E51 -Planes, Scams, and Overrated Places

Jeff: 0:00

This week, airplane stories, a state gets sued, a tech billionaire showdown, scams, and the most overrated places in America. Welcome to Subpar Talks. Hey everybody. Welcome to Subpar Talks where we have conversations about everything. I'm Jeff.

Chris: 0:35

And I'm Chris.

Jeff: 0:36

Thank you again for joining us and yes, you know what's coming. It is our standard disclaimer, listener discretion is advised. We are gonna curse from time to time 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 your thing. But for everybody else, settle in because here we go with this week's topics.

Chris: 1:05

So just this week there was a United Airlines flight that was going from San Francisco to Taipei and says like an hour and a half or so into the flight, they had to turn around and go back to San Francisco because of a disruptive passenger.

Jeff: 1:24

Uh oh.

Chris: 1:25

So this passenger was an economy. They kept coming up to business class during the drink service. And they were told to go back and they went back, but then they came back to business class again. And apparently this happened two or three times. So then they ended up telling all the passengers to sit down and that one passenger would not. Somebody said that they seemed like they were under the influence of something. Now, whatever that something is, who knows? But yeah, so they ended up taking the plane back to San Francisco. But what I thought was really interesting in this article, you know, we hear this kind of stuff often is. Planes diverted, planes turn around one thing or another because of some passenger doing something stupid. Mm-hmm. But the question in the article was, why is this happening more on US flights? Like you don't hear about it internationally, like you hear about it on US flights, and they were saying like, number one, is it our passengers? Number two, is it the crew? Like, does the crew not have the same skills or ability to deescalate a situation like, you know, foreign crews do? I don't know. It just brought up an interesting question as to what in the world is going on. So does it not, I mean, I believe you, but I, I don't like, do we have evidence that it happens more on US flights? I don't know that that was the, the point in the article. I mean, whoever wrote the article could have, that may have been an opinion of theirs. You know, maybe we just happened to hear about the US flights more. That is certainly true. I do hear about US flights more than other flights around the world. I don't know, maybe we, maybe we just don't hear about it, but that's kinda what it seems like. I'm also wondering, at what point do you turn around and go back? I mean, San Francisco to type A, that's gonna be a long flight, but Yeah, but like if it's a four hour flight and you're two hours in and somebody's, you know, putting up a stink about whatever, do you turn the plane around or just go. I mean, you wouldn't go back to your original destination at that point, but more like, Hey, is there a place we can get on the ground? And that, that's a good point though. You know what, what determines whether a passenger is really unruly? Somebody's always gonna get upset about something, but at what point do you go, wow, this is enough of a problem that we need to get on the ground?

Jeff: 4:21

It amazes me. I just see this kind of stuff just, well on social media, but people putting up a stink about whatever on their flight. Just shut the hell up and just deal with it, whatever it is, you know? Yeah. I, I don't get some people, and I wonder, has this stuff always gone on, or is it because everybody's got a phone now, so we're seeing it. Kinda like police brutality, how it's always been a thing, but it's more prevalent now because we see it. So I wonder if that's the case with these unruly passengers. So what happened to her? Was she arrested or what?

Chris: 4:59

That's a good point. Yeah, they had, yeah, they said that they, I don't know. Arrested. She was detained. Oh, okay. Um, they, they did have police meet the plane and yeah, she was taken off. The plane said it took like four hours. Before they could take off again because they had to get a new flight crew. I don't know if, oh my God, I guess they used the same plane, but they had to get a new flight crew. You know, once that crew is already booked for that amount of time, now they're not gonna be able to do the full flight right that it was supposed to be because that flight's so long. So yeah, it ended up severe. It ended up ultimately delaying the flight, like eight hours. By the time they had to turn around and go back. Plus the delay on the ground and all

Jeff: 5:47

that. Economy class figures, riffraff. Yeah.

Chris: 5:51

Right.

Jeff: 5:53

I say that as somebody who's never flown first class. I've never flown first class business class, I'm economy class through and through. They used to call it coach. Yeah. That's not a thing anymore. It is the same thing though. It is. But now you

Chris: 6:09

have, you know, economy and then economy plus, or whatever they call it, where you can get, you know, like two inches more leg room or something. Yeah.

Jeff: 6:20

Right. It's uh, you're slowly bending over. That's what it is, right? As you're paying more and more. Well,

Chris: 6:28

seriously, you know, you used to be able to, Walk into the, I'm not talking about the center aisle, but into the, the row, that's what I should say, into the row of seats. Mm-hmm. You could actually walk into the row of seats without other people having to get up. Yes. And now your legs are right at the seat in front of you. There's no way you can get in and out without. People

Jeff: 6:59

getting up. Yep. You have to get up. No doubt. So

Chris: 7:03

they've crammed that many more rows of seats into the plane. They've made the bathroom smaller. Mm-hmm. You know, they're not as big as they used to be. They're just getting shafted all the way around. Yeah. So, And then when you go on those planes, so this was a 7 77 plane, you

Jeff: 7:22

know, it's the, it's a big one. Yeah. And

Chris: 7:25

yeah, it's the bigger one. And they've got, you know, they've got first class and business class and they're not the same. Even the business class is really nice. The first class, those are like the little pod things. Where you've got the lay flat seats and your own

Jeff: 7:42

little, that's tv. Glorious

Chris: 7:44

compartment and all. Yeah. Well, yeah, but you know, you have to walk through all of that to get to economy. So you see how the other half is living on the way back

Jeff: 7:55

to your, they want you to know what you're missing. Yeah, right. It's like Jerry and Elaine at the airport. They only had one first class ticket available and he says, I've flown first class. I can't go back to coach. Exactly. You've never flown first class. You won't know what you're missing. Yep.

