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According to an October 2023 Pew Research Center report, 61% of adults in the U.S. say that having close friends is an essential part of living a fulfilling life—a far higher percentage than those who say the same about being married (23%), having children (26%) or having a lot of money (24%). The research also found that having more friends is linked to being more satisfied with friendships in general. Approximately 81% of people with five or more close friends share they are “completely” or “very” satisfied with their friendships, while 65% of those with one to four close friends say the same.

But what does being satisfied with friendship even mean? What earns someone the label of “friend”? Or more importantly, what does it mean to be a good friend?

We asked our audience what makes someone a good friend, and the responses were interesting. Naturally, there were some common themes, but people also had some diverse ideas about what’s important in a friendship.

Some people shared short, sweet lists of traits that are essential in a friendship:

“Caring, loyal, kind and completely non-judgemental.” –Annika B.

“Trustworthy, loyal, supportive, flexible, patient, understanding. Caring.” – Jonathan S.

“Kind, helpful, supportive and honest.” – Marjorie M.

“Conversation and laughter. Kind and caring.” – Kathleen M.

“Unconditional love, laughter, and honesty.” – Molly H.

“When you are a better person with them than by yourself. And kindness ” – Gillian N.

“They know how to really listen without judging.” – Bernadette C.

Others offered a bit more detail:

“Being able to pick up where you left off even if some time has passed and it feels like no time has passed. Someone who will give you straight advice, but love you even if you don’t follow it.” – Melissa O.

“Someone you can talk honestly with, belly laugh with, but also just sit in silence with…knowing they just get you.” – Lori T.

“Someone non judgemental who loves you even when you’ve struggled to love yourself. Someone who loves you unconditionally despite your flaws.” – Sue H.

“Kind, supportive, dependable, wants to spend time together, someone you can laugh and cry with. There on your important days, and in your time of need. And you have to be all those things for them in return.” – Della D.

“They get you, allow you to be who you are, laugh with you, cry with you, no matter time or distance – you just pick up where you left off, they back you up – even when you’re not there to defend yourself.” – Zan M.

“Honesty, kindness, understanding, ability to disagree without anger, trust, willing to tell each other hard truth with love, forgiveness.” – Deborah H.

“They fill a need you have. There are many different kinds of friends. Childhood friends ,School friends, work friends, church friends etc…they all play a special role in your life.” – Elizabeth B.

And finally, some people offered specific details and personal anecdotes about their friendships:

“Sharing common interest and really caring about each other. listening is very important not just speaking to each other. My best friend of 60 years passed away a couple of years ago and I cannot tell you how much I miss her and her nonjudgmental friendship.” – Carole J.

“Someone who supports you publicly and tells you hard truths privately, who cheerleads your successes and empathises your lows, who trusts you and you them. Who loves you flaws and all – but all of this you reciprocate in being a good friend. Time flies together and even after months apart you pick up like it was yesterday. Who you want to tell your big news too and your bad news too first.” – Elsa P.

“Has great sense of humour, shared interests & values, compassionate, empathic, kind, doesn’t try to ‘fix’ me, doesn’t minimize my lived experiences as ‘not so bad,’ able to listen without judgment, and allows me to be there for them.” – Linda H.

“I don’t know, sometimes they just love you, even when you don’t want them too. You have to acknowledge them, they don’t ask for anything just want to be with you. I have a 30 yr friendship because she didn’t give up on me. I came to realize she was more forgiving and accepted me for just me. She’s not too kind, sometimes selfish but she’s there, when you get older you also accept and understand no one is perfect and if you get mad at everyone you might wind up without friends we start dying off or in old age homes. We are who we are, just love each other flaws and all. Annoying things find a way to keep friendship, not awful bad things. You guys know what I mean.” – Ney C.

“Someone who knows they can call you at 2 AM, and you can do the same. Someone you house and dog sit for, whose dogs come to greet you when they hear the garage door open and who happily sit on you. Someone that refused to let you pay for Lyft to get to chemotherapy appointments, but took you each time, checked on you afterwards, brought food knowing that you didn’t feel like cooking, visited to talk about all kinds of things, and just was there for you when you were feeling the considerable side effects of chemotherapy.” – Yaca A.

We all need people in our lives we can depend on, share our joys and sorrows with, and support in return. And if we have a hard time making friends, we can always rely on the wisdom of preschoolers to remind us of the basic building blocks of friendship.

