Speaker 1: He their podcast listeners. So the other day, Mango and
Speaker 1: I were remembering that bizarre crime story from a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago where a guy in Chicago decided to
Speaker 1: stick it to subway twice. Now, first, he walked into
Speaker 1: subway and holds the place up at knife point, and
Speaker 1: after he's done getting the money, he decides he's, you know,
Speaker 1: too hungry to run for it just yet and maybe
Speaker 1: needs a sandwich first. But instead of just getting them
Speaker 1: to fix him one it's subway, he just walks across
Speaker 1: the street to a pot belly. How convenient, and that's
Speaker 1: where he still was eating his sandwich when the police
Speaker 1: arrested him. So you might think we're gonna do today's
Speaker 1: episode on nine things about ridiculous crimes or something like that,
Speaker 1: but no, we're hungry too, So today's episode is our
Speaker 1: nine favorite facts about sandwiches. Let's get started. Ye, you're
Speaker 1: listening to part time genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend Manes Ticketer and
Speaker 1: the man on the other side of the soundproof glass
Speaker 1: making us all jealous with a couple of giant sandwiches,
Speaker 1: which he insists we call hoagies. For some reason is
Speaker 1: our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. That's impressive, Tristan. Now
Speaker 1: today is a little bit different because in our previous
Speaker 1: Nine Things episodes we've been joined by our lead researcher,
Speaker 1: Gabe Bluesier. But Gabs on vacation this week, and actually
Speaker 1: so is Mango. But Mango is nice enough to hop
Speaker 1: on the phone with us from Portland. Hey there, Mango,
Speaker 1: how's the weather out in Portland? R? That sounds about right?
Speaker 1: All right? Well, as you know, in Gabe's place and
Speaker 1: and actually in studio here with me, is is one
Speaker 1: of our house stuff Works all stars and a host
Speaker 1: of food stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome, Lauren, Hi, thank you.
Speaker 1: This is your second time on the show with us,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah? This I came back. You came back.
Speaker 1: We're glad you came. I'm glad to be back. Thanks,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for inviting you. Ready to talk about sandwiches.
Speaker 1: I'm so ready to talk about sandwiches. It seemed appropriate
Speaker 1: to have you on to do this, So so let's
Speaker 1: get started now now, Mango, because I've got a bet
Speaker 1: here with Lauren over which sandwich you're going to talk
Speaker 1: about first. I thought i'd let you kick it off,
Speaker 1: so so why don't you get us started? Sure, and
Speaker 1: of course you know, I'm going to talk about the
Speaker 1: PD and J, my favorite sandwich. Ever, actually I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to talk about the grilled cheese. Okay,
Speaker 1: well it's all you lays, go for it. So one
Speaker 1: thing I love about peanut butter is that it used
Speaker 1: to be this delicacy served an upscale tea room. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure you know this, Lauren, but it was never
Speaker 1: really served with kelly, so like they had peanut butter
Speaker 1: and pimento sandwiches, or peanut butter and lettuce, or peanut
Speaker 1: butter and water cress. I did not know that, and
Speaker 1: I'm disturbed. Please go ahead. No. According to the National
Speaker 1: Peanut Pares, the first actual reference to PD and J
Speaker 1: was from Julia Davis Chandler and something called the Boston
Speaker 1: Cooking School magazine. And this was way back in and
Speaker 1: she recommended using crab apple jelly, which are currently the
Speaker 1: kids didn't love. But the sandwich didn't actually catch on
Speaker 1: until World War Two, when it was used in military
Speaker 1: rational menu. But then it took off with digger and
Speaker 1: with a combination of sliced bread. It made making sandwich
Speaker 1: is easy, and you know, kids could assemble them themselves,
Speaker 1: which made them ubiquitous. But I think the best thing
Speaker 1: I learned about TB and J is that grape jelly
Speaker 1: also used to be called grape blade, just like marmalade.
Speaker 1: Oh nice, I did not know that. So so the
Speaker 1: P B and J caught on here much like spam
Speaker 1: caught on everywhere else in the world because of the war.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Or perhaps a vegemitor marmite? Yes? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: All right, Well that's a good first fact, Lauren. You
Speaker 1: want to tackle the next one? Uh? Yeah, okay, So
Speaker 1: I wanted to tackle the question of whether or not
Speaker 1: a burrito is a sandwich. It's a big question and
Speaker 1: something we should tackle. Yeah. I mean, this is extremely cut,
Speaker 1: cutting edge sandwich science that we're talking about here. It's
Speaker 1: actually a legal distinction in most places. There was this
Speaker 1: court case from two thousand six in which a Massachusetts
Speaker 1: judge declared that legally, burritos and tacos neither are sandwiches. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: that's that's Panara versus Cadoba. Am I saying that right?
