheese/ day. But you won't, nor would anyone else.

You're are correct about the total C's. The key is to stay between 1500 and 1700 C's /day - at least for me.

Scott said...

That recipe looks sort of good. I'm bookmarking it for my Super Bowl party. Make one, slice it into wedges. Yum.

My sister won a prize at an hors d'ourve party by serving up a tray of White Castle hamburgers that were quartered diagonally and skewered with frilly top toothpicks.

edutcher said...

Ann Althouse said...

" I never eat McD's hot food. Even their small burger is high in C's."

When I'm on a long interstate drive, I always pick McDonald's. Clean bathrooms.


My Aunt Mary was like that. I don't think guys worry about it that much, then again women have to sit all the time.

"I think he died of AIDS."

He's not even dead!

Now, I just realized I had conflated George Chakiris with George Maharis... after futile efforts to find video of him in "Route 66."

I loved that show!


So which one we talking about?

Buz or Bernardo?

PS Now we know where the wanderlust to go motoring across America in a cool car with a guy came from.

MaggotAtBroad&Wall said...

A couple of years ago, The New York Times, in spite of its fetish for a nanny state to tell us how to live our lives, thought it was important to present to it's readers, complete with a multi-media slide show, the culinary delight known as the "Bacon Explosion":

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/28bacon.html

MaggotAtBroad&Wall said...

Re-try:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/28bacon.html

MaggotAtBroad&Wall said...

Dang, the copy and paste is cutting off the html at the end of the url.

Just Google "Bacon Explosion" and the NYT link is in mid page.

Sorry for the multiple comments.

Wince said...

“You put more value on every minute...You know I always kinda thought I did that. I really always enjoyed myself. But it’s more valuable now. You’re reminded to enjoy every sandwich and every minute.”

Bob_R said...

If you do away with the two pizza crusts you have the start of the makings of a good meat loaf. Add some good bread and some homemade ketchup and mayo and you have some good sammiches for the game. Or go with mac and cheese and a green salad and feed a bunch of people lavishly. That thing just looks nasty to eat.

William said...

I like the old Bogart movies. He always had a drink in one hand and an unfiltered cigarette in the other. The guy really knew how to smoke a cigarette. I think Bogart, like most actors of his era, died in his late fifties. What were they thinking?.....I think a saner era will look back upon a recipe like this and ask the same question. Excessive eaters don't die in their late fifties, but they become debilitated with waddles by their mid forties. You see so many people nowadays whose quality of life has been radically diminished by their eating habits.....The defining sin of our age is gluttony, but nine out of every ten sermons preached is against sex. Lust is the most interesting sin, but if you want the express lane to hell, gluttony is the way to go. Perhaps if obesity became grounds for divorce or our Muslim neighbors would stone a few fat people to death, attitudes would change.

Bob_R said...

William, I can speak from experience. Listening to your self righteous crap is far more unpleasant than being fat.

ndspinelli said...

I do indeed remember George Chakiris, professor. My older sister adored him, and had posters and pictures of him all over her bedroom. Route 66 was a classic show. I take different stretches of Route 66 on my annual sojourn to San Diego. New Mexico has some of the more interesting stretches..always some great Mexican food in little diners.

Robert Cook said...

"Now, I just realized I had conflated George Chakiris with George Maharis... after futile efforts to find video of him in 'Route 66.'"

When I first read "George Chakiris" my first thought was also of ROUTE 66 but I quickly realized that was George Maharis. (I do, though, also remember George Chakiris.)

I was a kid when that show was on, and the few times I watched it it went mostly over my head, but I always liked it when I saw repeats of it later. The theme song is killer, and hearing it instantly brings back that whole period for me.

I also liked the George Maharis movie THE SATAN BUG, about a deadly toxin that some bad guys stole from the secure lab where it was held in order to blackmail the government into a big payoff...or else they'd release the bug and kill a bunch of Americans. Hey, it was a WMD!