Chris: 8:12

No. Whenever you know, they let first class board first. Now, that's not usually true on those international flights because then the first class people could kind of be in the way of everybody else getting on. But like on a normal flight where first class is just right in front and then it's coach, they will let the first class people board first. I hate making eye contact with those people as I'm walking on the plane. Like Right. Yeah. Head headed to the back. Yeah. Right where I

Jeff: 8:47

belong. Yeah. So I wonder this when that stuff happens. People could sue that passenger. Like what if you had some business deal riding on being there at a certain time or whatever And she fucks everything up. Yeah. And now you lose out on that. She could get sued. That's exactly right. And think how much that cost. The airline, that was what this

Chris: 9:12

article was talking about, is all of the costs and not, not just monetary costs, but they even brought up. You could have passengers going to, to see someone who's dying. You know? Yeah. You're, you're out. I mean, anything that's timely is the point. You could be going to see someone who's dying. You could be going for something that's work related, and then, yeah, they brought up all the costs to the airline is fuel wear and tear on the plane, having to get the other crew. All of those kinds of things, and that's because somebody couldn't follow directions. It's

Jeff: 9:53

amazing. The

Chris: 9:55

airline ought to

Jeff: 9:56

sewer. Yeah, they should. Speaking of plane stuff, I've seen this story on Twitter several times. I've seen it in other places and I never really looked into it. It's one of those headlines that grabs your attention, but I just never looked at the details for whatever reason. But I finally decided to, it's about a woman named Julianne Koka. She was, uh, she's German, but I think her dad was Peruvian or whatever. But anyway, this happened in Peru. In 1971, she was taking a, a plane with her mom and. They had advised the pilots not to fly into a certain area because there was a storm, but they decided to, anyway. This was a, a Lanza flight. I think it's a Peruvian airliner or was, they're not around anymore. They had had a bad history. They had had crashes in 1966 and 1969, so this is 1971 and they're flying into a storm. Anyway, lightning struck the plane. Killed 91 people, all six of its crew, and 85 of the 86 passengers. Wow. Julian Koka was strapped to her seat. She had a middle seat. She was strapped to it. I guess this is one of the good things about a middle seat right here. She was strapped to the middle seat. She fell 10,000 feet. And landed in the Amazon rainforest. She landed in the jungle and so, well, shit. I know, evidently their theory is'cause they've, they found all the people and they did autopsies and all that. They think that as many as 14 other passengers survived the fall. But they died while being wa uh, died while waiting to be rescued. She survived, and the theory is because of the storm, uh, and the fact that she was strapped into her seat. Uh, the other seats went with her and it like, it was like a helicopter motion. She was twisting down toward the ground, so that slowed her down a little bit. And because of the storm, they think there was an updraft to where she was falling slowly enough. But Jesus Christ, she, uh, I would've died of a heart attack. Well, I know. Absolutely. Think how long that 10,000 feet, my God. Yeah. That's almost two miles you're falling. How long does that take? It'd take a while.

Chris: 12:42

I mean, nevermind that, it's gonna seem like it's longer than it really is.

Jeff: 12:48

You got a lot of time to think about it too. Yes.

Chris: 12:52

Falling through a look. We're talking about falling through a thunderstorm, right? Not, not just a nice clear day. You're falling through a thunderstorm, maybe helicoptering down with other

Jeff: 13:06

seats. Yep. And you have no idea what's waiting for you at the bottom. Bottom. So she broke her collarbone. Uh, she had a deep cut on her right arm. She had an eye injury. She had a concussion. She spent 11 days in the jungle, most of which were spent making her way through water. While in the jungle, she had severe insect bites. No surprise there. Think of all the shits. I guess. So. Living in the jungle, guess? Yeah. She had an infestation of maggots on her wounded arm.

Chris: 13:42

Oh my gosh.

Jeff: 13:44

After nine days, she was able to find an encampment that had been set up by local fishermen, and she found gasoline there. She poured gasoline on her arm to get the maggots out of the wound, and that worked. Holy shit. And then not too long after that, some people showed up and they gave her first aid, and then they took her by canoe to a bigger town where they could airlift her to a hospital. This girl was like 16 at the time that this happened. Well, that's just horrific, isn't it? But that's nuts, right? Falling that far. And you survived. Yeah. That's unbelievable. I know.

Chris: 14:28

I can't believe she survived that. And then that's honestly amazing that she could survive that long in the jungle after that. I mean, yeah, anything could have just. Eater could have gotten bitten by snakes or something.

