A pelvic floor doctor from Boston, Massachusetts, has caused a stir by explaining that something we all thought was good for our health can cause real problems. In a video that has more than 5.8 million views on TikTok, Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas says we shouldn’t go pee “just in case.”
How could this be? The moment we all learned to control our bladders we were also taught to pee before going on a car trip, sitting down to watch a movie or playing sports.
The doctor posted the video as a response to TikTok user Sidneyraz, who made a video urging people to go to the bathroom whenever they get the chance. Sidneyraz is known for posting videos about things he didn’t learn until his 30s. “If you think to yourself, ‘I don’t have to go,’ go.” SidneyRaz says in the video. It sounds like common sense but evidently, he was totally wrong, just like the rest of humanity.
“Pelvic floor physical therapist here, and I work with a lot of people with overactive bladders, stress incontinence, urge incontinence, the whole nine yards,” Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas began her clip. “And here’s why you shouldn’t go ‘just in case.”‘
In the video, Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas explains the three levels of feeling the need to pee.
“The first one is just an awareness level that tells you that there’s some urine in the bladder,” she said. “The second one is the one that tells you to make a plan to use the toilet, and the third is kind of the panic button that says, ‘Get me there right now, I’m about to overflow.’”
on vacation and remembering #vacation #tips #bathroom #travel #tipsandtricks #todayilearned #todayyearsold #islandlife #traumabrain #roadtrip #inmy30s
Then she made her case by giving a visual explanation of how going when we don’t need to teaches our bodies to prematurely send signals that it’s time to pee. The simple explanation has a lot of people wondering if their pee sensor is still working correctly.
#stitch with @sidneyraz I know it sounds counterintuitive and goes against everything your momma taught you – just out here trying to save your bladder 🤍
In a rare display of humility on the internet, Sidneyraz saw the video and thanked the doctor for the correction. “Oh hey thanks for correcting me!” he wrote.
The video shocked a lot of people who feel like their entire lives have been based on a lie—at least when it comes to something most of us do six to eight times a day. “TikTok is basically just a bunch of videos telling me I’m doing life wrong,” joked one commenter. “Like Jesus, really? I’m peeing wrong?”
Yes, you are.
“Who else hears their mom in their head say ‘go just in case’ when you’re out and about and near a bathroom?” another commenter asked.
The good news is that if you’ve always been the type to go “just in case” and you constantly feel like you need to go pee, there is hope. With the help of a doctor, you can retrain your bladder so that you only feel the need to go when it’s time. Now, who’s going to be the first brave person who doesn’t go when they feel the need, just to see if their body’s pee sensor is off?
If you’ve never heard of the Cat Distribution System, then you probably don’t own a cat, or you do, but you acquired your cat in a normal, non-weird way. You know, like at an animal shelter or from some nice lady on social media who had a box of kittens. Some people do get cats that way, and it’s one thousand percent a valid way to attain cat parent status.
But some lucky folks get cats through the Cat Distribution System (or CDS for short). Is this system real? The only people who know this are cats. They’re also the ones that run the system, so the rules and the way in which you attain your purr machine may be a bit wonky. You may wake up with an unknown cat in your bed even though all of your windows are closed, or you just may be like this delivery driver.
The driver was out picking up orders when a cat came out of the CDS and jumped on the man’s leg as he attempted to get back to his car. Thanks to his dash cam, you get to see CDS at work, and so did his mom. The video currently has over 2.8 million views on TikTok.
When the driver asked his mom if he could keep the cat, at first she said no. Then she saw the footage of the cat aggressively and desperately choosing her son to be its new cat dad—and that’s how you get a cat through the CDS. Once the cat realized she made the right choice, she snuggled up on her dad’s lap as he drove her home.
“We are not cat people,” reads the text overlay. “My youngest son was out making deliveries last night. A cat kept following him. Then jumped on his leg and would not let go.”
I have news for you, Mom, you’re cat people now. It’s how the Cat Distribution System works. They train their recruits to turn non-cat people into cat people, one unsuspecting human at a time. If you don’t make it to the end of the video, yes, they kept the cat and her name is Venus. That’s how the system is designed.
#catrescue #catrescueroftiktok I am not a #catperson but maybe now I will be after today. I #Love my #son has a #huge #compassionate #heart #momsoftiktok #rescate #gato
Faye Webster‘s last album, 2021’s I Know I’m Funny Haha, was a gem. It contained her signature warm wit and charm on glimmering ballads like “In A Good Way” and “Better Distractions.” She’s back today with her first new single in two years, “But Not Kiss,” as well as a tour announcement.
“I think it could be a really romantic song or a really anti-romantic song,” Webster said about the track in a statement. “It’s something I’ve looked for but struggled to find in other love songs, for them to describe this conflict or contradiction.”
