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Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories to kick off the weekend are about: How transcripts of President Biden’s interview with the special counsel reveal he kept making car sounds, Elon Musk killing Don Lemon’s deal with X seemingly because an interview he did with him didn’t go the way he wanted it to, an Aldi customer warning shoppers about a “cashback scam,” and a tenant getting revenge after his apartment complex wouldn’t accept cash for a 2-cent bill.
After that, we’ve got an iconic meme for this week’s “Meme History” column. Scroll on down below to find out which one.
One last thing: If you didn’t take our weekly news quiz yesterday, there’s still time to take it! Just open yesterday’s newsletter and answer the question. If you guess correctly, you might win a web_crawlr shirt.
See you next week!
— A.W.
⚡ Today’s top stories
🚗 POLITICS
‘Biden go vroom vroom’: New transcripts of Biden special counsel interview reveal he kept making car sounds
The transcripts revealed that Biden made car noises during the interviews—once when complaining about his vintage Corvette’s performance and once when praising the torque of electric vehicles. The exchange prompted a number of jokes online.
💻 TECH
Elon Musk kills Don Lemon’s deal with X—after filming interview with him for show’s debut
Days before Lemon’s show was set to launch, Musk canceled Lemon’s show after an interview for the premiere episode didn’t go the way the X owner wanted it to.
💸 SCAMS
‘I got a fraud alert’: Aldi customer issues warning on ‘new scam’ after a cashier allegedly tried to steal $100 from her
A woman has issued a PSA to shoppers after an Aldi cashier used a “cashback scam” to attempt to steal $100 from her.
🏘️ VIRAL
‘We don’t take cash’: Tenant says apartment complex wouldn’t accept cash for a 2-cent bill. Here’s how he got revenge
A man got revenge on his apartment complex after they try to require him to pay a two-cent bill by check.
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🤓 Meme History
By Kyle Calise
Video Producer
Meme History: Blinking White Guy
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.
🔒 Surf the ‘net safely
Do you have questions about how to be safe online? If you do, you are in luck. Our “Your Password Sucks” column answers internet security questions from web crawlers like you.
If you ask a question by clicking here or the button below and our Tech Reporter Mikael picks it to be answered in a future column, we’ll send you a pretty sweet web_crawlr desk mat.
If you want to ask a question, sign up for web_crawlr here.
🕸️ Crawling the web
Here is what else is happening across the ‘net.
👀 A woman says her Uber Eats driver stole her order. This is what you can do to prevent the same thing from happening to you.
🍔 Wendy’s outraged the internet when the fast-food chain’s CEO announced it planned to roll out “dynamic pricing” at some stores. After all that, the company is now offering a new deal for March Madness, and folks online are casting a side-eye that could melt a Frosty.
👁️ A woman wearing sunglasses has issued a PSA warning about the dangers of sleeping with contacts.
🗑️ In an engaging TikTok clip one user delvesinto the dos and don’ts of dumpster diving, specifically targeting retail giants like Home Depot and Lowe’s.
🏨 There’s only one thing more annoying than entitled hotel customers, and that’s entitled hotel customers who are also part of rewards schemes.
💼 A woman says she was fired hour one into her paid time off after going on vacation in Dubai. She shared her distress in a viral TikTok that’s accrued over 480,000 views.
👩🏫 One high school teacher is absolutely fed up with a lesser-known form of bullying and took to social media to vent about it.
👪 From the Daily Dot archive: Why some mommy vloggers are taking their kids out of the spotlight.
👋 Before you go
When ordering a product online, there are occasionally slip-ups in that occur when the order is being packaged—something gets left out, or the wrong version of something is included. With a simple call or email to customer service, some of these mishaps may be easy to fix.
One Target shopper says their order for books from the retailer not only had the wrong item packaged in it—they think it was done on purpose.
TikToker Liv (@fooddaddy11) has taken to the platform to call out Target for a more intentional mix-up by an employee of the department store chain. When they ordered two books with queer storylines through shipping, they instead received a paperback copy of the Bible.
“When I opened my package, I got the Bible,” they say in the video. “That is what I got. I ordered three queer books. One was an in-store pickup, the other two were supposed to be delivered, and I got the Bible, which should never happen to anybody because it is a freedom of speech and all that type of stuff.”