Jeff: 14:45

Yeah. And those other people, so they think as many as 14 other people survived the fall. So what the hell happened to them? Yeah. They got bitten by something or just starved to death. Yeah, it's nuts. Wow. That's amazing. She is now a, uh, mammalogist who specializes in bats. Mammalogist. Yeah. That's weird. Never heard of that one. I haven't either. Yeah, she's got a PhD I think she lives in, she married a, a. Oh, she married a German guy. She married a German entomologist. He specializes in parasitic wasps. I bet they have exciting conversations over dinner. I bet they do.

Chris: 15:37

Parasitic wasps as a whole career.

Jeff: 15:41

Yeah. Imagine that.

Chris: 15:44

I mean, mam, just that sounds like that would encompass a fair amount.

Jeff: 15:49

Right. A little bit broader, but parasitic wasps. How is a parasitic wasp? Like how is that different from a regular wasp? I don't

Chris: 16:00

know. I guess, do they like feed on corpses

Jeff: 16:03

or something? I don't know. So many questions. Almost like a maggot wasp. Yeah, she had an infestation. Every time I hear that word, I think of Frank Stanza. I will not tolerate infestation. I think if I saw maggots crawling around in a wound I had, I'm just gonna give up. Well,

Chris: 16:26

yeah. But I could see gasoline being an option.

Jeff: 16:31

Yeah. And then you look for a match.

Chris: 16:33

Exactly. That was the next thing I was waiting for. Pour it in and light it up. So I saw an update today about the New York charging to go downtown, all of that business. So it's not supposed to happen until May of 2024, is the date that's set to begin charging. Mm-hmm. But they said that the first gantry was going up, so that was a new word to me if I've ever heard it. I sure didn't know it. I've never heard it. Okay, well that's good. That makes me feel better. It is like the, the toll, I'm gonna say gate, but, but like the thing that you drive under that registers your license plate, whatever. Okay. You know, like here we've got toll tags, so if it registers a toll tag, whatever, it's the way that they're gonna. They're going to register who you are in order to charge you. Mm-hmm. So I'll say like Toll Plaza, um, but you know, it's just a thing you're driving through. Anyway, it said that the first one of those was going up on the west side of Manhattan, but in the story it said that the governor of New Jersey is suing the Federal Highway Administration. And I'm not quite sure how they factor into this. But he said he is suing them over this being, uh, essentially like an unfair practice toward New Jersey people. I don't know. What are they? New Jersey? Its New Jerseyans.

Jeff: 18:14

New Jerseyans. Its, I don't know what they're called. Guess. Mm-hmm. But anyway,

Chris: 18:18

because anyone coming from New Jersey already has to pay to get into Manhattan. They're gonna go through the tunnels or across the bridge or whatever. Mm-hmm. They have to pay just to get onto the island of Manhattan. And then he said they'd have to be paying again in order to go downtown and saying that's unfair to them and would be an undue burden on all of these people that live in New Jersey, work in Manhattan and, and would have to pay this additional fee. He said he's not opposed to the fact itself that they are charging. Having this, uh, this charge for people going downtown, but it's more about the fact that no exclusions have been made or, um, special provisions, anything like that for these people in New Jersey that are gonna be unduly impacted by it. So I thought that was very interesting, just looking at the impact that this could have. Because when, when we talked about it before, I was specifically thinking of people who are already in Manhattan, and so, mm-hmm. Yes, you're gonna charge those people who are already there for going farther downtown. But it brings up a good point as anybody who wasn't already in Manhattan, they're essentially gonna have to pay to get there in the first place. Nevermind the fact that then you're gonna charge'em again to go downtown.

Jeff: 19:51

So I didn't think about that either. I was thinking about if you're already in New York City and you're driving far enough south and you're gonna get charged, but evidently, if you're coming from New Jersey, say you're going through the Holland Tunnel, so when you enter Manhattan, you're getting charged. I mean, that's the, that's the plan. Well,

Chris: 20:13

cause you have to pay to go through the tunnel. Right.

Jeff: 20:16

So, but then you're gonna have to pay again because they have this new law in place.

Chris: 20:21

That's what he was saying. Yeah. Hmm. Okay. So I guess there would be, I mean, at that point, yeah, you're right. You're already far enough south when you go through that tunnel. But I guess there would be something then. Coming out of the tunnel where you get

Jeff: 20:39

charged going into the tunnel and coming out of the tunnel. So how hard is that to not charge people with a New Jersey plate? I mean, I guess they can do that with the photos or whatever. There's probably a, yeah, not to get too deep into the law, but there is a provision in the Constitution that essentially means. That you, uh, you cannot discriminate against people simply because they come from another state. So that's probably what the argument is here, that you're treating New Jersey, ends, New Jersey, its whatever. You're treating them differently than people in New York, but Right. I don't know. Might have to have the courts weigh in on it.

Chris: 21:24

Of course then, like you just said, if you excluded charging these people from New Jersey, that would sound like it's treating every other state unfairly then. Yeah, right. Well, maybe the, maybe the argument then should be if you're coming into New York through the tunnel, you don't charge them again because. That's true. If you're coming through the tunnel, then you're already on the south end. Yeah. You know? So basically, hey, if you come through the tunnel, that's enough of a charge. But if you came in through other means and you were uptown and now you're choosing to come downtown, yeah, we're gonna charge you for that.

