“However, when an item is in the title of the Jazz Salad, please make an effort to include this item in the actual salad.”

In their book The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Public Records, Charles Davis and David Cuillier give the example of requesting cafeteria complaints as a sort of “test” to get a feel for how an agency responds to FOIA. Jason Smathers tried this out on the CIA … and well, the rest is history.

Yes, apparently spies - just like us - too have to deal with such everyday culinary indignities as mislabeled soda machines …

insufficient nuts …

a dearth of vegetarian/vegan options …

and worst of all, sub-standard Subways.

The request prompted a 2013 follow-up by George LeVines, who found that while the tone seemed to have shifted a lot more towards the complimentary …

there were still grievances to be aired. Such as this one agent who was unamused by the cafeteria’s playful take on the Cyrillic alphabet …

the latest installment in the waking nightmare that is the life of the gluten intolerant spy …

and of course, the infamous Jazz Salad Scandal of 2012:

Read George Levine’s full response embedded below, or on the request page:

Image via Wikipedia Commons