If we looked 60 years into the past, there are a lot of things that were accepted as “normal” that today most people find abhorrent. For example, people used to smoke cigarettes everywhere. They’d light up in hospitals, schools and even churches.

People also used to litter like crazy. It’s socially unacceptable now, but if you lived in the ’70s and finished your meal at McDonald’s, you’d chuck your empty styrofoam container (remember those?) and soda cup right out of the window of your car and onto the street.

It’s hard to imagine that just 60 years ago spousal abuse was considered family business and wasn’t the concern of law enforcement.

It makes me wonder when people in the future look back on the year 2022, which things will they see as barbaric? Almost certainly, the way we treat the animals we use for food will be seen as cruel. The racial divides in the criminal justice system will be seen as a moral abomination. And I’m sure that people will also look at our continued reliance on fossil fuels as a major mistake.

A Reddit user by the name u/MEMELORD_JESUS asked the AskReddit subforum “What’s the weirdest thing society accepts as normal?” and the responses exposed a lot of today’s practices that are worth questioning.

A lot of the responses revolved around American work ethic and how we are taught to live to work and not to work to live. We seem to always be chasing some magical reward that’s just around the corner instead of enjoying our everyday lives. “I’ll get to that when I retire,” we say and then don’t have the energy or the inclination to do so when the time comes.

There are also a lot of people who think that our healthcare system will be looked at with utter confusion by people in the future.

Here are 17 of the best responses to the question, “What’s the weirdest thing society accepts as normal?”

1. Work-life balance

“Working until you’re old, greying, and broken then using whatever time you have left for all the things you wish you could have done when you were younger.” — Excited_Avocado_8492

2. Rest in comfort

“That dead people need pillows in caskets.” — Qfn4g02016

3. I.R.S. mystery

“Guessing how much you owe the IRS in taxes.” — SheWentThruMyPhone

4. You get the leaders you deserve

“Politicians blatantly lying to the people. We accept it so readily, it’s as though it’s supposed to be that way.” — BlackLetyterLies

5. The booze-drugs separation

“Alcohol is so normalized but drugs are not. It’s so weird. I say this as an alcohol loving Belgian, beer is half of our culture and I’m proud of it too but like… that’s fucking weird man.” — onions_cutting_ninja

6. Stage-parent syndrome

“People having kids and trying to live their lives again through them, vicariously, forcing the kids to do things that the parents never got to do, even when the kids show no inclination, and even have an active dislike, for those things.” — macaronsforeveryone

7. Priorities

“Living to work vs working to live.” — Food-at-last

8. ‘The Man’ is everywhere

“Being on camera or recorded any time you are in public.” — Existing-barely

9. Tragic positivity 

“‘Feel-good’ news stories about how a kid makes a lemonade stand or something to pay for her mom’s cancer treatment because no one can afford healthcare in America.” — GotaLuvit35

10. Credit score

“As a non-American, I am amazed at their credit score system. As a third-world citizen, credit cards are usually for rich (and slightly less rich) people who have more disposable money than the rest of us and could pay off their debt.

The way I see people on Reddit talk about it is strange and somewhat scary. Everyone should have a card of his own as soon as he becomes an adult, you should always buy things with it and pay back to actively build your score. You’re basically doomed if you don’t have a good score, and living your life peacefully without a card is not an option, and lastly, you’ll be seen as an idiot if you know nothing about it.” — BizarroCullen

11. The retirement trap

“Spending 5/7ths of your life waiting for 2/7ths of it to come. We hate like 70% of our life, how is that considered fine?” — Deltext3rity

12. Yes, yes and yes

“Child beauty pageants.” — throwa_way682

13. That’s not justice

“The rape of male prisoners. It’s almost considered a part of the sentence. People love to joke about it all the time.” — visicircle

14. Customers aren’t employers

“Tipping culture in the US. Everyone thinks that it’s totally OK for employers not to pay the employees, and the customers are expected to pay extra to pay the employees wages. I don’t understand it.” — Lysdexiic

15. Staring at your phone

“Having smartphones in our faces all day. This shit isn’t normal…imma do it anyway…but it is not normal.” — Off_Brand_Barbie_OBB

16. Homework on weekends

“Students being assigned homework over weekends and only having a two-day weekend. The whole point of a weekend is to take a break from life, and then you have one day to recover from sleep deprivation then one day to relax which you can’t because of thinking about the next day being Monday. And the two days still having work to do anyways.” — MrPers0n3O

17. Kids on social media

“Children/young teens posting on social media sites. I’m not necessarily talking about posting on a private Instagram followed by friends, I’m talking about when kids post on tiktok publicly without parental consent.” — thottxy

This article originally appeared on 03.11.22

Parents, do you think your child would be able to survive if they were transported back to the ’70s or ’80s? Could they live at a time before the digital revolution put a huge chunk of our lives online?

These days, everyone has a phone in their pocket, but before then, if you were in public and needed to call someone, you used a pay phone. Can you remember the last time you stuck 50 cents into one and grabbed the grubby handset?

According to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, roughly 100,000 pay phones remain in the U.S., down from 2 million in 1999.

Do you think a 10-year-old kid would have any idea how to use a payphone in 2022? Would they be able to use a Thomas Guide map to find out how to get somewhere? If they stepped into a time warp and wound up in 1975, could they throw a Led Zeppelin album on the record player at a party?