Jeff: 22:14

Yeah. That seems maybe a workable solution to it, but yeah, I don't know.

Chris: 22:19

We should run for

Jeff: 22:20

office there. Oh my God. We get it all straightened out. Well, do I get to live in Manhattan? Well

Chris: 22:28

get to, you could. I don't know that that's a perk of the job. I would love to live there, but I don't, I don't know how much the mayor gets, the mayor or whoever gets paid

Jeff: 22:43

either. No, I don't know.

Chris: 22:46

Do they get paid enough for me to afford a decent apartment

Jeff: 22:50

there? You might have to live, uh, way the fuck out in Queens, the country. Yeah.

Chris: 22:57

Of the country.

Jeff: 23:03

Okay. Was it our previous episode, or It might've been a, a little further back than that, but you brought up seven shows that people should watch if mm-hmm. They, uh, like breaking bad. We went through that list and the last one you got to, or one of the last ones you got to was Boardwalk Empire and we didn't know anything about that. Well, I'm now, uh, into the second season of Boardwalk Empire and you should check that out. Good show. Yeah.

Chris: 23:32

Well, that's a lot. You've watched a lot.

Jeff: 23:34

How many episodes is, uh, so I think season one was 12 episodes. And I'm on, uh, maybe seven or eight of season two. Oh really? Yeah. So it's good stuff. It's a really good show. Steve Buscemi is the main guy and he's great as always. Uh, there's a lot of good naked in it. That's you thing. All right? Yeah. Good naked. I don't need the other. No, nobody does. Yeah, there's, I mean, there's crime, you know, it's good, there's murder. Good show, rock on. But the cool, one of the cool things about it is, so it's set in at least season one is it's set in 1920. Mm-hmm. And they have real people portrayed. So Steve BMI's character is, it's purely fictitious, but they have other people who are actual people like Al Capone. Starting his thing in Chicago. So he's a character in it. Okay. There's some other New York, like Lucky Luciano is, is, you know, famous mobster. He's in New York and doing his thing. So there are actual characters, uh, that were real people, and one of those is Warren Harding. So 1920 presidential election year, and that's when Harding gets elected. Oh yeah. But you remember our episode about presidents and their Valentines and all that. Yeah. And old Warren is, uh, either at the top of the list or very close to the top of the list of Horniest presidents in history. Yeah. And so we know that he fathered somebody outta wedlock and that comes up in Boardwalk Empire. Like they are actively, the Republican party, uh, is actively trying to hide the fact that he has this illegitimate child with this woman. Well, yeah. Party of family values. Exactly. Yeah. Was that true back then? So the parties had changed a ton? Yeah. I don't

Chris: 25:49

know if that was quite a platform back then.

Jeff: 25:52

I don't know that they would've used that terminology. They were very much the party of big business back then, or I guess any type of business that was their central focus. Hey, I mean the, the roaring twenties, right? Like things were going great. Uh, but their party came to an end, no pun intended. Well, until they weren't in 1929 when the stock market crashed. So it's set during prohibition, right? And I just don't know much about that era, but man, it seems so stupid. Are you fucking kidding me? They banned alcohol in the entire country. For over a decade and you have these people, federal officers trying to to fight it and busting people for selling alcohol. What the hell? I can't believe that you had enough support to even get that as an amendment in the constitution. Just so ridiculous.

Chris: 26:51

Yeah, that is surprising. Knowing what it takes to get an amendment. What's the word? Ratified. Yeah,

Jeff: 26:59

ratified. Yeah.

Chris: 27:00

But yeah, so that is surprising that there would be that much support for it. But you know, that's the same kind of argument that people use now for other drugs. I. True is why do we have the same war on drugs? It's, and, and that's exactly what you have. You got federal officers, drug enforcement Administration,

Jeff: 27:21

I mean, yeah. Yeah. We have entire agencies now. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: 27:24

They're out there trying to bust the exact same stuff just on a different

Jeff: 27:29

product. And you know, as ridiculous as prohibition was, and I don't support it for a second. But I could make some really good arguments for why alcohol should not be readily, readily available to people with all the problems that it causes in society. Absolutely.

Chris: 27:51

I mean, I would still want my access, but I would, I would support it being banned for everybody

Jeff: 27:58

else. Right. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, check Boardwalk Empire out. So far, this is just a rumor and maybe things are in the works. I don't know. This all started on social media as pretty much everything else does these days that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are gonna fight. Have you heard anything about this?

Chris: 28:26

I heard something about that and I don't remember. I don't even remember where I heard it, just in passing, but I heard like a w e kind of match or something. Yeah, I'd love to see'em both beat the shit out of each other though. Wouldn't

Jeff: 28:39

that be great? Holy hell. I will. I will do what I can to make sure that happens. It's probably not much, but what can we do to make sure that this happens? Because I would love to see it and I would pay to see it. I would pay, yeah, see them. Oh, I'd pay to see it too. Beat, as you said. Beat the shit out of each other. Just hope that

Chris: 29:03

neither one of'em come outta the cage.

