Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories today are about: How a Swiftie bringing a Palestine flag to the Eras Tour kicked off a massive push to get Taylor Swift to speak out on Gaza, people mocking yet another billionaire announcing a submersible trip to the Titanic, a look at the many memes that MLB umpire Angel Hernandez sparked after announcing his retirement, and six wild things we learned about McDonald’s.
After that, our Senior Politics and Technology Editor David has a “Deplatformed” column for you.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today in internet culture
🎤 EXCLUSIVE
EXCLUSIVE: A Swiftie brought a Palestine flag to the Eras Tour—and kicked off a massive push to get Taylor Swift to speak out on Gaza
The movement seems to have been kicked off by a fan displaying a Palestinian flag at Swift’s May 24 show in Lisbon, Portugal.
🚢 ‘THE TITANIC IS EATING THE RICH’
‘Annual sacrifice to the sea gods’: Billionaire savaged after announcing new submersible trip to the Titanic
A billionaire wants to prove that the industry is actually safe, but people online were quick to make jokes.
⚾ MEMES
A low and inside look at the ‘Angel Hernandez Missed Calls’ meme
This weekend, infamous Major League Baseball umpire Angel Hernandez announced his retirement after three decades. To mark (celebrate?) the occasion, we’ve decided to explore a meme built around the man’s vast body of work. Folks, we present the Angel Hernandez Missed Calls Meme.
🍟 THE MORE YOU KNOW
‘McDonald’s is transitioning’: 6 wild things we just learned online about Micky D’s
Here are 6 things we recently learned, through the magic of social media, about the burger chain that may surprise you.
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🚉 Deplatformed
By David Covucci
Politics & Technology Editor
Deplatformed: Fuddrucker’s Farewell?
Deplatformed is a weekly column that looks into the nether reaches of the internet—outside the big few that everyone already covers—to tell you the political discourse online. It runs on Thursdays 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.
👮 Ring camera footage went viral showing a police officer approaching a woman’s door and asking to look at her doorbell camera’s footage. She told him: “No thank you.”
🥗 This ex-Olive Garden server is getting a ton of attention after revealing the tricks the restaurant doesn’t want you to know about.
🍔 Has Whataburger’s quality declined? People online seem to think so.
🍋 Have we all been getting the juice out of lemons incorrectly this whole time?
🧾 One woman’s hack for people who opt out of getting a receipt is causing a stir online.
🍴 Fast food is out; fast casual is in. People are ditching their go-to fast food chains in favor of affordable restaurants like Chili’s and Applebee’s.
👤 From the Daily Dot archive: Here’s why online anonymity is a thing of the past.
📝 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.
WOULD YOU GO INTO A SUBMERSIBLE TO SEE THE TITANIC?
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👋 Before you go
While working in the service industry, some employees have discovered certain tricks that lead to higher tips from customers.
More recently, servers have been exploring and sharing their results with the phenomenon of hair theory, in which a person’s hairstyle can change the way they are perceived by others, as well as how they are treated.
A primary focus of this particular trend in the outcome of different hairstyles for tipped servers is women in pigtails. Female servers have shared several videos describing the difference in their experience working with pigtails in their hair, versus working with their hair in a different kind of style.
More often than not, these servers have reported that their pigtails got the highest return on tips from customers.