Another big difference between now and life in the ’70s and ’80s has been public attitudes toward smoking cigarettes. In 1965, 42.4% of Americans smoked and now, it’s just 12.5%. This sea change in public opinion about smoking means there are fewer places where smoking is deemed acceptable.

But in the early ’80s, you could smoke on a bus, on a plane, in a movie theater, in restaurants, in the classroom and even in hospitals. How would a child of today react if their third grade teacher lit up a heater in the middle of math class?

Dan Wuori, senior director of early learning at the Hunt Institute, tweeted that his high school had a smoking area “for the kids.” He then asked his followers to share “something you experienced as a kid that would blow your children’s minds.”

A lot of folks responded with stories of how ubiquitous smoking was when they were in school. While others explained that life was perilous for a kid, whether it was the school playground equipment or questionable car seats.

Here are a few responses that’ll show today’s kids just how crazy life used to be in the ’70s and ’80s.

First of all, let’s talk about smoking.

u201cMy high school had a smoking area. For the kids. Whatu2019s something you experienced as a kid that would blow your childrenu2019s minds?u201d

— Dan Wuori (@Dan Wuori)
1650809267

Mine too. Up until my senior year. Also, my biology teacher smoked in the classroom. We used to tell time by how many cigarettes she had in her ashtray.

— rbe (@perdidostschool) April 24, 2022

We made clay ashtrays as gifts for Mother’s Day…whether moms smoked or not!😂

— Mark (@coach_mark1) April 24, 2022

We had a smoking room IN our high school. We also had cadet training and a shooting range in the basement of the school. We had Latin as an option and could drop math in Grade 10! Also in the « good old days »: we could smoke in class at Carleton, at the movies and on airplanes.

— 🇨🇦Jacques Leger🇺🇸 (@jacquesleger17) April 24, 2022

I grew up in a rural area. It wasn’t unheard of for guys to have a shotgun in a gun rack in their trucks, parked at school. Could also carry large knives and openly chew tobacco in school. They don’t allow any of this now, which is good.

— High Plains Grifter (@Too_Grizzled) April 24, 2022

Want to call someone? Need to get picked up from baseball practice? You can’t text mom or dad, you’ll have to grab a quarter and use a pay phone.

My high school had pay phones.

— Mark Angres (@AngresMark) April 24, 2022

Using a pay phone that was outside the school gym to call my parents for a ride home from practice. But calling collect and saying “pick me up” and hanging up before getting charged. 😂

— Stacy Kratochvil 💟 (@StacyKratochvil) April 24, 2022

People had little regard for their kids’ safety or health.

I slept in the back window of the car when the family went on vacation!

— CJFuemmeler (@fuemmelercj) April 24, 2022

We stared Death in the eye every day. pic.twitter.com/zWHh5bvUym

— Ed Lettis 🌻 (@edbobgreen) April 24, 2022

Car seats that just hung over the front seat. Hang on, kid! pic.twitter.com/2DdCoXhqmf

— Bluenoser Forever (@long17_de) April 24, 2022

I have heard stories of country schools in the 50s (which are now urban schools) having boys swim naked in PE (that’s just how they did it in the country). Van Horn High School in Independence MO.

I use this example any time people lament the changes from the “good ole days”.

— Matt Parker (@DrMattParker) April 24, 2022

Also, in Driver’s Ed. We warched this film, “Blood on the Highways.” 45 minutes of unedited film of fatal highway accidents. This was mostly before mandatory seatbelts. 45 years later, I remember the rear view mirror that split a guy’s skull, imbedded in his brain.

— some call me Tim 🇺🇦 🌻 MAT Elem. Educ. (@realtimaier) April 24, 2022

Large fry as your entire meal in middle school. It was the most popular item too. Literally as it sounds. Just a large basket of French fries for lunch.

— Monique (@LivAnotherDay) April 24, 2022

Truck with gun racks/rifles in the HS parking lot.
(DFW too not a small town) pic.twitter.com/RnWiKQwKB7

— FortWorthPlayboy (@FWPlayboy) April 24, 2022

You could buy a soda in school.

Vending machine in the cafeteria to buy sodaaaaa 🥤

— Anna Sutter (@AnnaMSutter) April 24, 2022

Things were a lot different before the internet.

If you wanted to listen to a particular song, you had to call the radio station (and hope you got through) and ask them to play it for you.

— Sarah (@sarahbschaefer) April 25, 2022

Remember pen pals?

I wrote letters regularly to a penpal from a different country and then saved them all in a shoebox. Then in college I flew to “meet” her for the 1st time to participate in her wedding ❤️ But now we connect on FB 😂

— Ms.Teach (@MidwestTeach14) April 24, 2022

A lot of people bemoan the fact that the children of today aren’t as tough as they were a few decades back. But that’s probably because the parents of today are better attuned to their kids’ needs so they don’t have to cheat death to make it through the day.

But just imagine how easy parenting would be if all you had to do was throw your kids a bag of Doritos and a Coke for lunch and you never worried about strapping them into a car seat?

This article originally appeared on 06.08.22

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

In a video Lucero posted to TikTok, which now has over 12 million views, we hear Martin ushering her out to take a peek. Then we see Lucero’s face light up just before seeing the sky do the same.

