Culture News

Yeah, but Which Brand Has the Healthiest Chicken Sandwich?

Wendy's, Popeye's, Burger King...or Chick-fil-A?

Burger King's Ch'King sandwich

Photo by Devin Berko on Unsplash

The #ChickenSandwichTwitter war of 2019 embodied some prime late-stage capitalism in action.

Social media accounts for a bunch of fast-food brands are trying to get you to buy their lousy chicken sandwiches by memeing at each other, and it's working. Their "cool" marketing bullshit is absolutely going to make you want a chicken sandwich.

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Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Ellie Kemper was trending recently on Twitter, but not because people were having a flare-up of nostalgia for The Office or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

No, she was trending because news surfaced that Kemper had once been crowned Queen of Love and Beauty at the Veiled Prophet Ball — an exclusive St. Louis party hosted by an organization that has historically been accused of upholding racist power structures.

Yesterday, Kemper finally addressed her participation in the event in an Instagram post that is surprisingly well thought out as far as celebrity apologies go.

"When I was 19 years old, I decided to participate in a debutante ball in my hometown," she wrote. "The century-old organization that hosted the debutante ball had an unquestionably racist, sexist and elitist past. I was not aware of the history at the time, but ignorance is no excuse. I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved. I unequivocally deplore, denounce, and reject white supremacy," she continued. "At the same time, I acknowledge that because of my race and my privilege, I am the beneficiary of a system that has dispensed unequal justice and unequal rewards."

Kemper added, "I believe strongly in the values of kindness, integrity and inclusiveness. I try to live my life in accordance with these values. If my experience is an indication that organizations and institutions with pasts that fall short of these beliefs should be held to account, then I have to see this experience in a positive light."

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Culture News

Tristyn Bailey Is Not Your Key to Clout

People are reportedly using the Tristyn Bailey case for clout on social media ... because we live in the worst timeline

Tristyn Bailey's family at her memorial service

Photo from video

When 13-year old Tristyn Bailey was stabbed to death by a classmate in early May, her community mourned.

In St. Johns County, near Jacksonville Florida, the 13-year old cheerleader was initially reported missing and eventually found with 114 stab wounds, left mutilated in the woods. After a gruelling few weeks of search and investigation, the suspect, Aiden Fucci, a fellow classmate, has been charged with Bailey's murder.

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If you'd asked Jawsh 685 about TikTok a year ago, the producer behind smash Jason Derulo collaboration "Savage Love (Laxed –Siren Beat)" would have scoffed.

As far as the 18-year-old was concerned, the app was a "cringe" place to post dance videos and hardly the platform that would propel the music and culture of a teen from the modest suburbs of South Auckland, New Zealand to worldwide stardom.

"I heard of TikTok and thought it was cringe because all I saw was people dancing in front of their fence," Joshua Stylah says. "I thought it was not that cool, but then I downloaded the app for fun and started finding interesting stuff. I would scroll for hours looking at posts, but wasn't posting anything myself."

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MUSIC

Who Are the Linda Lindas, the Young Asian/Latinx Band Taking Over the Punk World?

The quartet — who are all between 10 and 16 years old — went viral for a performance in the L.A. Public Library.

The Linda Lindas

With traditional concert venues on pause for the better part of the last 14 months, bands have sought out different ways to safely get their fix of performing live.

Many went the livestream route, scheduling well-produced digital concerts and using Instagram as their stage. Some larger artists gave drive-in concerts a spin. The Flaming Lips stuck to safety precautions in the most Flaming Lips way possible: by providing each attendee their own personal human hamster ball.

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Culture Feature

Everything You Need to Know About DarkSide, Colonial, and the Viral Gas Panic

The Colonial Pipeline is up and running again, but the madness isn't over...

From May 7th through the evening of May 12th, America's largest supply network for gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and jet fuel was shut down.

As of Thursday morning it is back online, though it will take a while for the typical rate of delivery to resume.

Under normal circumstances, the Colonial gas pipeline network is responsible for moving more than 100 million gallons of fuel every day, transporting it from refineries in Texas all the way up to New York, with offshoots all along the eastern seaboard. That's around 45% of the fuel supply for the east coast.

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