Jeff: 29:08

Supposedly it, it's a real thing. They started going back and forth on social media and they both agreed that it should be done for charity. So, I don't know. I, I, it's in the works supposedly, but I just, it won't happen, right? It's not gonna happen. I can't imagine

Chris: 29:30

that it would. I can't either. I mean,

Jeff: 29:31

look at both of'em. Look at'em. But how much would it destroy your reputation if you did this and you got beat to a. Bloody pulp by the other guy. That's not gonna be good for business.

Chris: 29:44

There is. There is that, that's true.

Jeff: 29:49

They also pointed out in this article I read, mark Zuckerberg is 39 and mm-hmm. Elon Musk is like 52. That's, yeah. That's a pretty big difference. It's not exactly fair, right? No. Who do you hate more?

Chris: 30:09

So I don't really remember what my feelings were about Mark Zuckerberg earlier on. I, I think there was a part of me that had, uh, I don't know if respect is the right word, but whatever you want to say for the fact that he built what he built out of Facebook. Yeah. But then I saw the social network. Have you seen that?

Jeff: 30:36

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Chris: 30:36

Good movie. It was a great movie and my attitude toward him, whatever it was at the time, went completely south. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was probably somewhat south already. Mm-hmm. But it went completely south after that. Yeah. And you know, I factored in that, okay, it's a movie. How much of it was, you know, this artistic freedom, whatever you want to call it, that was taken in the movie. But I also factored in that there was a good amount of the movie where things were, things came out in deposition, which means they could actually use the transcripts from those depositions. And that's what swayed me more than anything I. So I have zero love for that guy. Now, Elon Musk, I have not had much of an opinion about until the last couple of years, I guess. Mm-hmm. And that's all gone south too. Yeah. And it's, it's been about everything that we've heard from him, for all of the reasons that we've heard it from him. I thought at one point that maybe he had. A little bit of grounding and whatever, whatever feeling I had about that has gone right out the window too. Yeah. Because I don't think he does at

Jeff: 32:13

all. That pretty much echoes what I think. Uh, I think I, I think I dislike Elon Musk more, but both of'em I don't think are very, Good people. I feel like Elon Musk tries to inject himself into other areas way more than Mark Zuckerberg does. And whatever. Fine, he can inject himself. That's true in whatever he wants, but it doesn't mean I can't be annoyed at him and disagree with him on stuff. And I feel like he. I don't feel like Mark Zuckerberg does this. Elon Musk tries to present himself as like the smartest person in the room, kind of like Trump. Like, yeah, I'm, I am the authority on this, you know? And, uh, and, and everybody needs to listen and get in line. Whereas Zuckerberg, he's always been kind of private. Uh, he doesn't try to do that, but get in the ring and, and duke it out. I, I'm, I'm in. No,

Chris: 33:19

that is a very good point. I, I don't like Mark Zuckerberg, but yeah, he, you're right. He doesn't try to impose himself as much as, yeah. Elon Musk. Elon Musk is, yeah, you're right. He very much wants to seem like he's the smartest person in the room. What he thinks is the right way, and everybody else should think that way too.

Jeff: 33:45

And now, Uh, Twitter has sued, uh, meta Facebook because Facebook or meta started, uh, uh, threads,

Chris: 33:57

so, oh, I did hear that. Yeah, but I don't know anything about it.

Jeff: 34:01

I don't really either. I saw a bunch of people talking about it on Twitter and how they're going to threads and all that. Well, now Elon Musk has sued meta because supposedly they took trade secrets. And use that in the creation of threads. So that would make this supposed fight even juicier? It would, yeah. Like whoever wins gets to do what they want as far as that goes. But yeah, I don't think

Chris: 34:27

it'll happen. Well, if that's true, that wouldn't be above Mark Zuckerberg.

Jeff: 34:34

No, not at all or below or whatever, right? Yeah. We have had an episode before. It's our ankle grabber episode, talking about the many ways that we, you and I, but just Americans in general, humans in general are getting fucked over in various ways. I saw this recently on Twitter. This is something like you would see on Reddit. What is a scam? How are we getting scammed? But it's been going on for so long that it's normalized. So now people don't even really think twice about it. It's just become a normal thing. And I listed some here. These were the most prominent answers or some that I found interesting. And I don't know if you can think of anything of anything off the top of your head, kind of put you on the spot as far as that goes. But one thing, uh, that somebody put is tipping and we just talked about how tipping is outta control. Yeah, absolutely. It's a scam and just something we do, we just bend over and take it. Yeah. I've thought about this before. Bank charges getting charged left and right for this and that at the bank. Yeah.

Chris: 36:01

That's horrible. It really is. It's gotten crazy. I think about that just with fees in general. I wanna support taxes and fees where I feel like they're going for something beneficial. Mm-hmm. Whatever that happens to be. But then like when you, so many telecom things. I'll say that, you know? Yeah. It used to be landlines. Now cell phones could be internet service, it could be TV services. It's anything like that. So communication services in general. There are just so many other fees tacked on there and it, it's crazy how much that amounts to, yeah, it is. It can be 25, 30% of your overall bill.