The glimmering new ballad explores longing for something, but simultaneously not really wanting it: “I want to see you in my dreams but then forget / We’re meant to be but not yet,” she sings.
Listen to “But Not Kiss” above.
Find the full tour dates below.
06/20 — Los Angeles, CA @ Brain Dead Studios
06/22 — Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
10/17 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
10/20 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner
10/21 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
10/24 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
10/27 — Toronto, ON @ History
10/29 — Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
10/30 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
11/02 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
11/03 — Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
11/04 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
11/07 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
11/08 — Los Angeles @ The Novo
11/10 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
11/12 — Dallas, TX @ The Factory in Deep Ellum
11/13 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
11/14 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
11/17 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
Fleet Foxes kicked off their tour in Cleveland last week with a bang. To celebrate this new chapter, the group shared a pair of live recordings on Bandcamp. One was a cover of “Under Control” by The Strokes, performed with The Westerlies and tour openers Uwade at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York last August. The other was a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira” with Daniel Rossen, Greg Pecknold, and The Westerlies at Los Angeles’ The Belasco this past March.
The rest of Fleet Foxes’ concerts are still going on. Though the setlist does have one cover, the performances are mostly packed with songs from their latest album, 2020’s Shore.
Check out their setlist below from their show at Old Forester’s Paristown Hall in Louisville, KY, according to setlist.fm.
Who makes the greatest French fries in all of fast food (and fast casual)? That’s a question we’ve asked ourselves all year, and we’ve been hot on the search. In our grueling quest (shh, don’t tell my editor that I love eating fast food), we’ve blind taste tested fast food French fries, explored some of our favorite fast casual fries, and even tackled seasoned fries.
All so that we could work up to this moment — the ultimate fast food French fry ranking on the internet. The pinaccle of fry content for 2023.
It’s been two years since our last big French fry ranking, and to justify ranking them again we’re going bigger than every other food site online. Because we’ve tasted and reviewed over 30 different fries across the fast food landscape in search of the very best. We’re talking about salted fries, curly fries, seasoned fries, and everything in between — all to answer the question of who makes the greatest French fries across fast food and fast casual. Through our re-tasting and re-ranking, a lot of brands have shifted spots, and we’re looking at an almost completely brand-new top five.
Through various tastings, we’ve broken down the flavor, texture, seasoning blend, and quality of each order of fries so that you never have to spend money on something that isn’t worth your time. Before we dive in let’s define what makes for a great order of French fries:
Great French fries should be crispy, not soggy.
Soft on the inside, not mealy like freezer section fries.
They should be dusted with the perfect amount of seasoning — whether that’s just salt, or something more adventurous like paprika, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, or even sugar.
No matter how many different spices are used, it should never be too much of one ingredient. The most important ingredient of all is the potatoes — I’m looking for the natural flavor of potatoes, not something that is fried to the point of being all texture no flavor.
Okay, let’s dive in and find the greatest French fries in all of fast food.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Food Rankings From The Last Month
We can all agree that crinkle-cut fries kind of suck right? Crinkle-cut fries aren’t so bad that I’m going to rank all of them last, but I’ll never understand why these things are sold anywhere. Ask yourself this, if you had your own fast food restaurant where you were able to design the menu and fill it with all of your favorites, are you putting crinkle-cut on the menu? Probably not.
My least favorite crinkle-cut fry in all of fast food is definitely Arby’s. They’re bland, hard as a rock because no one orders them, and don’t taste all that different from the Ore-Ida fries you pick up at the frozen aisle of the market. In fact, I think I prefer the Ore-Ida bag, at least this way I could season the fries with something other than salt.
The Bottom Line:
Wow, look at that Arby’s, you managed to make something worse than freezer aisle fries!
I’m sorry to the Dairy Queen fans out there but, DQ is for ice cream — straight up f*ck the food. It’s all awful. Now granted, sometimes you want something salty to dip into your soft serve ice cream, and these fries are good enough to handle that task… mostly.
The main problem with DQ’s fries is how limp they are. They’re often mushy, undercooked, and soak up grease like a sponge making them too limp to stab into the ice cream. The flavor is fine, it’s salty almost buttery, but the lack of crispiness here is a serious problem.
It blows my mind how bad Shake Shack’s fries are. No, I’m not just saying that because these are crinkle-cut fries and I already expressed my distaste for the form factor — these are objectively bad. Where I live there is a Shake Shack, Five Guys, and In-N-Out in close proximity to one another and even though I think out of those three Shake Shack makes the best cheeseburger by a country mile, I’ve opted for the other two more often than not just so I wouldn’t have to deal with these truly awful French fries.
