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During a lunch hour at WBEZ-FM studios, the staff of the National Public Radio quiz show "Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me!" gather to eat and blog about a sandwich. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) |
During a typical Monday lunch hour at WBEZ-FM studios, the staff of the National Public Radio quiz show "Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me!" gather around a table to eat and blog about a sandwich that they find intriguing.
For example, the chosen sandwich recently was Burger King's Angry Whopper: a flimsy beef patty on a sesame seed bun, stuffed with bacon strips, jalapenos, spicy onions, lettuce, tomatoes, habanero cheese and a mayonnaiselike dressing called "angry sauce."
"I prefer the Passive-Aggressive Whopper," quips host Peter Sagal, "It's fine. No, I told you, it's fine."
"Or the It's Not You, It's Me Whopper," adds assistant producer Eva Wolchover.
"These Whoppers really need to see the Whopper therapist," declares Robert Neuhaus, technical director.
This witty repartee among co-workers is the heart of every "Sandwich Monday," a weekly blog roll that follows the staff of "Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me!" and their humorous reactions to the most bizarre combinations of food imaginable. Producer Ian Chillag records the staff's commentary in script format, then uploads pictures and additional information to The Salt on NPR.org.
"'Sandwich Monday' has no nutritional or educational value whatsoever, may cause heartburn, and it's possible that reading it will make your eyes fat," reads the official description after each post.
Executive producer Mike Danforth joked that they have tried about 10,000 sandwiches (it's actually closer to 100), but "the number of calories is incalculable."
"We've probably added a staff member in 160 pounds of sandwich," Chillag says.
"Payroll is really confused about who this person is," Neuhaus says.
Chillag came up with the idea for "Sandwich Monday" in April 2010, when Kentucky Fried Chicken debuted the infamous Double Down: an artery-busting sandwich that replaced bread with hunks of fried chicken fillets.
"KFC sent us a press release, and we responded to ask if we could try it," he says, "They sent us about 15 (Double Downs), and we live-blogged eating them."
The concept was an immediate hit, and before long the consumption of weird sandwiches turned into a weekly tradition.
"Ian was like, 'We should do this every week!'" says Danforth, "The delivery came on a Monday; so, thus, a blog was born."
More than two years have passed since that first Sandwich Monday, but the blog is still going strong.
"We get a lot of emails from people about sandwiches we should try," Wolchover says. "Some of them are actually pretty good."
However, what separates "Sandwich Monday" from other food blogs is the tendency to focus on sandwiches that taste spectacularly bad instead of good.
"The sandwiches we pick have to be 'bad' in some way," says Sagal, "Otherwise, the blog posts just aren't as funny."
Contention over whether a sandwich is tasty or terrible usually generates a high amount of site traffic as well.
For example, the chosen sandwich recently was Burger King's Angry Whopper: a flimsy beef patty on a sesame seed bun, stuffed with bacon strips, jalapenos, spicy onions, lettuce, tomatoes, habanero cheese and a mayonnaiselike dressing called "angry sauce."
"I prefer the Passive-Aggressive Whopper," quips host Peter Sagal, "It's fine. No, I told you, it's fine."
"Or the It's Not You, It's Me Whopper," adds assistant producer Eva Wolchover.
"These Whoppers really need to see the Whopper therapist," declares Robert Neuhaus, technical director.
This witty repartee among co-workers is the heart of every "Sandwich Monday," a weekly blog roll that follows the staff of "Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me!" and their humorous reactions to the most bizarre combinations of food imaginable. Producer Ian Chillag records the staff's commentary in script format, then uploads pictures and additional information to The Salt on NPR.org.
"'Sandwich Monday' has no nutritional or educational value whatsoever, may cause heartburn, and it's possible that reading it will make your eyes fat," reads the official description after each post.
Executive producer Mike Danforth joked that they have tried about 10,000 sandwiches (it's actually closer to 100), but "the number of calories is incalculable."
"We've probably added a staff member in 160 pounds of sandwich," Chillag says.
"Payroll is really confused about who this person is," Neuhaus says.
Chillag came up with the idea for "Sandwich Monday" in April 2010, when Kentucky Fried Chicken debuted the infamous Double Down: an artery-busting sandwich that replaced bread with hunks of fried chicken fillets.
"KFC sent us a press release, and we responded to ask if we could try it," he says, "They sent us about 15 (Double Downs), and we live-blogged eating them."
The concept was an immediate hit, and before long the consumption of weird sandwiches turned into a weekly tradition.
"Ian was like, 'We should do this every week!'" says Danforth, "The delivery came on a Monday; so, thus, a blog was born."
More than two years have passed since that first Sandwich Monday, but the blog is still going strong.
"We get a lot of emails from people about sandwiches we should try," Wolchover says. "Some of them are actually pretty good."
However, what separates "Sandwich Monday" from other food blogs is the tendency to focus on sandwiches that taste spectacularly bad instead of good.
"The sandwiches we pick have to be 'bad' in some way," says Sagal, "Otherwise, the blog posts just aren't as funny."
Contention over whether a sandwich is tasty or terrible usually generates a high amount of site traffic as well.