“I thought it was a prank,” the onscreen text reads in the clip. “And then I see it….”

Watch:

@penslucero

I’m on the verge of crying every time I watch this video I still cannot believe it. 📍 Rörbäck, Sweden

“I was mostly in awe of what this Earth is capable of,” Lucero recalled. “I never expected it to be THAT beautiful for the naked eye.” This is a hopeful sentiment against the widely accepted notion that the northern lights are often better looking in photos than they are in real life.

As Lucero asserted in a follow-up video, “Our video doesn’t do it justice at all…I would argue it’s even better for the naked eye.”

@penslucero Replying to @PatriotFamilyHomes ♬ Golden Hour: Piano Version – Andy Morris

Others were quick to back Lucero with anecdotes of their own experience.

“It’s definitely possible to see it like in the pics. I saw it this winter in Norway, there was bright green, purple and so much movement.”

“They’re so much better in person, the way they dance and move around is insane and beautiful.”

Of course, if you ask Martin, who everyone agreed was the best host ever, seeing guest reactions of pure wonder and joy is even “better than the lights themselves.” But still, he can’t deny that there’s a breathtaking magic to it all. He shared with Upworthy that “Sometimes it feels like it will pull you up in the sky like you are in the middle of it. I wish everyone would have the chance to witness it.”

When it comes to tips for actually seeing the northern lights, Martin admits it still mostly comes down to being in the right place at the right time. Luckily, his Airbnb listing can help with that.

Nature has a great way of reminding us that beyond the distractions and distresses of modern life, there is sublime beauty waiting for the chance to capture our hearts.

This article originally appeared on 03.27.23

With the cost of living skyrocketing, people are looking for clever ways to make an additional buck. The good news is there are many ways to make extra money, whether driving for Lyft, freelancing on Fiverr, babysitting through Care.com, running errands with Task Rabbit or renting your pool out with Swimply.

Joe Gorham, 54, of Brighton, England, told The Mirror that renting out the three parking spaces in front of his home was a low-key way to rake in some passive income with little effort.

He said that renting out the spaces brings in an additional £8,000 ($10,000) annually. The money comes in extra handy because he is a full-time caregiver for his partner.

Joe came up with the idea after paying around £200 ($250) per week to park his car in Southampton when he and his partner went out on cruises. His friend told him about an app called YourParkingSpace, which saved him money when he was out at sea. So, he figured, why not rent out the spaces in front of his house?

‘I make an extra £8,000 each year by renting out my driveway – how you can too’https://t.co/iEzyETM8i0 pic.twitter.com/rV8G5hC3y8

— Mirror Money Saving (@MirrorMoney) June 9, 2023

“I started doing it because we had the spaces spare, and we also had some issues with the house that needed to be sorted, we had to get a new roof because of a leak, and we also had to get the windows and the garage doors sorted, too,” he told The Mirror.

“It was initially for this but with all the price hikes going on, it’s really helped us keep going,” he added.

One reason why Gorham has been so successful is that he lives in an area where parking is prohibitively expensive for tourists and people who work at the local hospital. He lives near the Brighton Seafront, a popular tourist destination known for its pier, railway, aquarium and fishing.

But he doesn’t do it just for the money; he posts his spots because he believes it’s good for the local community and prevents people from being ripped off.

“I don’t do it specifically for an income–I do it because I think that the council in Brighton just charges so much money for parking, and it doesn’t encourage people to come and spend in the city,” he said according to MSN.

“If you parked on Brighton Seafront, you are only allowed to park for 11 hours, and that will cost you £33 ($42); if you go to the NCP car park it will cost you £48 ($60) for the day,” he said.

Gorham charges people an affordable £12.50 to park in a spot for the day ($15.75), and they can also use the car charger that cost him £350. He says the number of people using his charger is rising as more people adopt electric vehicles.

Renting out your parking space could bring in some easy extra money, especially if you live near a tourist destination, hospital, university or sports stadium. Also, those who live in heavily populated areas with fewer parking spaces or stringent parking restrictions can also make some good money, too.

In the UK, Gorham uses the YourParkingSpace app to rent out his space, for those of you who live in the United States, Spacer, Pavemint, and ParkStash offer similar services.

Lil Wayne ranked some of the top basketball players of all-time during his appearance on Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s All The Smoke podcast.

His choice was between LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan, to which he responded, “Bron, Mike and Kobe.”

From there, he went on to explain his decision behind the ranking.

“Bron, I don’t know Bron personally so my answer for Bron would be from afar,” Lil Wayne said, noting that he appreciated his stats. “My answer for Bron is on the court. Bron, you gotta remember, I know for a fact I loved Jordan for the way he always won. As a kid, you don’t know too much about the ins and outs of the game.

“I got old enough to know how hard it is to f*cking do it back-to-back-to-back,” he added, according to HipHopDX. “So that’s where he got his respect with me to and started getting his respect with me to where he’s the greatest.”

He continued to point out that he respected LeBron’s swap between three different teams over the championships.

“That’s right there, that’s when regardless he ain’t got six, but he done it with three different teams,” Wayne noted. “And not on one of those m*thaf*ckin’ teams did he play role two. That right there is what tipped him over the Jordan scale for me.”

Check out Lil Wayne’s basketball chat above.

