Illustrations by Liza Leonard

Compliment Sandwich Recipes for My Fragile Ego

Kevin Lawson
Slackjaw
Published in
3 min readJul 11, 2019

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It is widely noted that we as a society are becoming more and more fragile, and I am no exception. Therefore, the traditional “compliment sandwich” — a criticism within two compliments — is no longer a sufficiently gentle feedback method. Here is a list of compliment sandwich recipes that have been adapted for my fragile ego.

The Compliment Carboloader
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Criticism
• Compliment
• Compliment

The Compliment Carboloader

The Compliment B.L.T.
• Big round of applause
• Laudation
• Trophy

The Compliment B.L.T.

The Compliment Slider
• Compliment
• Tiny little criticism
• Compliment

The Compliment Slider

The Compliment $5 Footlong
• Criticism accompanied by a crisp $5 bill

The Compliment $5 Footlong

The Compliment Sandwich Sandwich
• Compliment
• Criticism
• Compliment
• Actual sandwich
• Compliment
• Criticism
• Compliment

The Compliment Sandwich Sandwich

Compliment Salad
• Many compliments all mixed together with no criticism at all

Compliment Salad

The Compliment Loaf
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Criticism
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Compliment
• Compliment

The Compliment Loaf

The Compliment Calzone
• Compliment with a scalding hot criticism folded inside it

The Compliment Calzone

Compliment Toast
• Two multigrain compliments
• Avocado

Compliment Toast

Compliment Soup
• No specific compliment, but a general essence of warmth and acceptance that feels better than any cluster of words ever could

Compliment Soup

The Grilled Cheese
• One recognition that I can’t handle the criticism, so let’s just split a sandwich
• Bread
• Cheese
• Bread

The Grilled Cheese

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