Speaker 1: I've never known. I always said Cutba, but I don't
Speaker 1: actually know. I probably should have looked it up. That's
Speaker 1: okay though, So okay. So, so Panara was trying to
Speaker 1: stop Codoba from renting in this one shopping center in
Speaker 1: Massachusetts because the Panara in question was operating under a
Speaker 1: sandwich exclusivity contract that means that no one else could
Speaker 1: make sandwiches too near to their sandwiches. But the judge
Speaker 1: ruled against Panera. They were like, no, I just used
Speaker 1: this dictionary and this common sense that I have and
Speaker 1: it's not a sand and that's ridiculous. It's not a sandwich. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well I've I've actually got another big one that's perfect
Speaker 1: because I didn't know we were going to be we
Speaker 1: should do a separate episode on things that are not sandwiches, apparently,
Speaker 1: because is not a sandwich but a hot dog. And
Speaker 1: that's my first fact. Now I know that a hot
Speaker 1: dog is meat stuck in between bread. Makes it sound
Speaker 1: so appetizing, doesn't it. But here, look, I've got an
Speaker 1: official press release from the National hot Dog and Sausage Council.
Speaker 1: Did you know this existed? Yes? And here's what This
Speaker 1: press release from a couple of years ago says, It says.
Speaker 1: Our verdict is a hot dog is an exclamation of
Speaker 1: joy of a food, a verb describing one showing off,
Speaker 1: and even an emoji. It is truly a category unto
Speaker 1: its own, and it is not It is not a sandwich,
Speaker 1: but not a exclamation of joy, not a sandwich, right right, absolutely,
Speaker 1: all right, that's a little bit existential. But I but
Speaker 1: I'm into it. So there you go. Alright, mango, what's
Speaker 1: your next fact? So I actually am playing the type
Speaker 1: here and it's on drilled cheeses. I actually decided to
Speaker 1: look up the most expensive sandwich and this restaurant, Saren
Speaker 1: Deputy Tree came up, Like, I'm not sure if you're
Speaker 1: Dirty Rocks fans, but do you remember when Jack Doggy
Speaker 1: went up the super luxurious Sunday that had to be
Speaker 1: ordered in advance for Valentine's dad. They were walking serendipities,
Speaker 1: a thousand dollar opulent Sunday. But if you're not looking
Speaker 1: to spend quite that much. The restaurant also makes this
Speaker 1: two hundred fifteen dollar quintessential grilled cheese, which is, according
Speaker 1: to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world's most
Speaker 1: expensive sentwich. It's actually it's actually built on a Chancaine
Speaker 1: bread midwip dom Perigna. It has twenty four carrot gold flakes.
Speaker 1: It uses trumple butter and a rare cheese, and it
Speaker 1: comes with a South African lobster tomato bist just as
Speaker 1: a dipping suf. And also you have to order at
Speaker 1: forty eight hours and events. And that's because they want
Speaker 1: all the ingredients to be assembled fresh. And as any
Speaker 1: billionaire will tell you, you don't want any old gold
Speaker 1: on your grilled cheeses. I wonder if it's one of
Speaker 1: those you just can't go back once you try. You're like,
Speaker 1: I can settle for nothing less than a grilled cheese
Speaker 1: from now on. I think that's right. That is an
Speaker 1: incredibly expensive sandwich, La, what you got? I hate one up,
Speaker 1: you know, but I have a more expensive sandwich. More
Speaker 1: expensive sandwich than a grilled cheese. Okay, there was this
Speaker 1: one time that NASA spent almost three million dollars on
Speaker 1: a sandwich. That's more than it's a couple. It's it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's a little bit of spare change more. Yeah. Okay,
Speaker 1: so um so so Back in ten, this British TV
Speaker 1: personality type chef by the name of Heston Bluementhal developed
Speaker 1: a bacon sandwich, simple British bacon sandwich, but for space
Speaker 1: and uh and so in doing this, um he he
Speaker 1: he had to uh get away for it to go
Speaker 1: in a can for like food safety purposes so they
Speaker 1: can irradiate it properly. And um specifically designed it to
Speaker 1: hold up in low gravity so that you know, the
Speaker 1: crumbs of the sandwich won't float all around and get
Speaker 1: into the equipment and ruin everything. Um. He designed this
Speaker 1: for for Major Tim peaka another British fellow who was
Speaker 1: going up to the I says it took him two
Speaker 1: years to create the sandwich. Two years and over two
Speaker 1: million pounds about three million bucks between the cost of
Speaker 1: development and then actually transporting the thing. Wow, that is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So almost three million dollars for this sandwich. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: but but Peak liked it. He reordered like next supplied,
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, it was worth it. Yeah. Is it
Speaker 1: cheaper in bulk? Like discounting there's another three million dollar sandwich.