They’re a stain on the Shake Shack menu — my biggest issue is that they’re flavorless. The flavor of potato isn’t even really there, it’s just a blank neutral canvas. It’s edible when dipped in ketchup or the sauce of your choice, but not before dusting the fries with some salt and black pepper. Aside from the flavor, the texture is also bad, it’s crispy and abrasive and will definitely f*ck up the roof of your mouth.
Bland and begging for sauce. What makes Sonic special is all of the other fried sides on the menu. Why opt for fries when you can have delicious mozzarella sticks, jalapeño poppers, or Sonic’s Chili Cheese Fries? Once these bland fries are doused in melted cheese and chili, they add some needed texture to a salty and savory flavor profile, but on they’re own it’s clear they’re just a canvas for something else.
The Bottom Line:
Sonic is pushing you to order the Chili Cheese Fries by making these so boring. Do that! If you don’t like Chili Cheese Fries, don’t get fries at Sonic, it’s not worth it.
Quick, you have to choose between eating lunch at Shake Shack or Del Taco but you can only eat the fries, where are you going? The only answer is Del Taco, do you see now how ridiculous it is that Shake Shack insists on selling crinkle-cut fries? The answer should never be Del Taco!
Del Taco dunks on Shake Shack because these fries have a softer outer texture (don’t worry they’re still crispy) and a bigger focus on the potato flavor on the inside. Del Taco also salts their fries more liberally than Shake Shack does and overall the experience, from flavor to mouthfeel, is much more enjoyable here. They still kind of suck because they’re crinkle-cut fries, but they’re at least edible.
The Bottom Line:
A nicely salted crinkle-cut fry with a tame ridge and a potato-forward flavor.
Here is my big issue with BK’s fries — they’re inconsistent. I’ve had orders that have been perfectly palatable, almost delicious. They’re crispy, buttery, and salty. What’s not to love? Unfortunately, most of the time they’re soggy, salted to the point of being inedible, and inundated with so much rancid oil that they’ll make you sick.
That kind of extends to the whole of BK’s menu. Once this place figures out how to make consistently hot meals and how to stop overcooking its burgers, it may actually join the mid to top-tier of fast food brands. Right now it’s dominating the bottom.
The Bottom Line:
You may get an order that is piping out and deliciously salted. But… most times you won’t.
Farmer Boys is inconsistent with everything the chain makes. The burgers can run the gamut from good to inedible, and the same goes for the fries. When they’re good, they’re delicious, thin, crispy, crunchy, and salty. When they’re bad they’re hard-as-a-diamond grease traps that taste like rancid oil.
The fact that these are called “always crispy” is some sort of cruel joke. Hard as a rock is not crispy…Where is the snap Farmer Boys?!
Because you never know what you’re going to get at Farmer Boys, we have to rank this one low.
The Bottom Line:
Yes, you should substitute those fries for an order of Fried Zucchini. Every time.
I used to say that Rally’s Seasoned Fries were reason alone to hit the Rally’s drive-thru. I’m not sure what happened but over the past few years but the quality of these fries has sharply declined. These fries are too often overcooked, resulting in a stale, oily flavor that tastes straight-up dirty.
They’re way too over-battered, resulting in a French fry that tastes more like a batter casing than actual potato.
The Bottom Line:
If you haven’t been to Rally’s in a while, don’t let these fries be the reason for your return. They’re not as good as they used to be.
There are so many different crinkle-cut fries in fast food that I”m starting to wonder if I’m the weird one for not liking them. White Castle’s fries are crispy, fluffy, and super salty. They’re perfectly serviceable, but why are you ordering these instead of onion rings?
“Come on, come on. Feel it, feel it!” Sorry, it’s impossible for me not to think of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch every time I eat at Wahlburgers. As far as I’m concerned, this ‘90s classic should be pumped through the loudspeakers at every Wahlburgers once every hour, followed by the entire Boogie Nights soundtrack.
Look, I’m stalling, Wahlburgers fries are… fine. The exterior of these fries have the perfect level of crispiness, but the flavor of the potatoes are remarkably bland. Unseasoned potato that can’t be saved by adding your own salt and pepper. In order for salt to adhere to fries, it needs to be dusted on right after they leave the fryer, but on every occasion I’ve had Wahlburger, they haven’t done this.
You need to dip these things in the Wahl Sauce or ketchup in order for them to be enjoyable. They’re natural, so they have that going for them,
The Bottom Line:
If you came to Wahlburgers looking for good vibrations, don’t order the Yukon French Fries.
My big issue with Raising Cane’s fries is that despite the delicious bright and buttery flavor, these seriously lack crunch. A soggy fry is a sad fry.
Dipping these fries in some Cane’s Sauce makes the experience of eating them more enjoyable, as it adds a deep savory dimension to those otherwise one-note fries, but at the end of the day I just wish they were crispier.
The Bottom Line:
Good but best-experienced in-restaurant. Don’t attempt to take these home, they’ll sog up.