Cardi B and Offset’s son, Wave, is already set for life — as the rapper’s husband showed him off in a new video. The toddler was complete with diamond earrings and had some fun toys, aka lots of cash, to hold and play around with.

“Bad Boy Wave,” Offset captioned.

On another photo in the slide, a ton of $100 bills are scattered around the floor as Wave looks around at them. By the end, he was tired and hilariously getting ready for bath time.

The two musicians had Wave back in 2021 as their second child together, a few years after the birth of their daughter, Kulture Kiari, in 2018.

Offset has also spoken often about treating their kids to the finer things in life. “At the end of the day, we went through life and we didn’t have the opportunities,” he shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last September. “I bet if my mama had the chance, she would have went all out and did what she wanted to do for me.”

“So I’m just lending it to my kids. Just letting them see they can have another life too, you know? We work hard to do that,” he added.

Check out Cardi B and Offset’s son, Wave, playing with cash above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

“Invisible work,” aka “invisible labor,” was a term coined in 1987 by socialist Arlene Kaplan Daniels to describe unseen, unacknowledged and unpaid work most often performed by women—though in an academic sense, it pertains to all marginalized groups.

The unpaid aspect, Daniels noted, has been a particularly important factor, since in Western society we have come to believe that it isn’t work unless there’s monetary pay involved. This philosophy has a two fold effect. One, even things that are enjoyable and easy are considered work if you receive an income from them. And two, domestic duties like childcare and house cleaning, no matter how arduous they are, are not recognized as work simply because they don’t result in a paycheck.

It’s easy to see how this widely accepted concept falls short of reality, especially for women performing said domestic duties with little to no recompense. What’s more, many women now have to balance out these tasks, which require time and effort, with a “real” job just to make ends meet.

That’s why more and more women are making their invisible labor impossible to ignore, be it in lighthearted or more serious ways.

Lindsay Donnelly (@lindsaydonnelly2), chose the former approach. In a video clip posted to her TikTok, Donnelly shared how her husband made a comment that she “did nothing around the house.”

Donnelly’s response? Why, to actually do nothing, of course. For two days, she picked up nary a dish or garment…all before leaving on a girls’ trip.

The results speak for themselves:

@lindsaydonnelly2 Then I left town for a girls trip… #marriagehumor ♬ Karma (feat. Ice Spice) – Taylor Swift

Donnelly’s video ended up going viral with 14.5 million views. And comments generally fell into one of two categories—either “Yes, queen!” or “Get a divorce,” more or less. No matter the reaction, women across the board could relate in one way or another to Donnelly’s experience.

Donnelly later posted a follow-up video with her husband, giving him an opportunity to “redeem” himself with an apology. The tone is clearly playful, as Donnelly can’t stop giggling, and ends with her saying it was a “poo poo butt move” (there was a kid present after all) and that he is still a good husband.

@lindsaydonnelly2 Replying to @kris ♬ original sound – Lindsay D

Viewers weren’t convinced that the situation was benign, however, and some even viewed Donnelly’s laughter as a nervous reaction. Because the truth is, where Donnelly’s interaction with her husband might just be a slice of marriage humor, for many, it’s a stark reality. So many women are fed up with household labor not being equal that even the most trivial of examples can be triggering.

Donnelly even went so far as to post another follow-up video listing all the things that her husband did do around the house, like cooking all her vegetarian meals “just the way I like them,” cleaning more on a daily basis, paying the bills, etc. That, however, was mostly perceived as her partner doing the “bare minimum” and Donnelly performing “damage control.”

@lindsaydonnelly2

guys im screwed…

♬ This Is a Work of Art (Sketchy)

We only get minute snippets of people’s lives through social media, so it’s impossible to truly quantify the actual health of Donnelly’s relationship—plus, there are professionals for that sort of thing. But one thing is clear: just because domestic chores aren’t considered labor in the eyes of society, their importance becomes evident once they disappear. People are ready for their efforts to be compensated. If not with monetary gain, with basic respect.

Fast food and healthy meals go together like mayo and Root Beer, which is to say, they don’t go together at all. It’s no secret that fast food isn’t healthy, there are certainly relatively healthy dishes to be had, but fast food does big decadent bacon cheeseburgers a lot better than it does good, well-rounded sensible meals. But that doesn’t mean healthy meals don’t exist in the fast food space and sometimes, whether you’re eating fast food every day and need a change up or you just didn’t have time to meal prep at home, you’re going to want to opt for a salad over curly fries and mozzarella sticks.

This is why, just as we did with fast food’s unhealthiest meals, we’re exploring five super popular and healthy menu options, offering our tasting notes, and ranking them to see which is the one most worth your time and money. We’ll list the calories, fat, sodium, protein, and carb content of each meal so you don’t have to go digging yourself but keep this in mind: fast food has a ton of sodium.

So don’t read too deeply into the word “healthy” here. Think of it more as “healthy for fast food.” Okay, let’s dive in, starting with our least favorite of the five dishes.