Speaker 1: I guess the price drops the more that you send
Speaker 1: up there. I mean, although you know it costs anywhere
Speaker 1: from from like seven grand to maybe like twelve grand
Speaker 1: to send a pound of stuff to the I S. S.
Speaker 1: So that's impressive. Well, this is weird because we started
Speaker 1: out your your first fact, I followed with a similar
Speaker 1: fact about what's not a sandwich? Well, I also have
Speaker 1: a NASA sandwich fact. Okay, And this one comes from
Speaker 1: the middle of the Gemini three mission in nineteen sixty five,
Speaker 1: astronaut John Young sandwich smuggler. Yes, he pulled out a
Speaker 1: corned beef sandwich. Now not only that, but this came
Speaker 1: from a place called Wolfe's Restaurant in Sandwich Shop and
Speaker 1: Cocoa Beach. But this was attached to a ramata in.
Speaker 1: So if you're gonna smuggle a sandwich into space from
Speaker 1: the sandwich shop attached to the ramata inn, it seems
Speaker 1: like the obvious choice something exactly well, but as you
Speaker 1: pointed out, they it didn't hold together. Well, these sandwiches
Speaker 1: in space, they start breaking up, and so the other
Speaker 1: astronaut next to him, Gus Grissom, starts worrying that it's
Speaker 1: going to start floating away the crumbs and get into
Speaker 1: all the ventilation system and things like that, and so
Speaker 1: he grabs this and puts it in his pocket. Now,
Speaker 1: this whole thing went down in a total of like
Speaker 1: ten seconds. And so you think, okay, that happened, no
Speaker 1: big deal, but it actually sent several of the congressmen
Speaker 1: into a tizzy. They were really ticked off that they'd
Speaker 1: spent these millions of dollars and now we know it
Speaker 1: was almost three million dollars to develop these sandwiches going
Speaker 1: into space, and instead this guy was smuggling in his
Speaker 1: own corn beef sandwich into space. However, one of my
Speaker 1: other favorite things about this is you fast forwards sixteen
Speaker 1: years and the first time corn beef was officially added
Speaker 1: to the flight menu. It's when Commander John Young Sam
Speaker 1: John Young was leading this mission into space and they
Speaker 1: added the sandwich to it. So, yeah, beef in space.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. You know, you can actually see this sandwich
Speaker 1: if you go to the Grissome Memorial Museum in Mitchell, Indiana.
Speaker 1: It's actually encased in acrylic, so you can go check
Speaker 1: this sandwich out. Pretty cool, huh? And is that exhibit
Speaker 1: sponsored by Ramana in Probably as it should be. All right,
Speaker 1: so we got one last fact each Mango your turn,
Speaker 1: Now what you got? So this is about wonderbread and
Speaker 1: in the late nineties, Wonderbread did a couple of things
Speaker 1: to shake up their business. They started putting their bread
Speaker 1: in pelophane and invited users to throw away their bread boxers,
Speaker 1: which actually kind of worked. But one innovation that didn't
Speaker 1: take off was their idea for round bread, like a
Speaker 1: bending their usual low. Wonderbread started making this circle shaped
Speaker 1: bread that perfectly fit your fried eggs or hamburgers or
Speaker 1: even your ballogney, and they marketed it as quote the
Speaker 1: best thing that ever happened to sandwiches, a buch of
Speaker 1: true statements that they had to quickly discontinue the bread.