Two years ago Wendy’s launched these “Hot & Crispy” fries and while we enjoyed the novelty for a while, it feels like Wendy’s needs to go back to the drawing board. These fries are fine, they are indeed hot and crispy (most of the time) but the flavor is so one-note and boring. Wendy’s seems to think that pouring salt all over their fries is enough to win people over, but it’s not.
What makes it all the more frustrating is that Wendy’s has breakfast potato wedges that are f*cking delicious, presenting a strong onion and garlic flavor and the perfect level of crispiness. If Wendy’s would just replace its fries with breakfast potatoes, they’d be one of the best fast food restaurants in the game, but they keep f*cking around with these things instead.
The Bottom Line:
Wendy’s fairly new Hot & Crispy fries are still a bit lacking. It’s the one thing holding this fast food chain back from greatness.
No, you’re not crazy, these do look delicious, but looks can be deceiving. It’s not that Dog Haus’ fries are bad, they’re just… boring. They’re natural skin-on potatoes, which is a great thing to see, but they’re so inattentively seasoned that they come across like bland under-salted potato chips. Crispy, with a nice texture, but little else to write home about.
Dog Haus also serves Tots and Sweet Potato Fries, both of those options are better than this. We’ll give these fries some extra points for being natural and prepared to order, but the execution is lacking.
The Bottom Line:
Great texture, boring flavor. Order the sweet potato fries instead.
Arby has been doing curly fries for as long as anyone can remember — we probably have Arby’s to thank for even making the curly fry a thing — but I’m sorry to the Arby’s heads out there, Jack in the Box perfected the form.
The flavors here are great, you have a mix of garlic and black pepper with a gentle lingering onion flavor on the aftertaste, but they’re over-fried. All you can taste is the seasoning, none of the potato.
The Bottom Line:
Delicious but a bit imperfect. If you want the best curly fries in the game you’re going to have to go to Jack in the Box.
I get it, these fries are polarizing, but let me just say this: if you have a problem with potatoes that are peeled and cut in-house, and fried to order, the problem isn’t the fries — it’s you. Now granted, I get why In-N-Out’s fries have a bad reputation. Generally, In-N-Out is incredibly busy, and as such the fries are tossed into an overworked frier and pulled a few seconds too late, resulting in an overcooked spud that lacks flavor. But on those rare occasions when In-N-Out is only moderately busy, these French fries are delicious enough to transport you to another world!
The fries are always perfectly salted, and I’ve been to some In-N-Out restaurants where there is a gentle dusting of pepper on the fries as well. In-N-Out prides itself on its customer service, so if the fries aren’t to your standards, take them back and ask them to be “lightly fried” — they won’t drop the ball twice.
The Bottom Line:
Delicious, natural but inconsistent. When In-N-Out f*cks up their own fries, they’re inedible, but on those rare occasions everything goes right these are some of the best, yes, the best, French fries in the game.
People absolutely love Chick-fil-A’s Waffle Fries but I think that’s more to do with being charmed by the form factor than the way these things actually taste. They’re fine, very natural tasting with an earthy potato-forward flavor. Chick-fil-A lightly dusts each order with sea salt but in my experience, they do this too late after they’ve left the fryer.
I always feel like these fries need just a bit more seasoning to really taste good, and for that, we have to rank ‘em relatively low.
The Bottom Line
Good, but not great. To make these fries truly tasty you’re going to have to take seasoning into your own hands.
I was, pun-totally-intended, salty when KFC first killed their potato wedges and replaced them with the Secret Recipe Fries. The potato wedges were interesting and different, an anomaly in the fast food space, one part French fry, one part-baked potato. The Secret Recipe Fries are much more basic in form factor and preparation method.
But I can’t deny that flavor. It’s a mix of herbs and spices that echo KFC’s legendary Original Recipe batter blend. I can taste pepper, garlic, and onion powder, a hint of smokey paprika, and salt with a crispy, slightly battered exterior that ensures each bite is audibly crunchy and satisfying.
The Bottom Line:
If you miss the potato wedges, I feel you but give these a chance. They’re better than they look.
I like these fries, but unfortunately, they live in the shadow of JiB’s curly fries (more on those later). These fries are salty, bright, and crispy. A nice serviceable crunch on the exterior, and fluffy buttery potato on the inside.
I don’t have anything bad to say about these fries, but they’re not good enough to compete with the direct competition of McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr, or the brand’s own curly fries.
The Bottom Line:
They’re surprisingly good, but they have to compete with curly fries also being on the menu. And they don’t even come close to being as delicious as that entry in the patheon.
