Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories today are about: An Amazon customer showing how a package was delivered to her house despite the fact that she told them her house burned down, how conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl have spread like wildfire online, why people are memeing Ariana Grande’s boyfriend, and a look at the (many) memes that have been made about the Stanley cup craze.
After that, our Senior Reporter Tricia has a “Problematic on TikTok” column for you. Also, if you want to ask our Executive Editor Whitney Jefferson a question, now is your chance! Scroll down below to find out how.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today’s top stories
🔥 VIRAL
Customer tells Amazon her house burned down. They deliver the package there anyway
In a viral video, an Amazon customer shows how a package was delivered to her family’s home despite the fact that it burned down.
🏈 CONSPIRACY
Vivek Ramaswamy says NFL will fix Super Bowl so Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce can campaign for Biden as ‘world champions’
Both Swift and Kelce have become frequent targets of conservatives due to Kelce’s promotion of the COVID-19 vaccine and Swift’s encouragement to her fans to register to vote.
🎬 CULTURE
People are memeing Ariana Grande’s boyfriend Ethan Slater. Here’s why
Fans are once again making memes of Ariana Grande’s boyfriend and Wicked co-star, Ethan Slater, after he made what many are calling an awkward red carpet appearance.
🥤 MEMES
There’s no escaping Stanley cups, so here are the best memes about the drinkware craze
Stanley cups have had people thirsting for a while now, but the memes are easily the best part.
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😬 Problematic on TikTok
By Tricia Crimmins
Senior Reporter
‘Legging legs’ takes over TikTok
In each edition of web_crawlr we have exclusive original content every day. On Tuesdays our IRL Reporter Tricia Crimmins breaks down the trends on the popular app that will make you cringe in her “Problematic on TikTok” column. If you want to read columns like this before everyone else, subscribe to web_crawlr to get your daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
🕸️ Crawling the web
Here is what else is happening across the ‘net.
🥐 This café customer stirred up a lot of emotion online after sharing a video showing that the tablet asked her to tip 102% after buying a croissant.
📦 An Amazon worker issued a safety PSA after having to make a delivery at 3 a.m. in their personal car.
🎄 January is almost over but some folks are still feeling Grinchy about Christmas decorations. A video recording of a return line at Costco showed the opposite of keeping your decorations up all year—taking them back to the store right after they get taken down.
🔒 A Family Dollar worker was tasked with putting security stickers on several items—namely, an alarming number of Little Trees air fresheners.
💰 This New Yorker has gone viral on TikTok after sharing a story about a surprising turn of events that resulted in a billionaire offering to cover three months’ worth of rent for his apartment.
🧇 If you know, you know: Waffle House can be a place of chaos. So how much do servers at the Georgia-based diner chain take home for their troubles?
💼 A job hunter went viral on TikTok, shocking viewers when he revealed that he had applied to 1,400 jobs over the past eight months but had not been hired.
👮 From the Daily Dot archive: Police struggle to justify use of Fusus, a community surveillance tool they foisted on citizens.
📝 Question of the Day
Everyone’s got opinions, and we want to know yours. Just click a button below to answer the question, and tomorrow we will let you know how fellow web crawlers like you answered.
HAVE YOU EVER SENT SOMEONE THE ‘ARTHUR’S FIST‘ MEME?
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👋 Before you go
A frustrated Dollar Tree customer put the store on blast after a negative experience in the checkout line.
Sandra Bassett (@sandrabassett) uploaded a video of herself at one of Dollar Tree’s locations in Phoenix, Arizona last week, standing towards the front of a line that appeared to contain around a dozen customers.
“Sitting here at Dollar Tree, we got a line halfway down the aisle, and people here in the store that won’t go and work a register, and are making us do a self-checkout,” she says. “So, the managers then went and hid into an office back there today.”
Most people know the frustration of long retail lines, which can become even more exacerbating when it seems like employees are slacking off or refusing to do their jobs.
But just because something looks a certain way from the customer’s perspective doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how it really is.