Jeff: 36:49

It's ridiculous. It's not just, uh, corporations. I mean, there's plenty of blame to go around there, but fees that government entities are adding, and I swear to hell in Texas you can't raise taxes on anybody'cause you'll just be burned at the stake. Like you can't bring that up about raising taxes, whatever. But if you call it a fee, then people just roll with it. And so, right. Yeah. So our car registration. I don't even know what that is now. I've lost ca I think I have to pay like$80 to get the car registered every year. It used to be way, way, way, way less than that. And now it's just, it seems like every year it goes up. Every couple of years it goes up, but you can call it what you want, but it's more money coming outta my pocket. So you can call it a tax, it's call it a fee, whatever. You're just paying more.

Chris: 37:48

Well, that makes me think when you talk about something that we are just accepting is the fact that those registrations exist and are going up. A large amount of that is supposed to go for roads, bridges, things like that. Mm-hmm. And yet, how much more are we paying in tolls? Yeah. We have toll roads now. Yeah. And that's because there's supposedly not enough money. To build these roads when we need them. Yeah. But if we're paying that much more in registrations, then where is that money going for the fact that we now are having to pay to drive on these roads, tolls every time we drive them. We're getting shafted right

Jeff: 38:31

there. Yeah, no doubt. Here's the one issue. Every time you get put gas in your car, you're paying tax to the federal government. You're paying tax to the state. They could raise the taxes on that. But again, if you bring that up, you know you're a communist or whatever, you can't raise taxes. So we're not getting as much revenue. I. As we used to, because cars are more fuel efficient now, so people don't have to fill up as much as they used to. So even though there might be more cars on the road now than there used to be, and there definitely are, you're just not getting the, the revenue hasn't kept up, uh, with the, you know, the, uh, it's not at the same pace it used to be, and that's one issue and a weight around that is just, well charge more. In tax, but you can't do that. But yeah, we have so many toll roads here now. And what are you doing when you drive on those? You're just, that's a business we need to get into. My God. Start building roads. Start building roads. Start off with an Adopt A Highway program. Yeah, make people pay. Pay for the one mile that you drive on this. Yeah, but you're just lining businesses with more money, lining their pockets with more money, uh, driving on those toll roads. But what the hell are you gonna do? Don't really have a choice.

Chris: 40:01

That's a good point about. The cars being more fuel efficient though, because back in, say the seventies and eighties Yeah. You had cars getting eight, 10 miles per gallon. I know it. And now, I mean, if you're driving a truck or something, you may not be getting better than, you know, 15 to 20. Yeah. But people who are even driving SUVs or cars could be getting 20, 25, 30. Yeah. I mean, you're talking, uh, factors here. Yeah. Yeah. Of, of

Jeff: 40:34

filling up less. Yep. So I thought this was a funny answer. What's a scam? But it's been normalized for so long that people don't even think about it. Uh, somebody mentioned religion. I like that answer. Yeah, we could open a whole can of worms for that. And then this one, I totally agree with this one. Well, they mentioned healthcare in America, just in general. But they specifically mentioned dental and vision not being covered under your health insurance. Oh yeah. Like what is care for my teeth and my eyes. If it's not healthcare, then what the hell are you calling it? Like it's all healthcare. That's point. But I have to have a separate policy for both of those things. Sons of bitches. Yep. Yeah, no

Chris: 41:25

kidding. Well, and if you go out and get it on your own, like getting it through a company generally isn't too bad. Although we could argue that they don't cover enough for what you pay. Right. But if you go and get it on your own, it is expensive. Yeah. It is really expensive to get dental and vision outside of your company. Yep.

Jeff: 41:52

Bend over. Okay. Speaking of Twitter, I also saw this, I'd like to get your take on this. They asked people what are, what are the most overrated places in America? Like for somebody coming like a foreign visitor, somebody coming from another country and they wanna come visit the us? What would you tell them to stay away from? Because it's overrated. Like it's just a bunch of hype, but not worth your time, trouble, money, whatever. And this was a really, this was a really popular answer. I've never been here. You have, so I'd like to get your take. But people mentioned Hollywood and just la, just the whole LA area. Maybe

Chris: 42:42

it's overrated. But I like seeing that kind of stuff. I like being in an area where you know that things are happening. You know, it's kinda like being in New York. Things are happening there. Even if you're not witnessing it, and I'm talking about celebrity type things. I mean, shows get filmed or celebrities living there, all kinds of stuff. Mm-hmm. I don't have to see any of that to enjoy being in New York. It's kind of the same. LA Hollywood is like, Ooh, this is kind of a cool place to be. Just that, you know, a lot has happened. A lot is happening. I'm one of those people that kinda likes to go see things where those things have happened too. Yeah. So, you know, things are film filmed on location, whatever, like, Ooh, this is the real place of such and such. So I kinda like that.

