Jalapeños are pickled, but pickles aren't jalapeños
Pickle confusion at Burger King, good UX in cloud UIs, coming correct with the jacket and the corrective eye-ware.
Confusion Over Pickles
In Ghent, for a quick dinner, I went to Burger King. I ordered a burger - the “steakhouse” or something, which was a mistake because as Texan, I can’t stand sweet BBQ sauce, but it was fine.
When I went to the counter to pick it up, I asked for extra pickles. This is something Taco Bob taught me to do one year at Devoxx in Antwerp and it was magic. “Their motto is literally ‘have it your way,’” Bob said, “so always ask for extra pickles. It’s so delicious!” And he was right, we both got extra pickles (see the exact burger above) and it was fantastic. Since then, I always ask for extra pickles.
I tested the negative of this theory once at a McDonald’s. They informed me that, no, I could not get extra pickles. You must have it the McDonald’s way, apparently.
Anyway, after asking for extra pickles, the cashier seemed very confused. She told me that there were jalapeños on my burger already, which I had ordered through the self-service ordering system. I tried to get pickles, but that wasn’t on the self-service kiosk, I said.
She still looked puzzled, so she called over her manager.
The manager came over and asked what I needed. I explained that I wanted extra pickles, and he told me that the jalapeños were already on the burger. They were, he said, pickled. I replied, "Yes, they are pickled, but they’re made of little jalapeños,” and I held my thumb and fore-finger apart as if holding a little jalapeño between then. “But,” I continued, “...pickles are made from cucumbers."
This worked! However, another problem presented itself. He said that he would have to open up the burger packaging to add the pickles if he gave me extra pickles. I told him that I could just add them on the side if he had a little bowl to put pickles in?
The manager said something in Flemish to the cashier, the cashier seemed to suggest something, and then the manager went to get a small plastic container of pickles for me.
Despite the confusion, I was eventually able to get my extra pickles and enjoy a pickle-and jalapeño-full burger.
(ChatGPT helped write the initial draft of the above from a voice transcription done in Drafts apps. A pretty good use case the few times I’ve tried it.)
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Logoff
It’s short today because of travel. Better to send a short one now than nothing later.
I’m doing one of the dread “travel the morning of the day you have an afternoon meeting in.” Today, a sales meeting in London. This is actually fine, most of the time. This morning my flight to LCY was delayed three hours and it looked like all departing flights from LCY were canceled. FUN! So far, things are fine and I have a standby to Heathrow in case LCY is shitting the bed on both ends.
However, two great sights in the meantime:
An older gentleman in an epic Helly Hansen parka, like beyond 90s hiphop level parka. No Timbos spotted, let alone Clarks with cream on top.
Another older gentleman wearing the perfect serial killer glasses, thin gold aviators with the slight grey gradient tint. I am so envious. I stared at him a bit too long and he locked back, and I was like, “YES! LIVE THE DREAM FOR ALL US SINNERS!”…only in my head, of course.
I hope that flight works out.