I used to see George Maharis at the Art Student's League of NY on occasion when I was taking classes there. I guess he was also taking classes. (Peter Falk also used to show in drawing class every so often.) It never occurred to me when I was younger and saw him only on tv, but in person Maharis gave off a distincly "gay" vibe. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

The Crack Emcee said...

Sixty Grit,

And there it is - Crack's latest lie "I have a friend". Sure you do, you lying racist asshole. Tell us again about how you were raised by former slaves, you dishonest motherfucker. Oh, right, you didn't have a mother - my bad.

My Gawd, but you're a bonehead. Like Tyrone, I'm not going to waste much time on you because you're not worth it, but just so we're clear:

I was raised a foster child. Not including my birth mother, I have 7 "mothers" who raised me at various times during my youth. (There were others who played a role in my life, but I never felt close to them.) Some of them - the former slaves and sharecroppers - were very old (I was born in 1961) and even their parents and other extended family were part of my upbringing, so you see, dumbshit, it was not only possible, but damned near impossible, for someone my age not to have direct contact with slavery and sharecropping.

And I'll end by saying, now that white supremacists are marching in Madison, Wisconsin over that stupid 'wilding" incident, I hope your punk ass is happy. Now we actually have a specific racial aspect - and one we thought we were done with - to add to what was merely idiocy before. People like you, and the other race-obsessed assholes, are a shame to this country and a drag on the ability of us to get where we need and want to go. You are stupid, and callow, and foul.

Sixty Grit, I can't stand the likes of you and, since you can't hide what you've practiced a lifetime to become, your Kenyan relatives will catch on just as I have and - without any help from me - you will learn. I know it as well as I know my own name. I deal in reality:

You will be found out.

Now, if you don't mind, I will go back to ignoring you, as usual, and as you deserve.

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann and everybody,

I wish you guys would quit picking on McDonald's. It's good food that I can get anywhere in the world, and has proven to be a life saver, even, on a few occasions when I was battling a blood sugar problem. So it has a high fat content - big deal - don't eat a lot of it. (It's not their fault if you've got no common sense.) McDonald's is an American success story, and for good reason:

They represent the best of our culture - a quality product, offering value for your money, and provided in a nice surrounding - that is acknowledged as superior all over the world.

One of these days many of you are going to have to admit that it is not this country that has changed, but the "progressives" of this country - who have allowed themselves to be changed - and it is they, and they alone, who think the best of us is, somehow, bad. They complain about the flag, they complain about us defending ourselves, they complain that we eat well and they complain we, at least, know who we are. (They are on a circular-thinking never-ending search of some kind.) They are our weakest link:

Micky Ds proudly flies our flag all over this planet, is the antithesis of who they are, and deserves our praise for doing so.

No matter where we are, like the U.S.O., McDonald's is every American's port in a storm.

The Crack Emcee said...

Bob_R,

William, I can speak from experience. Listening to your self righteous crap is far more unpleasant than being fat.

Though I wasn't going to put it that way, I agree. I'm not overweight, but I really do wonder where the rest of you get off:

Skinny people die of more causes, overall, than fat people do.

Skinny people don't look as healthy - which is why most men want a woman with "some meat on her bones."

Skinny people are a pain-in-the-ass, always talking about the fat content of this or that, when - already being skinny - it's not even worth discussing.

Skinny people look down on others, making them, really, just a bunch of assholes.

I could go on. Sincerely, William, what was Bogart thinking? Probably that early death is preferable to listening to some self-righteous nanny prick go on about shit that's nobody's business, and only makes the world less pleasant, because the older we get, the less capable we are of defending ourselves from whatever other idiotic shit the pseudo-Nazi numbskulls decide to do to us. The old saying in anti-cult circles is, "Once they control what you eat, they can control anything." Well, you bastards are certainly trying, but you're only confirming one thing:

It's YOU who has drank the Kool-Aid.

The Crack Emcee said...

As far as the "Bacon Explosion" and other supposed-culinary outrages:

How dare anyone try to destroy the local color of this great country!