Imagine McDonald’s French fries with a more natural skin-on potato flavor, and you’ve got Carl’s Jr. These fries are surprisingly good, they’re earthy and slightly bitter, but well-salted and addicting. “Natural” tasting fries seemed to be all the rage in fast food a while back as many brands tried to offer skin-on French fries. That trend seems to have died out, but Carl’s Jr is making the case for why it should be a thing again.
The Bottom Line:
The most natural-tasting and best fries in all of drive-thru fast food. If you like that earthy skin-on flavor, you can’t go wrong here.
See, I don’t completely hate crinkle cut! Dave’s Hot Chicken’s fries are a solid addition to your meal, they’re super crispy, while still tasting like actual potato once you bite into them. What sets these fries apart from the other crinkle-cut fries out there is the dusting of paprika that each order gets, adding a smokey component to a salty base flavor.
You can opt to order these fries smothered in cheese, and while that increases the salty flavors, I don’t recommend them over the non-cheese stock fries.
The Bottom Line:
These are very solid fries that serve as a nice palate cleanser for the more intensely spicy flavors on Dave’s menu.
The ultimate fast food curly fry! The exterior is crispy, slightly battered, and filled with flavor courtesy of garlic and onion powder, and black pepper, with an interior that tastes slightly sweet and buttery. A piping hot order is ecstasy for the taste buds, and even when they’re soggy and a bit old, they still deliver a blast of flavor that’s worth experiencing.
The only downside to these fries is how greasy they are. It makes taking down a large order a gamble, it might mess up your stomach.
The Bottom Line:
Stoner food at its finest. A lot of flavor but a lot of grease.
I love these fries more than Taco Bell does. How do I know? Because Taco Bell keeps taking them off the menu and putting them back on seemingly at random, and I would never do these fries like that — they deserve to be a menu staple.
For the better half of this year, they’ve enjoyed permanent menu status, but I live in fear that one day I’ll drive up to Taco Bell and order Nacho Fries only to be told they don’t have them anymore. I shouldn’t have to live like that!
The Nacho Fries are heavily battered and lightly seasoned with a mix of chili powder, paprika, salt, and garlic powder resulting in a French fry that is supremely crispy and full of the sort of flavors that make your tastebuds dance.
My only gripe is the name. As a Southern California native, the term “Nacho Fries” is one I’m intimately familiar with. At most taquerias across Los Angeles, you can order nacho fries and they’re essentially nachos with fries instead of tortilla chips, meaning you get loads of carne asada, guacamole, cheese, sour cream, salsa, and whatever else you can imagine on top of a bed of crispy fries. That’s not the case at Taco Bell, these are just fries — no relation to nachos whatsoever.
The Bottom Line:
Way better than they have any business being, fries are a Taco Bell essential.
One part waffle fry, one part curly fry, Carl’s Jr’s Criss-Cut Fries are hands down Carl’s Jr’s best fry option, and that’s saying a lot considering how good the regular fries are. These fries have that familiar blend of onion and black pepper that most seasoned fries enjoy, but there is a stronger emphasis on onion here with a hint of garlic on the backend, all hovering over an earthy potato flavor.
The exterior is slightly battered giving these fries a nice crunch that holds up against relatively low transit times, resulting in a fry that tastes as good fresh as they do sitting in a bag for a few minutes.
The Bottom Line:
Carl’s Jr.’s best fries. Chick-fil-A with a bit more flavor and crunch.
Even though you can only order these fries during breakfast hours, they’re still deserving of a spot on this list because they’re so damn delicious. The seasoning blend is standard seasoned fries fare, a mix of black pepper, onion, and garlic, but the texture really sets these things apart. The outside is slightly battered and crispy, and since they’re wedge-shaped they offer a more fluffy potato texture than just about every other French fry in fast food.
Sure, you could argue potato wedges aren’t fries to begin with but… I think that’s a stupid argument. Shoestring, steak, curly… if it’s a fried potato, it’s f*cking fries.
The Bottom Line:
Wendy’s greatest mistake is not giving these things permanent menu status at all hours of the day.
Umami Burger has four different French fry variations and ever since I had the Togarashi fries I can’t bring myself to order the others. Aside from being perfectly crunchy, what makes these fries so delicious is the togarashi seasoning, which supplies a sweet, mildly spicy, smokey, and zesty flavor to a base of buttery potato flavor.
The Bottom Line:
Unlike any other French fry in fast food. It’s zesty, floral, a bit citrusy, and smokey with the gentlest kiss of spice on the back end.
Wienerschinitzel is… not my favorite chain. For the longest time, I didn’t understand why anyone would ever want to eat there and then I had the fries and goddamn are they good. Like jaw-droopingly good. They’re crispy, always piping out, and deliciously savory despite only being seasoned with a pinch of salt.
Wienerschnitzel fries are top-tier!
The Bottom Line:
Wienerschinitzel’s best-kept secret is the chain’s delicious fries. Almost too good to be true.