• We Blind Tested Bacon Double Cheeseburgers In Search Of The Most Decadent & Delicious
• We Tasted Breakfast Sandwiches Blind To Find The Very Best Fast Food Day-Starter
• We Blind Tested Fast Food French Fries — Here’s The Stone Cold Champ
• We Blind Taste Tested Fast Food Chicken Nuggets — And The Crown Goes To…
• We Blind Tested Fast Food Chocolate Milkshakes — Here’s The Undisputed Champ

5. Starbucks — Spinach Feta and Egg White Wrap

Calories: 290 Calories

Fat: 8 grams

Sodium: 840 mg

Carbs: 34 g

Protein: 19g

Vegetarian and remarkably low in calories — what’s not to love right? Look, I won’t question the popularity of Starbucks. The fact that these drive-thru coffee shops dot the landscape more frequently than McDonald’s speaks to the brand’s super wide appeal, but as someone who loves both good coffee and good food I got to say — Starbucks isn’t particularly good at doing either. But the food is especially bad.

The Starbucks Spinach Feta and Egg White Wrap has a spot on many a “healthiest fast food” article on the internet. So it wouldn’t be right not to include this dish… even though I think it’s borderline inedible.

What you get here is egg whites mixed with spinach, feta cheese, and sun-dried tomato cream cheese inside a whole wheat wrap. The spinach stains the palate in the worst way and the combination of egg and feta cheese is somehow simultaneously bland and too salty. Overall, the dominant flavors of this dish are “dirty” and salt. The only saving grace of this wrap is the sundried tomato cream cheese, which introduces a bright and tangy infusion of umami in an otherwise boring dish.

Also, feta, cream cheese, egg whites, and a side of coffee? You’re just asking for stomach trouble there.

The Bottom Line:

Just don’t order it. It tastes like salty dirt and it won’t satisfy you. It’s an eat-to-live sort of sandwich, assuming you’re alone on an island with no hunting tools and all you can eat is this one sandwich. Just order the Turkey, Provolone & Pesto on Ciabatta instead. Sure, it’s nearly double the calories and fat content but at least it’s edible.

Find your nearest Starbucks here.

4. Wendy’s — Apple Pecan Salad

Calories: 450 + 90 (Dressing)

Fat: 25g + 3g (Dressing)

Sodium: 1230mg (Fried Chicken) + 190mg (Dressing)

Carbs: 28g

Protein: 32g

In the fast food space, Wendy’s is the king of salads. Of course that isn’t saying much considering our most recent fast food salad roundup revealed that a lot of fast food spots have dropped salads entirely from their menu. But even pre-covid when everyone from McDonald’s to Burger King had a bunch of salads to choose from, Wendy’s always had some of the most inventive options out there.

The Apple Pecan Salad features a mix of sweet red and sour green apple bites, pecans, cranberries, blue cheese crumbles, and your choice of Wendy’s spicy, homestyle, or grilled chicken over a bed of mixed greens. Being able to choose spicy fried chicken as a topping helps to make this salad one of the more delicious salad experiences out there, but that also knocks up the calorie count significantly. For less sodium, fat, and calories, you’re going to have to choose the grilled option.

The grilled chicken is fine, it’s a bit dry, but that’s remedied by the delicious pomegranate vinaigrette dressing, which adds some sweet and tart notes to the whole dish, complimenting the mix of fruity notes, nuts, and salty feta cheese. The weakest part of this salad is unfortunately the lettuce, which is a mix of basic greens and romaine lettuce. The lettuce serves as texture only, it doesn’t have much flavor, but that’s fine considering how much of the work is done by the toppings.

The bottom Line:

A delicious and relatively healthy fast food salad. But watch that sodium, this dish has more than you’d expect, so if that’s a particular concern for your diet, definitely opt for the grilled chicken and maybe consider using half the dressing.

Find your nearest Wendy’s here.

3. Chick-fil-A — Grilled Chicken Sandwich

Calories: 390 Calories

Fat: 12 g

Sodium: 770mg

Carbs: 44g

Protein: 28g

I know it’s hard to imagine a grilled chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A, a chain so famous for fried chicken sandwiches that it likes to claim they invented them, but trust me when I say so many people are sleeping on this grilled chicken sandwich. It’s not just surprisingly good for a healthy food option, it’s a delicious chicken sandwich full stop. Perfectly capable of competing against its fried counterparts.

The chicken here is remarkably marinated, with a delicious lemon and black pepper flavor, the slightest hint of grill-charred notes, and a juicy and tender texture that makes it perfectly edible without the need for sauce. The sandwich is served atop green lettuce with a couple of juicy ripened tomatoes, which gives it a sort of salad vibe. It’s served atop a toasted multigrain bun, which adds an infusion of subtle sweetness to the whole dish.

The Bottom Line:

It’s easy to forget that Chick-fil-A even has grilled chicken sandwiches, but they’re so good that sometimes you might even find yourself ordering this over its fried counterpart whether or not you’re concerned about how many calories you’re consuming.

Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.

2. Panera — Napa Almond Chicken Salad on Country Rustic Sourdough

Calories: 640

Fat: 25g

Sodium: 970mg

Carbs: 78g

Protein: 27g

As much as I like the simplicity of Chick-fil-A’s grilled chicken sandwich, more is more, and Panera’s Napa Almond Chicken Salad on Country Rustic Sourdough just has more flavor! The sandwich is a mix of thin chicken slices, diced celery, red grapes, toasted almonds, sweet honey and vinegar-based sauce, tomatoes, emerald greens, and salt and pepper on chewy, tangy sourdough.