On Wednesday evening, November 22, Pitchfork reported that Jimmy Iovine, co-founder of Interscope Records, is facing allegations of “sexual misconduct and abuse.” A summons was filed earlier in the day in Supreme Court of the State of New York County. The publication specified, “Only the summons has been filed; the lawsuit itself is forthcoming.” The woman filing is publicly identified as Jane Doe.

“Doe claims that she was ‘sexually abused, forcibly touched, and subjected to sexual harassment and retaliation’ in August 2007,” Pitchfork‘s Evan Minsker wrote. “The lawsuit against Iovine is for assault and battery, as well as violations of the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act and the New York City Human Right Law.”

Billboard additionally relayed that the filing attorneys on Doe’s behalf are Douglas Wigdor and Meredith Firetog of Wigdor Law. Because only a summons has been filed, “the full complaint is not yet available.” However, Billboard was able to confirm the following: “The case includes an accusation of ‘multiple instances’ of abuse along with a specific incident of sexual misconduct that occurred in New York in 2007. The woman is seeking economic and compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs.”

Iovine co-founded Interscope in 1990 and remained at the head of the label until his departure from Interscope Geffen A&M in May 2014 (as relayed by Billboard at the time). In 2006, Iovine and Dr. Dre co-founded Beats By Dr. Dre (more commonly known as Beats). They sold to Apple for a reported $3 billion in 2014 “and helped launch Apple Music,” as reported by The New York Times in December 2019.

Iovine retired from Apple in 2018. The 70-year-old was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame last November — receiving the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

The week around Thanksgiving is usually filled with stuff on the sports calendar. Wednesday, for example, features a metric ton of action in the worlds of the NBA and college basketball, while Thursday is traditionally viewed as the NFL’s day in the spotlight.

For now, though, there’s a ton of hoops happening, including some of the early season tournaments that are a staple of the college basketball calendar. The Bahamas are playing host to the annual Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, and on Wednesday, this meant that Michigan and Memphis squared off in a quarterfinal matchup. It’s a game that is going to end up being pretty notable because it included what might go down as the meanest things I’ve ever seen in my life on a basketball court , all thanks to Tigers guard Caleb Mills.

Mills brought the ball up the floor, where Michigan forward Olivier Nkamhoua was waiting for him. Mills decided to toy with him and got him off balance before he went between the legs and stepped back into a long two, all while Nkamhoua got crossed up and hit the deck. Poor Nkamhoua could only sit there and watch as Mills hit a jumper. But even if this shot didn’t go in, I feel like he should have been credited with two points, because this is nasty.

Hello, Thanksgiving! As always, Thanksgiving is not only a time for food and family, but also a time for NFL action. Three games are on the slate on Thursday and, for the first time ever, the NFL is also taking over Black Friday with a game in a national window. Of course, you are not legally required to bet on every single game (I know, I know), but we strive to bring value wherever it can be found. That often takes us to some ugly places, but Week 11 was profitable and, well, it would’ve been more profitable if not for the work of Cade Otton.

I digress but, before diving into the five picks for Week 12, let’s take a glance at the overall landscape.

• Week 11: 3-2
• 2023 Season: 29-23-3

Come get these winners.

Washington Commanders (+12.5) over Dallas Cowboys — Widely Available

Well, this is the only play we’re listing on Thanksgiving, and it may not be fun. However, the look-ahead number was 9.5 and it has ballooned all the way to 12.5 after Week 11’s results. I do understand why it happened, but that kind of move is unwarranted in my view. Washington is happy to sneak into the backdoor with a meaningless late score if needed, and this is just too many points.

TEASER: Cincinnati Bengals (+7.5) over Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns (+7.5) over Denver Broncos — FanDuel

I’m mortified by the inclusion of Jake Browning in a teaser, but bear with me. The Steelers haven’t won a game by more than seven points all season, and while Pittsburgh did (finally) move on from Matt Canada, that doesn’t fix everything in less than a week. It’s a division game with a total in the mid-3o’s for good measure. From there, Cleveland is facing a Denver team that is walking through the rain drops with insane turnover luck as of late. The Browns have the best unit in this game with their defense and, again, this is a line moving through key numbers with an extremely low total.

Indianapolis Colts (-2.5) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Widely Available

The Colts are coming off a bye, and the Bucs got banged around by the 49ers last week. Tampa Bay has also played six straight weeks, and the underlying metrics solidly favor Indy in this matchup. As noted above, we almost got home with the Bucs last week, but it’s time to fade in a tough spot for Tampa.