In this year’s blind taste test of seasoned fries we named Popeyes the number one best, and we stand by that. If your thing is seasoned fries, this is the way.
Not the crispiest fries in the game, Popeyes’ strength is in the blend of seasonings. They have a prominent black pepper flavor that mingles with the liberal use of garlic powder perfectly. The aftertaste is a slightly smokey aftertaste with floral hints of paprika. They’re just so flavorful, and that blend of sensations really takes your taste buds on a journey. That’s what we look for in a good order of fries.
The Bottom Line:
Here is an instant way to make your Popeyes Chicken Sandwich even better: shove these fries into them. The Cajun Fries are Popeyes’ all-time greatest side order and some of the best-seasoned fries in all of fast food.
I’ve definitely hit up Wingstop a few times solely for the fries, they’re that good. Each order is seasoned with salt, paprika, garlic powder, and just a hint of white and brown sugar. The thought of sugar on fries might sound crazy, but once you have them you’ll think of sugar as an essential French fry ingredient alongside salt. Had these fries been tasted in our blind taste test, I’m confident they would’ve taken the top spot over Popeyes.
While the fries can sometimes be soggy, that constantly shifting flavor is enough to make it all worth it.
The Bottom Line:
Addictingly sweet with an ever-shifting flavor that will draw you in for more.
Hands down, I think these are the best fast food fries ever — nothing beats them! So why aren’t they number one? Because Fast Casual is a thing that exists. I’ll get into that with our number one choice but first, let’s talk about what makes these fries so delicious.
We have three words for you: natural beef flavor. That’s what makes these French fries so damn addicting. The Golden Arches no longer fry their French fries in beef tallow, but they still aren’t completely vegetarian, and the presence of some sort of beef by-product in the cooking process adds a savory dimension to these fries that are hard to equal.
On their best day, the outside is perfectly crispy, while the inside of the fry offers fluffy buttery goodness. That rich buttery flavor dominates the profile, mingling with the right amount of salt and a hint of savoriness on the back end that makes these fries downright addicting. The aftertaste is tinged with just a subtle hint of sweetness. I’m convinced McDonald’s sprinkles a hint of sugar on each order, but I can’t confirm that.
Having said that, when McDonald’s fries are old, they’re inedible. Like straight-up garbage.
The Bottom Line:
The best fries for the money in all of fast food, but there is just one brand we think is doing it better…
Naming McDonald’s as the number one French fry would’ve been easy. It would’ve resulted in nobody emailing me to tell me I’m either “stupid,” “wrong” or both 9perhaps separated or punctuated with a few curses). But I say, bring it on — Five Guys make the best French fries in all of fast food, no f*cking contest.
First, they’re natural potatoes that are cut in-restaurant and sourced from different farms across Idaho, the potato capital of the goddamn world. Then they’re twice fried for a perfectly crunchy and slightly cavernous exterior (perfect for the salt or Cajun seasoning to live in) that houses some deliciously buttery, earthy, and complex fluffy potato. They’re everything the perfect French fry should be.
Whether you order the Salted or Cajun Fries, what you get here is unparalleled.
Granted, like McDonald’s, the more time it takes for you to eat these things, the less delicious they’ll be. So do not hesitate, rip that greasy bag open, throw some extra cajun seasoning or even just black pepper across these things, and strap in for French fries at their most perfect.
The Bottom Line:
Unapologetically, the best French fries in all of fast and fast casual food. Five Guys are obsessive about how they prepare fries and will only drop a new basket once you order them. That commitment makes them truly worthy of the admittedly bloated price point.
We’ve never seen a player enter the NBA Draft quite like Victor Wembanyama, the French superstar who is going to get selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the number one overall pick barring something completely unforeseen happening between now and Thursday. There is very little that Wembanyama is not good at, as his mix of size, skill, and basketball IQ makes him to sort of once-in-a-generation prospect that hasn’t entered the league since LeBron James.
Fortunately for Wembanyama, he’s becoming a professional basketball player and not a professional baseball player, because as we learned on Tuesday night, he has a bit of a ways to go before he gets called up to the majors. The New York Yankees invited Wembanyama to the Bronx to take in their game against the Seattle Mariners, and because he is a famous person who is in attendance for a baseball game, Wembanyama was asked to throw out the first pitch. While it certainly was not the worst that we have ever seen, he unfortunately missed everything.
Wembanyama will never have to be good at this, so this is nothing more than a thing he can laugh at as he goes on to what should be an All-NBA career. We did, however, get a few examples of what it looks like when a 7’3 person holds a baseball and a bat, and it’s pretty incredible.
