Hello fellow citizens of the internet! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Happy Friday the 13th! 👻 Our top stories on this spooky Friday are about: Why people are cyberbullying a dog, a woman warning that a man in an airport tried to find her first and last name using AirDrop, how courtroom sketches of disgraced crypto entrepreneurs are being roasted online, and five essential soup recipes for fall.
After that, our trending team shares with you their pick for “Main Character of the Week.”
And since it’s Friday the 13th… it’s probably the perfect day to try and get our “Crawl into Fall” shirts. To get one, all you have to do is scroll down and answer our question of the week. If you guess correctly, you’ll be entered to win the shirt.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today’s top stories
🐶 VIRAL
‘I ever see you in the streets it’s on sight’: People are cyberbullying one of the ‘world’s happiest dogs’
Why are people cyberbullying these dogs?
✈️ WTF
Woman warns man at airport tried to find her first and last name using iPhone’s AirDrop
Women, femmes, and gender-non-conforming people have to be hyper-aware as they go through the world trying to avoid harassment (or worse) and keep themselves safe. Turns out their AirDrop name and privacy is one more thing they need to be aware of as they move through the world.
💻 TECH
‘Looks like The Scream’: Courtroom sketches of Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison roasted
Courtroom sketches of disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried and his ex-business associate Caroline Ellison are making rounds on social media.
🥣 FOOD
5 essential soup recipes for fall
From white chili to deconstructed lasagna, #SoupTok has you covered.
We crawl the web so you don’t have to. Sign up to receive web_crawlr, a daily newsletter from the Daily Dot, in your inbox each day.
🌐 Take our weekly news quiz!
Are you the most online reader of web_crawlr?
Prove it by answering our question of the week! The answer can be found somewhere in one of our newsletters from this week.
If you answer correctly, you’ll be entered to win our brand new “Crawl Into Fall” shirt, and we’ll shout out five people who won the shirt!
Customers of a popular chain restaurant recently accused it of ‘gaslighting’ them. Which restaurant was it?
Think you know the answer? Sign up for web_crawlr so you can answer next week’s question!
👑 Main Character of the Week
By Ramon Ramirez
Managing Editor
Main Character of the Week: Target
Main Character of the Week is a weekly column that tells you the most prominent “main character” online (good or bad). It runs on Fridays 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.
☕ A Starbucks barista revealed that she’s been ordering blueberries with all her drinks at the coffee chain so she can have them for free.
📚 “Utilize your library, I’m begging you” is how one customer reacted in a viral video to Spotify’s foray into audiobooks.
🥫 A TikToker blasted staff members at a Kroger location after finding an assortment of olive oil hair spray cans placed in a section dedicated to various cooking oils.
💸 This woman has praised her serving job as the best type of job for someone with a “spending problem.” Many people agree.
🍴 A service industry worker is going viral for sharing why you should “never be the hardest worker” at your job.
🛠️ What are the “worst things” you can put in your home? A Home Depot expert shared his thoughts on it and one customer had every single one of them.
🌭 An IKEA shopper confessed that they visited the Swedish retailer, renowned for selling self-assembly boxes of furniture, simply to buy the brand’s mustard because they love it so much.
😌 This anti-gravity float chair is exactly what you need to ease your anxiety and stress.*
👪 From the Daily Dot archive: Why some mommy vloggers are taking their kids out of the spotlight.
*The Daily Dot may receive a commission in connection with purchases of products or services featured here.
👋 Before you go
A thrifty Olive Garden customer decided to make its never-ending pasta bowl promo something she could enjoy at home.
That customer, TikTok creator Wumi (@wumi_10), allegedly managed to pack and sneak out multiple pasta bowls in portable plastic containers. She chronicled it in a video getting more than 5.4 million views in a single day on the platform.
The video boasted via on-screen caption, “When the Olive Garden employee asks me how I finished 11 bowls of pasta in 5 minutes at the all-you-can-eat pasta deal today.”
