Hello fellow web crawlers! Kira here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Today’s top stories are about: Putin choosing sides in the U.S. election, the uptick in cosmetic procedures among Gen Z, a woman who found AI-generated images of herself on Reddit, and the shocking reason a parent had to sign a permission slip in a Florida school.
After that, dig into Kyle’s ‘Meme History’ column (and video).
Until next time,
— K.D.
⚡ Today’s top stories
🗣️ POLITICS
Putin trolls Tucker Carlson for his softball questions, says he’d prefer Biden to Trump in latest remarks to press
“Frankly, I did not get full satisfaction from this interview,” Putin declared.
💉 VIRAL
‘I take pride in openly sharing the work I’ve done for myself’: Expert addresses stigma behind the rise of cosmetic procedures by Gen-Z clients
Gen Z have started mining personal cosmetic procedures for online content.
🤖 TECH
‘This is extremely scary’: Woman says someone found images of her on Reddit. She never took them
A woman was horrified to find AI-generated pictures of her on Reddit and took to social media to issue a PSA.
📚 WTF
‘This should alarm EVERYONE’: Parent says they had to sign permission slip for their child to be able to listen to a book by a Black person
“Do they have permission slips for “white books?” one X user commented.
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🤓 Meme History
By Kyle Calise
Video Producer
Meme History: Generational Memes
Meme History is a weekly column that dives deep into internet lore to uncover the history of famous memes. It runs on Saturdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
🕸️ Crawling the web
Here is what else is happening across the ‘net.
💏🏻 George Soros’ son is dating Huma Abedin, Hilary Clinton’s former aide, and the conservatives are losing it.
💵 A visually impaired woman called out iPad tipping culture on TikTok.
🏈 There was a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade, and conspiracy theorists think it was another “false flag” operation orchestrated by Taylor Swift and the U.S. government.
🌮 A Taco Bell customer shared how she orders food using the app while in the drive-thru – no human interaction necessary.
🍹 A woman ordered a margarita while dining alone and received a dazzling surprise.
🕹️ A Pizza Hut delivery person was robbed at gunpoint while on the job. All the thief wanted was the pie.
🎟️ A woman on TikTok tested the ‘white line theory’ when buying lottery scratch-offs, sparking debate in the comments.
🥡 From the Daily Dot archive: Videos of Asian food bring out xenophobic trolls—creators are pushing back.
👋 Before you go
When traveling, it can be tempting to treat oneself to room service. However, just because a hotel has an item on their menu, that doesn’t mean they actually know how to make it, as TikTok user and actress Elle McLemore (@elle_pooh) recently learned.
Recently, this hotel guest’s ‘luxurious’ dinner service went awry after she discovered her pricey pasta was just a frozen dish from Trader Joe’s.
In a video with over 59,000 views, McLemore shows two dishes being unveiled from room service containers. One of the dishes is a pasta dinner, specifically spaghetti cacio e pepe.
However, as the video progresses, McLemore reveals that she found a bag of frozen Trader Joe’s Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe in the hotel’s communal refrigerator. “Thought it tasted familiar,” she writes in the text overlaying the video.