Buffalo Bills (+3.5) over Philadelphia Eagles — DraftKings

I’ve already seen this referred to as a “fishy” line in multiple places this week. After all, the Eagles are 9-1 and the Bills are 6-5, so how does this line make sense in Philadelphia? Well, the oddsmakers are seeing the same thing that I’m seeing in that Buffalo remains undervalued. Make no mistake, Philadelphia is quite good, but they’ve been quite fortunate in two or three of their victories. If you can nab the hook, take it.

TEASER: Los Angeles Rams (+7.5) over Arizona Cardinals AND Kansas City Chiefs (-2.5) over Las Vegas Raiders — FanDuel

We’ve had the Rams a few times of late, and I remain higher than the market on Los Angeles. Now, they are facing an Arizona team that I’m having trouble buying. Kansas City is the only favorite I like as a teaser leg this week, and despite a short week, the Chiefs should take care of business in the desert.

Pumpkin pie is one of those Thanksgiving dinner dishes that can get pretty divisive. The whole pumpkin spice craze of the last 20 years (yes folks, it’s been that long) hasn’t helped either. Pumpkin pie — at its core — is a celebration of a roasted gourd spiced up by fall/winter spices with a creamy and soft texture. Then there’s a pie crust with a nice crunch, savoriness, and butteriness to it, adding more flavor and texture.

Sounds good, right? It is… when it’s done right.

Sadly, it’s a very easy pie to screw up — especially when corners are cut for efficiency and cost. Case in point, prepared grocery store pies have massive swings in quality. Even in our blind taste test and ranking of grocery store pies, the winning pumpkin pie didn’t seem to be that great. Uproxx’s Dane Rivera had this to say about the current champ, “My only real knock against this pie is the crust. It’s a bit too soft and doesn’t serve as a big enough contrast to the silkiness of the filling.”

The gist is that when you’re not baking from scratch at home, you’re going to have to be okay with some shortcomings. Nothing Dane ranked seemed to leave him blissed out.

If you have time, we think you should take the hour to bake a pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving (oh, look — here’s a great recipe to do just that). But what if you don’t have time? Well, after Dane’s ranking, we got a whole lot of emails and comments about Costco’s colossal pumpkin pie. People wanted to know where it lands in the grand scheme of things. So I dutifully purchased Dane’s favorite grocery pumpkin pie from Trader Joe’s and pitted it in a side-by-side tasting with Costco’s truly huge pumpkin pie.

The results were striking — let’s dive right in.

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Part 1 — The Battle: Costco Vs. Trader Joe’s

2. Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pie

Price: $6.99 (27 oz.)

The Pie:

Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie has a brownish hue with a clear sense of spices in the filling (you can see the dark brown dots). The crust is fancy on the edges and very thick. I want to call this pie “small” but that’s only because it’s sitting next to a massive Costco one.

The pie also has a bold aroma of pumpkin spice. The moment you take it from the box, it hits you with a lot of pumpkin spices — kind of like a pumpkin spiced latte from Starbucks. I don’t think this is an accident.

Overall, you should be able to get six slices from this pie, which is a good size overall.

Tasting Notes:

Pie Filling: The filling really smells of pumpkin spice lattes. The texture is softer at first but then gets a little gummy on the third and fourth chew. The actual taste is pumpkin spice only. There’s no sense of pumpkin at all on the palate. By the end, the filling was like chewing pumpkin spice creamy gum.

Crust: Crust? What crust? I’m only half kidding. The crust was dense yet gummy and almost completely blank of flavor besides a whisper of salt. The crimped rim had a bit of a crunch to it but that’s me being very generous. The underlayer of crust was just gummy to the point of almost being annoying to chew.

Bottom Line:

If this is the best “grocery store pumpkin pie” … the others must have been complete dumpster fires. Poor Dane, what have me made him submit himself to! There’s no taste of pumpkin whatsoever.

1. Costco Pumpkin Pie

Price: $5.99 (58 oz.)

The Pie:

Fifty. Eight. Ounces. That means that you can easily get 12-16 servings from this pie. So right out of the gate, this pie wins major points for feeding a big crew or family.

Okay, let’s get into the pie. The color is a nice brownish orange — a burnt orange if you will. The crust isn’t overly fancy or crimped but it’s there.

The key is that when you pop the container open you get a nose full of roasted pumpkin that has been spiced. Like real, actual pumpkin.