The chicken is admittedly not as great as what Chick-fil-A serves, but the rest of the flavors bring a lot to the table. The greens are a slightly bitter base which counterbalance the soft nutty tones of the almonds, the pepper brightness of the celery, and the occasional burst of sour sweetness brought on by the sliced red grapes. The sauce is a mix of honey and cider vinegar with a slight mustardy tang and the tomatoes add that umami savoriness to the whole thing.

For 90 calories more, you can add avocado to this sandwich which brings a nice buttery rounded character into the mix and makes the sandwich all the more satisfying.

The Bottom Line:

Delicious as is, but I’d strongly suggest adding that avocado. If 90 calories and more fat are too much to add to your meal (it’s a healthy fat!) consider ditching that middle piece of bread.

Find your nearest Panera here.

1. Chipotle — Burrito Bowl (Our Best Tasting Build Modified)

Calories: 690

Fat: 21g

Sodium: NA

Carbs: 78g

Protein: 44g

A while back we went on a quest to make the best-tasting Chipotle Burrito Bowl build possible and our end result ended up being three different bowls: ‘best tasting,’ ‘best-tasting keto,’ and the decadent ‘anything goes’ bowl. This is a modified take on our ‘best tasting’ bowl which drops the guacamole and sour cream for better stats, here is the build: Barbacoa, pinto beans, white rice, extra fajitas, tomatillo red salsa, roasted chili corn salsa, cheese and lettuce, and a sprinkle of jalapeño tabasco.

The end result is an incredibly savory and flavorful salad with smokey, earthy, and spicy notes, and a hint of sweetness. The barbacoa brings clove and oregano notes into the mix which pair nicely with the cumin-heavy pinto beans which combine to soak into the bed of rice, adding a meaty finish to the whole dish. It’s also incredibly aromatic thanks to the extra fajitas. It’s so good you’ll be blown away that the meal clocks in at well under 100 calories.

There are some modifications you can do to make it even more healthy, drop the rice and you’re looking at 480 calories, 17 grams of fat, 40 grams of protein, and 38 grams of carbs, which will leave room to add guacamole back into the recipe.

For an even healthier take on the recipe, be sure to check out our keto bowl build, which clocks in at 735 calories, with 44 grams of fat, 73 grams of protein, and just 16 grams of carbs.

The Bottom Line:

Chipotle makes it incredibly easy to eat healthy without having to sacrifice big and enjoyable flavors, and our custom burrito bowl proves it. Chipotle also has an interactive nutrition calculator so you can test out your own builds to fit into whatever your particular dietary restrictions or goals are. More fast food places should do this!

Find your nearest Chipotle here.

The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from City Girls, Drake, and more.

There was so much new music this week, even if not much of it came from bigger names in the hip-hop world. While it’s hard to ignore anytime Drake drops something, even when it’s just a feature as it was with UK rapper J Hus (“Who Told You“), that didn’t prevent other rappers from getting in on the summertime fun. City Girls dropped the LL Cool J-sampling “I Need A Thug,” while Tyga and YG prepared fans for a “West Coast Weekend” with Blxst. Meanwhile, the remainder of the week’s releases came from underground talents and rising stars who definitely deserve your attention as the weather finally warms up in LA, the skies finally clear in NY, and summer seems to have officially arrived.

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending June 9, 2023.

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

Babytron — 6

First up, we have Detroit’s punchline pundit, Babytron, who I would normally say is rapidly becoming one of the more prolific personalities out of his city — except that he already has been. It’s hard to keep up. Still, it’s worth the effort, especially if you’re a fan of hilariously over-the-top gag lines, easy-to-invest-in beats, and the sort of personality that lets Babytron litter his projects with samples from Family Guy, DC Comics-referencing song titles, and more NBA name drops than an episode of SportsCenter.

Doe Boy — Beezy

Doe Boy’s an automatic listen for fans of straight-up street rap and his latest release meets the standard he’s set with his last few releases, 56 Birdz, Oh Really, and Demons R Us. If anything, his wordplay is climbing in proficiency and his beat selection is getting more knowing — the album opens with “Rhude Boy,” which not only samples Shyne, but vows to protect Future the same way Shyne did Diddy (hopefully, with better results though). Another standout? “Dumb,” on which he goes back-and-forth with Lola Brooke.

Kenny Mason — 6

Look. I don’t know what it says that there are two rappers with the same album title today. Maybe the kids just value efficiency. But don’t let the laziness fool you into missing out. This is Kenny’s most straightforward-sounding rap release yet (although it still delves into grunge on “Side II Side”) and although it’s short, that just makes it worth the replay. Project Pat shows up and it’s a chef’s kiss of a cameo.

Rob49 — 4 God II

Rob49 is a name I’ve been seeing a lot of lately, and I fully expect the New Orleans rapper to blow up sooner rather than later, provided he stays out trouble (what with street rappers living their raps so much lately). What he does isn’t really my bag (think piano-banging, opp-stopping artists like Pooh Shiesty and you’re on the right track) but he comes highly recommended by my colleague Cherise, and she’s generally right about these things.