I not only like the damned things but want to try (most of) them when traveling. Unlike most countries, America has more cultures within it's borders - each with it's own fun and silly flavor - and anything that offers a door to openness, understanding, and good eating, is fine by me. Don't anybody try to strip us down just because you're too stupid to know how to take care of yourselves. That's nobody's problem but yours. I want to try the 5-Layer Pastrami With Ice Cream and the World's Hottest Buffalo Wings and any burger bigger than my head.

And especially if it comes with a goofy t-shirt.

I love this country and we will NOT bend over for you.

You don't like it? Move to France. You'll be bored in a week.

Palladian said...

"McDonald's is an American success story, and for good reason"

McDonald's is, mostly, poor quality ingredients. They killed their last delicious product when they bowed to nanny-state (and religious) pressure and switched from an animal-fat frying medium to some horrid vegetable/soy mixture. The fries, once a favorite, are no longer worth eating.

If I'm going to eat fast food (which is never now that I'm on a regimen), I'd prefer to patronize their subsidiary Chipotle. Great quality ingredients, fresh, limited menu... all the keys to a great restaurant. AND they serve booze.

Palladian said...

And American culture is (or was) a lot bigger than trashy pop culture and bad food. I dislike the homogeneity that popular culture has imposed on our once-extraordinary regional diversity (man I hate how that word's been poisoned). There's still wonderful regional diversity to be found, but with each generation it becomes rarer and rarer. Some people like the fact that they can get the same food wherever they go. I'm not one of them.

Humperdink said...

Crack, I guess I should correct myself. I do eat the McD's salad with grilled chicken. But the burgers are out.

I also am disappointed with the White Supremacy protest in badgerland. The last thing we need.

The Crack Emcee said...

Palladian,

Some people like the fact that they can get the same food wherever they go. I'm not one of them.

You would be if you were suffering food poisoning. Then you'd be saluting McDonald's, the USDA, and the FDA every chance you got.

But whether or not YOU like them isn't the issue - the issue is trying to bad-mouth our choices to the point where no one else can enjoy them.

Like Jane Fonda, sitting on that damned tank in Vietnam, there are too many Americans determined to undermine what we have because THEY take it for granted. I say again - the problem is YOU. And, until you're willing to deal with that issue AS THE REAL ISSUE, you are contributing nothing useful to the national dialogue:

I don't care what you like or don't like to eat, but I'll be damned if you'll be taking anything away from me, based on how smug you can get about it.

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Crack Emcee said...

rick,

Crack, I guess I should correct myself. I do eat the McD's salad with grilled chicken. But the burgers are out.

I eat whatever I want, understanding I can't everything all the time. And just like I don't want no damned black muslims coming in my house and lecturing me about pork (I've thrown my share of those nutcases out) I don't need anybody, influenced by Mind/Body/Spirit "teachings," telling me shit either. They're all crazy, schooled in everything but how to think for themselves, and graduates in the NewAge/Nazi academy of how to boss other people around.

I also am disappointed with the White Supremacy protest in badgerland. The last thing we need.

It was inevitable. As long as the likes of Sixty Grit was going to keep up the mantra, that race is the center of our every negative occurrence between people of different skin colors, then more racial bullshit is what we're going to get - with many deciding the likes of white supremacists, or black muslims, might have a point. It's climbing out of that mental sewer that's hard:

Many just don't have the strength of mind.

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
flicka47 said...

Wow Crack! You are on a roll and batting 1000!

You've got it exactly right about the food/thought/politics police. It seems in their minds only they have it right and THEY should be in charge of everyone else's "choices".

Too bad they never stop to check the reality of their preaching...

Had a friend who wanted to lose some weight. Decided that he was going to change from having his work-day lunch at McD's and go to Panda Express instead.(should be healthier right? All those vegetables?) Until I pointed out that the calories and salt in their chop suey was FOUR times the amount in one of McD's double meat, double cheeseburgers.

Reality trumps self-rightous every time!

Known Unknown said...

One thing I noticed in my travels abroad (Europe, specifically) is the dearth of fountain beverage service.

It's just not built into their infrastructure, the way it is here. You want a soda? You get a 12 oz one and a glass of ice. Here, you can walk into any gas station and walk out with a 44 oz. Mountain Dew.