Tasting Notes:

Pie Filling: The filling is moist and has a little give to it. It’s kind of halfway between a flan and crème brûlée in consistency thanks to a moment of airiness. The actual taste is roasted pumpkin forward with a nice layer of savory pumpkin that’s been spiced with nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon. There’s nothing as bold as clove or anise but there is a mild sharpness to the spice.

Plus, it feels real. I mean that in that it feels like real pumpkin and actual spices were used instead of a mix (or can).

Crust: The crust is thinner, which works here. There’s a nice butteriness to the crimped rim with a good pinch of salt countered by a moment of white sugar. The under crust is thin and kind of gets lost for the most part. It does provide a faint textural layer but not much. At the very least, it tastes like real pie crust with butter and salt and not just white flour.

Bottom Line:

Overall, this tastes like real-deal pumpkin pie. And that’s why Costco’s Pumpkin Pie runs away with this battle. There’s almost no comparison between the two.

Part 2 — Final Thoughts on the Pumpkin Pies

Okay, while I am dragging Trader Joe’s pie pretty hard, I do get it. It’s made for folks who want “pumpkin spice” pie. It’s a latte in a neutral pie crust. And I fully appreciate that it beat a whole mess of middling pies in the blind tasting. But there’s still little to no “pumpkin” in that equation. Then there’s the mouthfeel. The Trader Joe’s pie is gummy. The Costco pie is lush by comparison.

In the end, the Costco pie wins on every front and that’s before you even get to how much more you’re getting for one dollar less in price. I think it might be time for y’all to pull that trigger and get a Costco membership if you want to buy the best storebought pumpkin pie. Or, y’know, just bake your own and make this conversation moot in an instant.

ComplexCon rolled through Long Beach California this weekend to wrap up 2023’s year in streetwear in a nice stylish bow. Maybe “bow” isn’t the right word… in a nice stylish workwear-inspired balaclava maybe? Let’s go with that! This year was an interesting one for streetwear, as now that we’re three years deep into the decade it feels like the 20s have an identity of their own rather than still being indebted to the fading trends of the previous decade.

The two-day extravaganza saw over 150 different streetwear brands cram into the Long Beach Convention Center for a pop-up market of bespoke booths and large art exhibits, giving guests access to exclusive drops of limited products and hot collaborations. We were on the ground both days of the festival scoping out all the brands and booths to help filter down the best brands in attendance so that you don’t have to. We filtered it down to a tight ten.

Here are the ComplexCon 2023 brands you need on your radar right now.

ADW

Why We Love The Brand:

ADW comes from the mind of Adriana Williams, a Howard University alum who taught herself how to sew and specializes in handmade clothing accessories. The Kensington Philadelphia-based brand is beloved for its attention to craft and detail and currently makes t-shirts, hats, jewelry, home goods, and bags.

We love the brand’s minimalist aesthetic and clean designs.

Shop ADW here.

B.B. Simon

Why We Love The Brand:

If you’re looking to bling out your belt buckle with an eye-catching statement piece, make it B.B. Simon. Every belt from the brand is handcrafted and made to order with Austrian Crystals.

The brand counts Doja Cat, Ice Spice, Sexyy Red, and Jim Jones as fans.

Shop B.B. Simon here.

Belacartes

Why We Love The Brand:

Belacartes’ vibe is gritty and industrial, with a sort of punk rock and nu-metal aesthetic. While the brand leans on the edgy side there is still a playful almost cute vibe to some of their pieces. For every studded belt and pair of jorts, there is a vibrant leopard-print Ugg-inspired boot or pink hoodie to help balance out the look.

Shop Belacartes here.

Chris Pyrate

Why We Love The Brand:

The brainchild of the designer and artist of the same name, Chris Pyrate makes beautiful pieces full of psychedelic and flowery imagery. Pyrate’s current collection is very small, right now it consists of streetwear staples like pants, shirts, hoodies, and a reversible bubble jacket, but each design feels like a genuine piece of art worth cherishing.

At ComplexCon he introduced his first sneaker, a Nike SB-style shoe that features his psychedelic floral designs.

Shop Chris Pyrate here.

Diva In The USA

Why We Love The Brand:

Diva in the USA is an Atlanta-based brand founded by rapper and producer Reese LAFLARE. The brand mostly deals in skatewear basics and staples but has a bright and playful aesthetic that is incredibly infectious and easy to love.

That’s probably why the brand has attracted the attention of Young Thug, Metro Boomin, A$AP Ferg, Hit-Boy, and Sexxy Red, all artists known for their playful sense of style.

Shop Diva in the USA here.