Jeff: 43:38

So they say you're either. It's kind of like with music, you're either a Beatles person or an Elvis person. Like you might like both, but you're definitely gonna prefer one over the other. It's the same way with New York and LA and give me New York 10 times out of 10, even though I've never been to la. But I can't imagine that I'm gonna go there and like it better than I like New York. Oh, if I had

Chris: 44:03

to pick one, I would absolutely pick New York. That's, yeah. That's not a question. It's uh, absolutely. I would, I would not want to pick, like I would want to go back to LA and Hollywood and spend more time and see more things. Mm-hmm. But to me that's kind of a place to go and see and, okay, I've been and done that and maybe I don't see myself going there. Over and over. I can absolutely see myself going over and over to New York. Yeah. Uh, that's, that's me. I, I can't, I gotta have more of it.

Jeff: 44:43

Somebody mentioned, uh, in that same, uh, like I think they responded to that, they mentioned Malibu, how it's pretty, but there's not a lot to do there. I, I really don't know much about it. I was just wondering if you, did you go to Malibu when you

Chris: 44:58

were there? I've not been there. That's interesting you bring that up.'cause I was just watching Spanglish the other day. Okay. Um, have you seen that? No, it's, that's a great movie. It's Adam Sandler, the Leone. Um. Mm-hmm. Anyway, they rent a house in Malibu for the summer. And they, they showed some overhead shots and it really is just a bunch of houses piled up along the beach. Yeah. Well, the beach is pretty, you know. Right. It's nice. And, and that's it. It's like private land people with lots of money. Yeah. It's an, it looks like a nice area, but yeah, I don't know if there's a lot to do there or not.

Jeff: 45:43

Here's another one. This has never interested me. I have no desire to, to really see this. Plus the state that it's in. I have no interest, uh, in, but Mount Rushmore, you haven't been to Route Mount Rushmore, have you? I have. I

Chris: 46:00

went there as a kid. Oh yeah. I went there. I went there. As a kid, I would like to go as an adult just to see it again, but I mean, mercy, where it is, that's absolute middle of nowhere like. Why else would you be there? Except for that, I don't know. Again, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't know what else is out there.

Jeff: 46:24

I can understand. If I was on a road trip and I was kind of close to it, I might say, okay, let's stop and look at it. But yeah, you're gonna make some kind of special trip to it. No way.

Chris: 46:37

That's the way it was when I was a kid. We were on a road trip, so yeah, it was just kind of part of other things. But yeah, it's on the way to nowhere, so yeah, you, you've gotta be in the area for some other reason'cause

Jeff: 46:54

there's nothing else there. Now here's one. I know you've been here. I've been here a few times. The Alamo. I think that's overrated. I do too. I do too. Absolutely. Yeah. Now, one thing about San Antonio, every time I've been to San Antonio, it is ball scorching hot. It's been brutally hot, and so I'm sure that affects some of my feelings here, but the Alamo is like, It's tiny, it's not big. You walk in, you kinda look around, they have some exhibits, and then there's a gift shop, and then that's it. Like, okay. Right. Yeah. So been there, done that. Yeah. Like again, if you're in San Antonio, okay, go see it. But otherwise, I don't think so. I have not been to this next destination. I know you have, but several people liked this comment when somebody typed it Las Vegas. Oh, no,

Chris: 48:03

I I like Las Vegas.

Jeff: 48:06

No, here's what I hear. Let me, let me ask you this.'cause every time I hear somebody bring up Vegas, this is what they say. It's good, but don't overstay, don't like, Three days maybe, and then that's enough. Mm-hmm. But I don't know. What do you think? I,

Chris: 48:27

I've had this debate with a lot of people about how long to be there, because I was there one time for six days, but it wasn't all the typical Vegas stuff. For example, it went out to Hoover Dam. And drove around, saw that? Um, I don't remember now that that's the one thing that comes to my mind, but I, I know there were at least a couple other things we did on that trip that were around Vegas or kind of sightseeing within that area. Mm-hmm. If you're talking about the kind of quote unquote, doing Vegas as in, you know, you're out partying in the casinos, whatever. There's only so much of that you can take if you're, if you're really going hard at that, I would imagine three days is about all you could do, but I, I don't know. I've been more about pacing myself with some of that. Plus, to me, being on the strip in Vegas is similar to being in like Times Square in New York, you know? Yeah. You could just. Be out there for a long time watching like what's going on now, and you're just kind of caught up in the energy of that. Even if you're not, let's say, in playing in the casino or. Whatever. Right. A, a lot of it's gotten crazy expensive though, too, so you have to pace yourself on that one. Mm-hmm. You know, Vegas used to be kind of known as a, ooh, you can get there cheap, you can stay there cheap, you can eat these buffets for cheap and all that. And now it seems like everything has gone very high end. Mm-hmm. It's about, you know, staying in the nicer place and going to the nicer show and. These excursions that are higher dollar and, and restaurants that cost more whatever. You can certainly do it on the cheap. And I have, but

Jeff: 50:38

anyway, that's the thing. Like is I like it. There's never, there's never been for me, there's not a lot that really draws me there. Like I would go to the casinos, uh, I don't know how many, but I, and I would, would play whatever. But that doesn't, it's not my big interest. And then people mention shows, I'm like, what show am I gonna see the reputation? And again, it might not be this way anymore, but the reputation was if you're playing Vegas, like you're kind of washed up, like that's the end of your career. This is what, this is what it's come to. And I just don't have any interest in seeing those shows. But I don't know, maybe I just don't know enough about it. There are some good

Chris: 51:19

shows there. I. I've been to a few shows there, some of which I wish I hadn't gone to. Like it just wasn't worth it. Yeah. But I mean, Jerry Seinfeld is playing there this

Jeff: 51:31

summer. Yeah.