Everything there is smaller by design and frankly, by geography. When you have densely-packed societies, you have less shelf-space, and thus less volume. They sell more little bags of 'crisps' than big ones, simply because stores can't stock as many larger sized items.

I can't help but think of Sowell's Geography of Race. That in fact, in our efforts to disparage ourselves, we've overlooked a very obvious factor in why diets in different societies/countries are wholly different.

William said...

We have one life to live, and it is best not to spend it as a fat person. When Crack says that he will not bend over for the food police, he little understands how prophetic his words are. There are many in America who cannot bend over, and their numbers are growing. There really is a downside to being morbidly obese....There are many here who would criticize Charley Sheen for holing up in a luxury suite with a mound of cocaine and a passel of porn stars. Not me, but there are many here who would criticize this absorbing hobby. Those same people see nothing wrong with batter dipped, deep fried Crisco cans. I would suggest that a society whose endocrine system is in balance would look upon the sandwich detailed above with the same opprobrium that Charley received. There's such a thing as too much and beyond too much is the wretched excess of that sandwich.....But please understand that I'm not criticizing you as a person, but rather your dietary proclivities. Hate the sin, not the sinner. I don't think obese people should be allowed to marry, and they certainly should not be allowed to have children. How many of these poor children have been eaten by their parents in their haste to pile another layer upon the Dagwood sandwich?....I think it is significant that at the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord passed around loaves and fishes. A diet low in cholesterol and rich in Omega 3. You notice he didn't pass around slurpees and corn dogs. We should return to the frugal, weight reducing foods that Jesus endorsed.

LA_Bob said...

As a low-carb eater myself, I'd say the first 7 steps in the process look pretty good and nutritious to me. I'd pass on the pizza crusts. I'm not sure how many calories that would spare, but for sure there would be fewer than 16000.

Palladian said...

"You've got it exactly right about the food/thought/politics police. It seems in their minds only they have it right and THEY should be in charge of everyone else's "choices"."

You mean like when McDonald's caved in to the "food police" and fucked up their once-delicious fries?

McDonald's doesn't suck because they're a corporation, or because they're big. They suck because they choose to suck.

Eat at a place like Chik-Fil-A if you want to see how you can retain high quality, have great customer service and be extraordinarily successful all at the same time. A much greater example of American exceptionalism than what McDonalds has become.

The Crack Emcee said...

flicka47,

Wow Crack! You are on a roll and batting 1000!

You've got it exactly right about the food/thought/politics police. It seems in their minds only they have it right and THEY should be in charge of everyone else's "choices".

Too bad they never stop to check the reality of their preaching...


Their reality was handed to them but they never stopped to check if it's real. Watch this video (it's actually hilarious, so you won't mind) and tell me you can reason with the NewAgers featured in it. You can't. It's impossible. THAT's the problem we have when facing most issues today - some variation on those guys. Some appear more lucid than others, but they all have a trigger that, when activated, turns them into The Manchurian Candidate and nothing less than beating them into submission will make them stop.

Had a friend who wanted to lose some weight. Decided that he was going to change from having his work-day lunch at McD's and go to Panda Express instead.(should be healthier right? All those vegetables?) Until I pointed out that the calories and salt in their chop suey was FOUR times the amount in one of McD's double meat, double cheeseburgers.

Reality trumps self-rightous every time!


Here's an ever bigger get-your-freak-on for you:

Panda Express is a cult outlet of the Landmark Forum.

I really starting to enjoy how everyone thinks they're going about their lives, normally, while these folks are in the background, practically everywhere, saying "We control the horizontal, we control the vertical,..." and anyone who points it out is quickly labeled crazy - by the "smart" people - and ostracized. Really - I'm learning to like being crazy, and ostracized:

Beats the alternative,...

The Crack Emcee said...

William,

We have one life to live, and it is best not to spend it as a fat person. When Crack says that he will not bend over for the food police, he little understands how prophetic his words are. There are many in America who cannot bend over, and their numbers are growing. There really is a downside to being morbidly obese....

