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February 26, 2024, 7:31 AM ET
On one of my first days at The New York Times, I went to an orientation with more than a dozen other new hires. We had to do an icebreaker: Pick a Starburst out of a jar and then answer a question. My Starburst was pink, I believe, and so I had to answer the pink prompt, which had me respond with my favorite sandwich. Russ & Daughters’ Super Heebster came to mind, but I figured mentioning a $19 sandwich wasn’t a great way to win new friends. So I blurted out, “The spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A,” and considered the ice broken.
The HR representative leading the orientation chided me: “We don’t do that here. They hate gay people.” People started snapping their fingers in acclamation. I hadn’t been thinking about the fact that Chick-fil-A was transgressive in liberal circles for its chairman’s opposition to gay marriage. “Not the politics, the chicken,” I quickly said, but it was too late. I sat down, ashamed.
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link to (paywalled) source: I Was a Heretic at The New York Times
Even better, there's nothing saying he had to fucking name a place he got his sandwiches from
He could've been like "yeah I love me a fish sandwich" (I looked it up and fuck does this Super Heebster sound kinda awful) and if anyone asked him to elaborate he could've specified like a tuna salad or something
But nah this guy is so American treat brained he had to specifically name a place and sandwich name
This prompted me to look it up and it sounds amazing to me tbh. In fact, everything from this place looks great and now I want to go. But yeah, he can just say he likes smoked fish bagel sandwiches from Jewish delis and probably everyone in that room would get it.