Chris: 51:33

So, yeah. I mean, they get, they get good

Jeff: 51:36

people there. You've never played Vegas. I hear

Chris: 51:39

things.

Jeff: 51:44

Okay. Uh, somebody mentioned Niagara Falls. You've been to Niagara Falls, right. But I was a

Chris: 51:51

kid. I could see people saying that. It's

Jeff: 51:55

overrated though. So if I were recommending like what people should do when they go to Niagara Falls, I would say go visit, like go look at the falls, but don't stay there. It's very loosey. Yeah. Like get your pictures, video, whatever, uh, and then go somewhere else because it, it is very touristy. If you have a choice, go to the Canadian side. The Canadian, the view from the Canadian side is better than what you're gonna get on the American side. Um, now I haven't been to the American side, but everybody said that. And when I went to the, when we were in Canada, uh, it was, it was cool to see. This is amazing. But no, I wouldn't stay there. Yeah. Well, now that's

Chris: 52:43

funny when, whenever I think of Niagara Falls, I only think of the Canadian side. Really? Yeah. I think of looking at, you can, you've got a good view of the American Falls from the Canadian side, right? Right. So you just need to be on the Canadian side.

Jeff: 52:59

Right. Disney World. That was a popular answer. You ever been there?

Chris: 53:05

I have not now. You can rub a lot of people the wrong way on that one because there are people that are completely enthralled with Disney stuff, but I've never, I've never been to Disney World or Disneyland. Same. So I, and you know, if I had been to either one of those as a kid, then I might feel completely different. But I didn't experience those as a kid. I watched Disney movies, but you know, that's just it. They were just movies, so I didn't get all in into it.

Jeff: 53:43

I've never been into Disney and it was never my thing, but man, I, I think about going to Disney World and all I hear about it is you're paying through the nose for everything and you're standing in line forever to do whatever you want. You're just gonna be standing in line forever. Jim Gaffigan, the comedian. Yeah. He said they went to Disney World, his family, he said it's like going to the, it's like paying a bunch of money and going to the D M V. He said, that's it. That's, that's the line. That's what it's like. You just go and you just stand in line everywhere. It's like, that doesn't sound pleasant at all. I don't wanna do that. No.

Chris: 54:28

I want the experience of going at least once. I know it could be a lot of money, but I think there are things there that would interest me. And I'm talking about like, I like to go to Epcot. Yeah. I would like, you know, some other things that exist there as well besides just the magic Kingdom kind of area. Right. Um, that's, that's the kind of quintessential Disney stuff. Yeah.

Jeff: 55:01

Then two more that got, that got a lot of likes and I've been to both of these places. Uh, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, you might be thinking what the hell, but it's the great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mm-hmm. That. I mean, that whole area is beautiful. It is worth going to. But I wouldn't stay in Gatlinburg, like find some cabin or something up way in the mountains and stay there.'cause Gatlinburg is so fucking touristy. Just trashy shit. Yeah, everywhere. And the same with Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach was so touristy. Mm-hmm. I don't know if you've been there, but I mean, you're right at the ocean. Okay, that's cool. But Jesus Christ, just tourist stuff everywhere. Some people like that. Some people like to go like, they like to go eat. Hey, let's go eat at another Chili's in, in Myrtle Beach, see what this Chili's is like, or this Applebee's is like or whatever. And I just don't like, I don't want any part of that. No. Oh God. Evidently a lot of people like it.

Chris: 56:04

Yeah. I've not been to either one of those places, I don't guess. I knew Gatlinburg was in the Smoky Mountains. I'd like to go to the Smoky Mountains.

Jeff: 56:12

Yeah. Yeah, it was really cool.

Chris: 56:14

I don't think there's anything about Gatlinburg that's

Jeff: 56:16

drawing me. No, it's just the town. It's right there. It's convenient to get to places in the mountains from there. All right. There you go. That is another episode of Subpar Talks. If you like this kind of stuff, then you should absolutely 100% without a doubt, follow us on whatever platform you listen to podcast on. That way you're gonna get new episodes delivered to you every single Tuesday when they drop. While you are there, go ahead and rate us. We'd be really happy if you'd give us five stars. And while you're there, go ahead and type something. The way these apps work is if you type something, it makes it easier for people to discover the show. We have a website that is Subpar Talks dot com. Uh, you can go there, you can email us, you can leave us a voicemail. If you wanna make suggestions for topics we should cover on future episodes, please go ahead and do that as well. We are on social media on Twitter. We are at Subpar Talks on Facebook. We are Subpar Talks. If you wanna follow our personal Twitter accounts, you can do that as well on there. I am at@independentjeff.

Chris: 57:25

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Jeff: 57:28

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