It’s been pointed out that technically Donald Trump could still run for president from prison. That’s looking more and more like it may happen. Not only is mishandling classified government documents, with which he’s been charged, a serious offense, but the big guy keeps making it easier for prosecutors to prosecute him. On Sunday, Fox News aired a sit-down with Trump in which he basically came out and confessed. Even conservative commentators can’t believe how dumb that was.
Guys, Trump admitted on TV tonight he withheld documents from the grand jury. Game over, legally. What an idiot.
As per Mediaite, after the interview aired, far right folks like Erick Erickson took to Twitter to just marvel at Trump’s lack of smarts. “Guys, Trump admitted on TV tonight he withheld documents from the grand jury,” Erickson wrote. “Game over, legally. What an idiot.”
Erickson, who is a former Georgia attorney, expanded on his thoughts in a Substack post entitled “That Was Not Smart.” “Trump had only one of two choices: hand over the documents or challenge the subpoena. He did not do the latter, so he had to do the former,” he wrote. Erickson also argued that his excuse — that he was “very busy” and needed to organize his personal belongings — was absolutely “not a defense to a grand jury subpoena.”
Ed Morrissey, a member of the conservative blog Hot Air, couldn’t believe this crap either.
The first rule of Federal Indictment Club is: you don’t talk about your case. And the second rule of Federal Indictment Club is … REALLY don’t do this.
“The first rule of Federal Indictment Club is: you don’t talk about your case. And the second rule of Federal Indictment Club is … REALLY don’t do this,” Morrissey wrote. “Did Trump just admit to obstruction — on national television?”
Chris Christie also slammed Trump over the interview, but that wasn’t as surprising: The former New Jersey governor is not only running against him for the 2024 GOP ticket, but he’s made his campaign all about mercilessly roasting him. Still, even he couldn’t believe how bad Trump’s excuse was.
“Does anybody in America believe this?” Christie said on CBS Mornings. “And when you think about how many days of golf he’s played since he left office, maybe he could have skipped a couple of rounds of golf and gone through the boxes to respond to a subpoena from a grand jury.”
Toupees are often used as the punchline to a joke in most media, shown as a desperately kept secret that will inevitably become exposed after a gust of wind, thus conveying just how pathetic the wearer is. Cue laughter.
However, take a look at any of the thousand of incredible transformations on TikTok, and you’ll see that hairpieces have made a comeback. Men of all ages and ethnicities nervously approach the barber’s chair, allow glue to be painted onto their freshly shaved head, and have a patch of perfectly matching hair placed on so well you’d never know it was fake.
The result is not only five, 10, even 20 years taken off the clock, but a newfound confidence that radiates off the screen. Indeed, these men are transformed.
Many salons, such as Prism Elites in Los Angeles, adopted the word “hair system” to avoid the negative associations with toupees. As Josh Williams, the man behind Prism Elites’ countless viral TikToks, can attest, there is still a major stigma surrounding them. Though most comments are highly supportive, some folks are either convinced toupees remain as artificial looking as they were some odd years ago, or they believe men should embrace their baldness to appear more masculine.
But judging from the incredible makeovers on their account (like the one below), there have undeniably been major advancements in the industry. Many of these “after” images look so natural you instantly forget what these men looked like before.
Plus, it almost goes without saying that beauty standards —for both men and women—come and go. Bald men might be commonly perceived as more attractive now, but that wasn’t the case only a few short years ago. And it most assuredly won’t be the case forever.
More to the point, there isn’t a one-size-fits all approach when it comes to looking and feeling our best. It’s clear from the way these men light up at seeing their new selves that having a head full of hair unlocks something for them. There’s an assuredness that comes through the screen. And seeing that moment really doesn’t get old.
There’s also the unspoken, outdated rule still lingering in society that grooming and caring for one’s appearance is considered feminine. Sports? Sure. Salons? Are you kidding, real men don’t do that. As Gregory Brown, founder and director of the Green Psychiatry Center told Mashable, “[men] think that if they’re taking time for self-care, they’re losing productivity, time from work. And that goes against what society tells us is masculine.”
That’s what makes the simple act of proudly, publicly—sometimes virally—getting a toupee so revolutionary. It reflects a huge cultural mindset shift towards normalizing self care for men, which can lead to a more well-rounded mental and emotional state.
Of course confidence can be manifested from within, but sometimes allowing it to come from looking good is an amazing form of grace we can give ourselves. This is something many women know firsthand, and it’s great that both innovation and social media’s knack for spreading awareness are helping men find comfort in that fact as well.
Becoming a new mom is hard. You’ve got this tiny human depending on you for its survival all while you’re healing from bringing them into the world. But the piece that can get to be overwhelming is fielding visitors and their well intentioned unsolicited advice.
You’re already feeling a bit underprepared for the undertaking but you’ve done your research, spoke to professionals and have been in every mom group imaginable.