Sexxy Red — Hood Hottest Princess

A few months ago, I asserted that Sexxy Red was perfectly positioned to become rap’s new it-girl. Folks around the Slack office were skeptical, as were followers on Twitter. One day, you people are going to figure out that I’m pretty good at this. The raunchy “Pound Town” has all the hallmarks of a gimmick track, yes, but Sexxy Red also bears a ton of the markers of a savvy star who is far more perceptive and planning than she lets on. With a co-sign from Nicki Minaj and a knowingly filthy sense of humor, Red’s well on her way to proving me right. Again.

Vic Mensa — ’93 To ’23: Victor

Less of a brand-new project and more of a “greatest hits” of sorts, ’93 To ’23: Victor is a compilation of a bunch of the Chicago rapper’s fan-favorite material spanning most of his solo releases from the past six years, from There’s A Lot Going On to The Autobiography to V Tape and his more recent singles from earlier this year. It’s a great primer for an artist who probably deserves better than he’s received over the years (fairly or not), and sets up an interesting look at an unpredictable future.

Singles/Videos

Babyface Ray — “All Star Team”

The Detroit sound is proving to be incredibly versatile and malleable. “All Star Team” is a perfect example; half jock jam, half easy listening summer cruiser, it’s a short, sweet jab to of what Babyface Ray has been doing best lately. Ray’s laid-back flow is deceptive as he sneaks in a few rewind-worthy bars, while the beat makes you wish the song was a little bit longer so you can make (ahem) the most of it.

Boldy James x Chan Hays — “I Tried”

Just months removed from a near-fatal road accident, Boldy James’ relentless work ethic churned out the Detroit rapper’s third release of the year to date, the joint EP Prisoner Of Circumstance with producer Chan Hays. Where much of Detroit’s bubbling underground scene has centered around stretching the limits of the city’s homebred techno sound, Boldy sticks to a more traditionalist formula — to great effect.

Central Cee & Dave — “Sprinter”

The only bad part about Split Decision, the joint EP from which “Sprinter” originates, is that it’s an EP — meaning it’s too damn short. You mean to tell me two of UK rap’s most exciting young talents got together to produce a joint project and all we got was four tracks? [Extremely bad Top Boy accent]You takin’ a piss, bruv? Nah, brudda, that’s long. Mandem need to go back to the studio, lock in, and don’t come out ’til we get a full-length. Still… as far as samplers go, Split Decision ain’t half bad.

City Girls — “Piñata”

Despite already dropping another (mostly superior) single this week, JT and Yung Miami aren’t exactly going to be deterred from going hard. Considering their dominant introduction to the biz came with a flurry of activity ahead of JT’s prison sentence for credit card scamming, it makes sense they’d adopt the strategy for their long-awaited comeback as well. “Piñata” is a lot of fun, even if “I Need A Thug” is the catchier effort.

Fat Trel — “Kill”

The DC rapper has suffered a few legal setbacks, but he back out and hitting the ground running with his new, moody single. He actually references his legal troubles, warning others not to follow his example, while threatening to go back to his old ways.

Femdot. — “2003”

Chi-Town’s Femdot. is an associate of Pivot Gang and Savemoney, so if that’s your bag, you’ll likely enjoy his new EP, Free Samples, Vol. 1. At seven tracks, it’s a worthy introduction for newcomers and a tasty collation for longtime followers to hold them over until he drops a full course.

Skilla Baby — “B’Cuz” Feat. G Herbo

Another Cherise selection, Skilla Baby’s off-kilter flow is fascinating to me, especially as he pairs up with a collaborator known for putting a lot of swing into his delivery. Skilla Baby is yet another Detroit product (was there a meeting this week, or what?) who’s poised for a big breakout this year among fans of hardcore, guns-and-butter rap, and even if this isn’t my taste, I can still appreciate why he’s been getting so much attention lately.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

K-pop girl group TWICE were caught off-guard by barking at their first-ever stadium tour in the US, last May at the Banc of California Stadium. It wasn’t dogs, but rather their fans.

Collectively known as ONCE, the audience was showing support for the hitmaking women with bark-like chants, which some of the members ultimately joined in a back-and-forth interaction.

While it was new to TWICE last year, in 2023, barking at K-pop concerts in the US is just part of the experience.

Spring and summer 2023 are full of K-pop world tours hitting up American venues, including the return of TWICE to even more stadiums, kicking off the US leg of their fifth world tour on June 10 at SoFi Stadium. And they’re going to be accompanied by that Arsenio Hall-style barking from the crowds.

The barking starts steadily, and then grows among concertgoers, spreading across quadrants of fans until the “hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” resonates through the venue.

If it’s the first night of a concert tour in the US, it’ll probably lead to some confusion, awe, amusement, or excitement, depending on the celebrity, since it’s not an experience K-pop stars meet in any other touring spots.

“Did you guys get trained or something?” asked Suga of BTS during his Agust D solo tour during a night in New York’s UBS Arena at the end of April, and later addressed the experience during a livestream.

“My style,” declared Moonbyul of Mamamoo during a show a few weeks later at the same venue, leading the crowd in the barking.

While K-pop fans have long been known for their unique fan-chants – timing phrases like stars’ names or lyrics between performed verses – barking at K-pop concerts is a relatively new phenomenon among Stateside K-pop fans attending shows.

If you ask around, nobody seems to know why or how barking became a K-pop thing. Some people will say it’s merely natural, an outgrowth of what audiences will do at sports games or hip-hop concerts, a throwback to the ‘90s as nostalgia reigns. Or maybe it’s related to the way barking sometimes appears during gamers’ live streams, a show of support or aggression. Or maybe it’s simply a replacement for fan-chants, which fans must prepare in advance and sometimes fall flat.