You are so stuck on the sound of your own voice, and that god damned mantra you've been handed, you can't understand anything else - listen up, asshole:

I don't think obese people should be allowed to marry, and they certainly should not be allowed to have children.

You're a fucking Nazi. Do you understand? A Nazi. You have been brainwashed into the sickest, lowest level of humanity known to man.

Naziism wasn't just about killing the Jews, but a whole set of views and assumptions that eventually made killing the Jews possible. One of them was an obsession with health and body worship. Where do you think the NewAge phrase "Mind/Body/Spirit" came from? The Hitler Youth. Tell me, William, what other folks - who aren't hurting you or society generally - would you restrict, and how, to give your scummy piece of shit ass peace of mind?

You disgust me.

The Crack Emcee said...

Palladian,

Eat at a place like Chik-Fil-A if you want to see how you can retain high quality, have great customer service and be extraordinarily successful all at the same time. A much greater example of American exceptionalism than what McDonalds has become.

Jesus Christ, P, get off the fucking pot:

Without McD's there'd be no Chik-Fil-A, and Chik-Fil-A's got a loooooooooooooooooooooong way to go before they'll EVER catch McDonald's in any category known to man. I'll put almost ANY McDonald's in Europe (which can look and function like fine dining restaurants, serving wine and spirits) against any Chik-Fil-A anywhere. There's just no comparison between the two companies:

McDonald's is an original, astride the world, while Chik-Fil-A is a recent upstart, building on everything McDonald's learned the hard way.

And don't you think, for a second, McDonald's ain't watching.

Your problem, as I said before, is you take shit for granted that shouldn't oughtta be. There ain't shit on this Earth that says we have to be Number One in anything. Keep knocking us for such petty reasons and we might not be - and you will have done it. But, if there's one thing I can promise you as a man who grew up poor and has been all over this planet including to Third World countries, you WILL NOT like the alternative you've unleashed.

The choice is always yours.

AlanKH said...

James Lileks, please pick up the courtesy phone.

http://lileks.com/institute/gallery/

DaveW said...

You're a fucking Nazi. Do you understand? A Nazi. You have been brainwashed into the sickest, lowest level of humanity known to man.

Thanks Crack, you saved me the time. Sometimes you have to wonder if a comment like that is intended as parody.

I didn't know Panda Express was part of Landmark. I call it Panda Depressed. We have one nearby, I went there once. Terrible Chinese food, way over-priced. I'll never go again, not when there are actual good Chinese places around here.

I went to a Landmark seminar once. The guy I worked for at the time was into that sort of thing. Those people were nuts, would try to keep you from going to the restroom (seriously) and that sort of thing. This was way back, right after Erhard sold it, or disappeared or whatever happened to that nut.

Back on topic, that stupid 'burger', if it can properly be called that, is just plain nasty looking.

Shanna said...

Eat at a place like Chik-Fil-A if you want to see how you can retain high quality, have great customer service and be extraordinarily successful all at the same time.

Chick Fil A is one of the few fast food places (and even one of the few not as fast food places) that serves a decent cup of fruit! How can they get that perfect and nobody else? Good mix of fruit, fresh, etc...

William said...

Crack et al.: Please be advised that despite your dietary proclivities, you are all in my prayers. I try to eat in the ways of our Lord and restrict my diet to tuna fish on pita bread washed down by red wine. Not only is such a diet healthy for one's body, but it is balm for one's soul. I'm sure that if you all tried the Jesus diet for just a month, you would find a noticeable improvement in many areas of your life.

Erik Robert Nelson said...

It's true that Americans have a twisted perspective on portion size. I cut back portions to normal amounts and lost about 25lbs. It's not so much what we eat, but the amounts.

I'm with Althouse: there's nothing particularly wrong with a quarter pounder as a meal in some circumstances. I've been keeping to about 500 calories per meal while I'm trying to lose weight, and it's surprisingly easy to do, even at a fast-food restaurant.

I find portions at places like McDonalds far more reasonable than at most sit-down places, where a plate of food can easily top 1500 calories. For just one meal.