Speaker 1: That's sad. I feel like wonder bread is best shaped
Speaker 1: and like a really tightly compressed ball. For some reason,
Speaker 1: I always had that desire with like wonder bread, squitchy bread,
Speaker 1: and like squeeze it together and then just make this
Speaker 1: tiny little ball underneath. Yeah. Absolutely, it's more like I
Speaker 1: like it. All right. That's a good a good last
Speaker 1: fact there, Mango, All right, Lauren, you'r last fact what
Speaker 1: you got? Alright. So so speaking of of a sliced
Speaker 1: bread and wonder bread stuff like that, the history of
Speaker 1: sandwich is does owe a lot to the invention of
Speaker 1: bread slicing machines, but for a brief period of time,
Speaker 1: sliced bread was banned in the United States. It was
Speaker 1: the wall was on um. We all have this accent.
Speaker 1: Very Suddenly, the head of the War Foods Administration, one
Speaker 1: clawed are Wickered, in a probable attempt to conserve resources,
Speaker 1: decided to ban sliced bread. This was for a few
Speaker 1: possible reasons. The cost of wax paper to wrap it
Speaker 1: because cellophane hadn't really caught on yet. Also, the cost
Speaker 1: of flour and bread were on the rise, you know,
Speaker 1: since sales of bread had increased when when pre sliced
Speaker 1: bread became available. He figured that maybe you know, doing
Speaker 1: away with sliced bread would make you know, the demand
Speaker 1: drop and therefore even out the prices better for the consumer,
Speaker 1: all of that kind of stuff. Uh. And you know,
Speaker 1: since bread slicing machine takes up a lot of steel,
Speaker 1: conserve the supply of steel very important. None of these
Speaker 1: were really good reasons, though, and there was such a
Speaker 1: public outcry that he lifted the ban in less than
Speaker 1: two months. Wow, didn't take long. People need sliced bread.
Speaker 1: People neither sliced sliced it. Yeah, there was a terrific
Speaker 1: article in the New York Times. The headline was sliced
Speaker 1: bread put back on sale, housewives thumbs safe again. That's
Speaker 1: a good one, all right. Well, speaking of controversy, I
Speaker 1: wanted to end with with the fact as well, something
Speaker 1: else people cannot live without is their fluffer Nutter sandwiches.
Speaker 1: So this was a weird court battle from a little
Speaker 1: over a decade ago, Fluffer Nutter versus Massachusetts State Senator
Speaker 1: Jared Barrios. Okay, so we're talking about one where this
Speaker 1: senator realized that his kids were eating these fluffer nutters
Speaker 1: sandwiches every single day at school. I can imagine being
Speaker 1: a little frustrated with that as apparently realized that, but
Speaker 1: maybe not taking it to the level that he did.
Speaker 1: He decided he was going to try to pass a
Speaker 1: law against serving these things in schools. Well, this didn't
Speaker 1: sit well with certain other senators, and so there was
Speaker 1: a state representative rather Kathy Anne Reinstein, and she was
Speaker 1: so opposed to this legislation that she planned to quote
Speaker 1: fight to the death for the fluff and so she
Speaker 1: even supported legislation that would make the fluff nutter the
Speaker 1: official state sandwich. So I don't think that has happened
Speaker 1: just yet. But but fortunately for the fans of the
Speaker 1: fluff or nutter, Senator Barrios attempt failed and that law
Speaker 1: did not go through. So these children are still able
Speaker 1: to eat their fluff or nutters. Oh that's good. That's
Speaker 1: good to hear. I hate to hear anyone denied fluff. U. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And I feel like we should probably make sure everyone
Speaker 1: understands what a fluff or nutter is. But you know what,
Speaker 1: I feel like maybe we shouldn't. We should just leave
Speaker 1: it there. I don't know, go for it. L well,
Speaker 1: I I do. I have a bonus fact about the
Speaker 1: fluff nuts that it was originally called the liberty sandwich.
Speaker 1: The why is that because it was saving on lunch meat,
Speaker 1: you know, like like if you if you're if you're
Speaker 1: in wartime, if you're trying to save resources them more,
Speaker 1: it's less expensive and still you know, it's got some
Speaker 1: peanut butter in there. It's it's nutritionally stable ish peanut
Speaker 1: butter and marshmallow ruff and freedom. Absolutely. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I feel like some of my facts were pretty good. However,
Speaker 1: I think the play of the day was definitely when
Speaker 1: Lauren one up to Mango with the most expensive sandwich,
Speaker 1: So Mango. I know you're on vacation having a good time,
Speaker 1: but I really do feel like we have to give
Speaker 1: the PTG Trophy to Lauren on her first visit as
Speaker 1: as part of a fact off guest, what do you think?
Speaker 1: I think? Alright, congratulations Lauren. Thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for listening today, and we'll be back with a regular
Speaker 1: episode tomorrow