So if you know nothing else, you know what rules you have around others spending time with your new bundle of joy. Here’s the thing though, not everyone respects those rules or your new position as a mom, which means you’re constantly defending your boundaries.
One new mom, Tay shared a series of photos through video on TikTok that displayed, “icks” she has as a new mom.
The post has caused some waves with people who are probably feeling a bit guilty of doing the things on the “ick” list. But there are many new parents in the comments nodding their heads hard in agreement.
As someone who has been a new parent, I can honestly say that I wish I had the knowledge that I was allowed to tell people “no, thank you” when it came to my new baby. It’s amazing that new parents are finding community and courage through social media to set clear boundaries. So what are the new mom “icks” that have gotten people whipped into a tizzy?
The icks range from refusing to give the baby back upon request, even if the child is crying to offering unsolicited advice. Tay really lays out multiple scenarios that many new parents are likely familiar with. A big one that I have personal experience with fending off is kissing.
Babies are so dang cute and no matter how small they are, they always have the chubbiest little kissable cheeks so it’s easy to see why some people feel like they just have to give them a smooch. But kissing a newborn that isn’t yours can be dangerous for the baby and new parents are now more educated on those dangers, option to forbid kisses from everyone but mom and dad.
Another “ick” that got lots of attention from commenters was talking to the parent through the new baby in an effort to be passive aggressive. If you’ve never experienced it before, it’s when someone is holding your baby and talking in a sweet baby voice looking lovingly into the baby’s eyes while saying something like, “you must be keeping mama busy cause the house is a disaster.” Let’s all take a moment to roll our eyes.
It seems these complaints are fairly universal for new parents if you take a gander at the comments.
“How do I send this to my MIL without sending it to her,” one person asked.
“I feel this. A mom will never forget how she was treated during pregnancy and postpartum. It’s when we are most vulnerable,” another wrote.
“My mother in law used to body shame me through my infant,” one mom confessed.
“I have gotten the ‘I have raised 5 kids, I think I know better than you’ from my mom so many times since having kids,” someone wrote.
No matter who’s baby it is, I think its safe to say you should respect the parents boundaries, even if you don’t understand them. Watch the entire video here.
It’s uncanny how some kids really don’t seem like kids at all.
Instead, they think, speak and behave like adults (just, you know, child-sized adults). There’s an inherent savviness to these old souls that makes them not only aware of what they want out of life, but able to create concrete steps towards that goal…both skills that don’t reach many of us until well into adulthood.
Take for instance Neil Lims, a 10-year-old who is so determined to go to Morris College that he spent an entire Friday evening coming up with an impressive financial plan to save money for tuition.
Neil presented the plan to his parents, Shark Tank style, and thanks to a recording of it blowing up on TikTok, now we can all marvel at this young man’s natural entrepreneurial abilities.
In the clip, Neil unrolls a large sheet of brown paper with math scribbles as he explains how opting out of Christmas and birthday presents could help the family save big.
“I asked mom how much money she spends on my present for my birthday. She said $100. When I’m 19, I’ll be moving out. So if I put all that money, $900, then I have to think about Christmas. It’s also $100. Nine-hundred dollars plus $900 is 1800,” he said.
Then came the proposal: “So then the price of Morris for two years is $24,000 currently. If… instead of getting presents from you, I just get the money for college, then I’ll be 9% of the way there!”
When Neil’s mother asks if he’s sure that he would like money for college over presents, the boy’s answer is simple and definitive. “I. Care. About. My. Future.” Wow. It’s hard to tell which is more impressive—this kid’s analytical prowess or his resolve. Plus, good on Neil’s mom for mentioning investing at the end of the video. Judging by the way his face lights up when she utters the word, it’s clearly a passion that she’s paying attention to.
After the clip went viral on TikTok, even Morris College saw Neil’s financial plan, and ended up sending him a swag box to encourage to keep pursuing his dreams.
And while a small handful of folks shared concern over Neil sacrificing toys (and therefore an aspect of his childhood) in the name of steep college tuition prices, research has shown that it’s perfectly natural and healthy for kids as young as four or five to be able to formulate plans for their future.
In another video, Neil’s mom explained how at the ripe old age of three when he came up with the idea for a candy stand, with the ultimate goal of owning one on every continent—it’s a business Neil still has today. In fact, following his sudden internet fame, Neil’s family started an Indiegogo campaign to help cover startup costs for the business, including website development, business planning, and marketing.
Learning at least the basics of financial literacy—such as savings, controlling impulse buys, and finding creative ways to make money—can be one of the best ways to ensure a kid’s future. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to make this kind of learning fun for children nowadays, so one doesn’t have to be born with Neil’s shrewdness in order to succeed.
But financial prowess aside, it’s always cool to see it when kids are just so sure of themselves and where they want to be. And Neil is no exception.
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