Even its origin as a localized K-pop behavior is unclear: Some concertgoers think that it took place for the first time at those TWICE shows in 2022, where member Dahyun thought they were chanting her nickname Dubu, the Korean word for tofu.

“I’ve barked at multiple K-pop concerts, but the first was a TWICE concert,” girl group aficionado Jonny Schneeweiss recalls. “It started as a ‘dubu’ chant for Dahyun, but turned into barking. My assumption was that some people didn’t know ‘dubu’ was her nickname and what we were chanting, or knew the nickname but misheard, and it quickly turned to just standard barking. Once it became that, since it was fun to do, people did it at other concerts. I believe when we did it at Itzy’s Sugarland, Texas concert, the members themselves even mentioned that only American audiences did it.”

But others believe it appeared first during Tomorrow X Together (aka TXT)’s first US showcase tour in 2019, when fans barked along to their song “Cat & Dog.” Others will say no, that barking performed by TXT’s fans, known collectively as MOA, is more of a woof than the more aggressive barking we hear at other shows, and only during that specific song, rather than throughout shows as we now see, continuing throughout the entire concert.

Danielle Henson is an American fan who taught for two years in Seoul, South Korea, where she saw TXT perform on their 2022 Act: Lovesick tour. “During those days leading up to the show, I remember my fellow American friends being excited about the prospect of being able to bark at the show if they played “Cat & Dog”. My non-American friends weren’t too keen on it and apparently, the K-MOAs had no idea that this American canine phenomenon was even a thing. Needless to say, TXT didn’t perform the song at the shows in Seoul, so the barking never happened.”

Henson got to see TXT when they were back in the US during their 2023 tour. “Now, fast forward to this past weekend — it felt like we were in a Humane Society between every song,” she says. “TXT seemed to play into it, but I feel like they have a pretty good excuse to since their song is literally called “Cat & Dog” and features barking. However, during other parts of the show, the barking continued and I was perplexed. I’d never experienced it before because it’s definitely not a thing in Korean concert etiquette.”

Others point to SuperM’s debut showcase at Capitol Records, also in 2019, where the crowd and members of the group alike were heard doing the hoo-hoo-hoo of the barking that’s now become ubiquitous at K-pop shows in the US.

“To be honest, I don’t know who started it,” recalls Jenny P, a fan who attended and has a history of attending K-pop shows in the US since 2016. “I thought maybe it was one of the boys on stage who started it because it was definitely one or two people, who to my ears sounded male – but there were also quite a few men in the audience. I saw a mention on Twitter that it started in the crowd. But I don’t know where or who. To my ears it had a very timid start with one or two people, it fell flat, and then everyone decided to revive it and it got really loud. It was done to fill a dead space while the boys were getting into position before the VCR played. Which is why I thought they were doing some kind of huddle thing that wasn’t intended to be imitated by the crowd. But my guess was probably entirely wrong.

Bianca J. also attended, and has since heard the barking at other concerts.

“It definitely started a murmur after the first round of barking of people’s differing opinions,” she tells UPROXX. “I personally found it really funny and kind of fun to participate in. I will say that the cheers are less formal ‘barking’ and more of an in-between barking and whooping.”

While many enjoy the bark-chants, as they continue, some K-pop fans tell UPROXX they aren’t so sure about it, especially when some K-pop stars have expressed discomfort, especially at instances when the barking isn’t equivalent across the members of a group, turning what at some events is a forthright cheer into a potential catcall.

Opinions are mixed, with fans telling UPROXX that they see both the pros – fun, engaging – and the cons – potentially rude, awkward. A long-time fan of many K-pop acts, Chase, Stream Elements’s PR director who only uses his first name, began attending K-pop shows in the US in 2018, and isn’t into the recent uptick of barking.

“I am not a fan of the barking at shows,” he says. “I attended an ITZY concert and it felt like a very bro/frat party atmosphere. If you wouldn’t do it on the street, then don’t do it at a show. The group seemed to play off it, but it’s difficult to know what a group likes in an industry that is all about pleasing the fans.”

Bianca J., who attended that SuperM showcase, says it is a mixed bag. “In context, I actually really enjoy it. We’re so used to screaming and yelling at concerts that collectively being able to join in on this type of chanting feels less expected, so more exciting. Similar to when everyone in the audience is able to participate in fan chants, and are comfortable doing so, it makes it more of a united feeling in the audience. It’s less about the individual and their biases (people they like in the group) but more of a focus on the experience as a whole. I can definitely see how it could be embarrassing though if someone thought they were actually barking – so I can’t fault those who are embarrassed by those actions.”

For now, the barking is continuing in good fun for most concertgoers, and has the potential to become a K-pop mainstay in the US.

“I think despite it being fun to do, there is still a little bit of awkwardness around it because no one really knows why they’re doing it,” thinks Schneeweiss, who attended TWICE and Itzy’s shows. “But if you and the artists can get past the awkwardness, K-pop barking does capture the different vibe and spirit of international fans. We’re loud, we’re rowdy, we’re full of energy — and we want our favorite idols to feel all that from us when they’re on stage.”