Garmette

Founded by Mexican-Peruvian designer Elliette Saavedra, Garmette specializes in handmade garments inspired by Saavedra’s upbringing in a Hispanic household. The brand’s big piece is the elegant and beautiful V-Maxi dress, but the brand came through ComplexCon with several moto-inspired pieces

The brand counts Becky G and Jorja Smith as fans.

Shop Garmette here.

Hello Angel Girl

Why We Love The Brand:

Hello Angel Girl is a California-based brand that takes inspiration from Japanese fashion subcultures like Gyaru, which itself is influenced by American fashion circa-2000 and filtered through a Japanese lens. It’s a fashion aesthetic that has been translated, and then translated again! The main aesthetic is bright, colorful, playful, and super cute.

If your vibe is Hello Kitty, pink, and ultra kawaii, Hello Angel Girl is your brand.

Shop Hello Angel Girl here.

Homme + Femme

Why We Love The Brand:

Founded by Drew and Andrew Evans, Homme + Femme is an LA-based brand that specializes in elevated luxury streetwear. The brand oozes the ‘90s and early ’00s vibes filtered through an LA hip-hop lens.

The brand just recently dropped a moto-inspired collection that looks seriously dope, whether you’re into super elevated pieces like the premium leather “Classic Moto Jacket” or more casual styles like the “Moto Thermal Long Sleeve.”

Shop Homme + Femme here.

The Incorporated Clothing

Why We Love The Brand:

The Incorporated is a Seattle-born Los Angeles-based brand started by designer Mark McGinnis. The brand likes to combine vintage and high-fashion silhouettes with streetwear aesthetics, resulting in a loud but highly stylish look.

The brand’s main focus is menswear, but unisex pieces have shown up in music videos for various artists, hinting at what the brand might have in store as it continues to grow.

Shop The Incorporated Clothing here.

Knorts Knit Denim

Why We Love The Brand:

Knorts Knit Denim is a brand that does denim, but elevated. The premium pieces from Knorts are knitted not woven and made on looms in Los Angeles with indigo-dyed yarn. The main idea behind Knorts is to offer denim fashion that is as comfortable and laid-back as possible.

It’s denim filtered through a laid-back LA lens, and we’re here for it. So are Cardi B and Latto apparently!

Shop Knorts Knit Denim here.

Ice Spice has been crushing it with the brand collaborations lately by seizing opportunities that are perfectly suited to her. First, there was the Ice Spice Munchkins Drink from Dunkin; Her stage name alone already sounds like it could be on the Dunkin menu, and the opportunity to include the chain’s Munchkins donut holes in the drink was too spot-on to ignore (Ice’s fans are known as Munchkins).

Now, she has another hit, and this time, she’s capitalizing on her distinct hairstyle: In partnership with Chicago lifestyle brand Living Product, Ice Spice has released her own Chia Pet. It’s currently available to buy via Amazon and chia.com, and will also be on icespicemusic.com starting this Friday, November 24.

Chia’s product description reads:

“Calling all Munchkins! The Ice Spice Chia Pet® is here and ready to add some baddie energy to your home décor! The superstar rapper’s iconic style is on full display as a terra cotta home planter, complete with pink jacket and her signature diamond chain. Just spread the seeds, water, and watch her grow leafy green hair! The Ice Spice Chia Pet comes with one packet of Chia® seeds good for three plantings, a convenient plastic drip tray, and planting and care instructions for chart-topping growth within two weeks. The princess of rap is now the perfect gift for the hip hop or music fan in your life and can be washed and replanted indefinitely! “

The rapper said in a statement (as Complex notes), “Like my lyrics say, ‘I’m breakin’ records and I’m breakin’ news.’ I’m not sure who stole whose look, but I’m into it and am very excited about this fun partnership. Chia Pet is an iconic brand with a dope jingle — so we have that in common.”

JB Brode, the Owner/Founder of Living Product, also told Complex, “My manager Tara is such a beast. She connected us to help design merch for Ice Spice. Ideating around that led us to this lightbulb moment like, ‘Damn, an Ice Spice Chia Pet would be crazy.’ It started as just an idea for a graphic, but we knew that the idea deserved its own moment. We pitched it to Spice’s team, who graciously let us pursue the official collaboration with Chia, and many months and negotiations later, here we are. It’s been a very educational process for us and we are so happy to see it come to life. The commercial really brought it full circle for us. Our guys at Pio Mio Studios executed our vision perfectly and it tied everything together beautifully.”

There’s also a vintage-style, 30-second ad for the product, so check that out below.

“There are fifteen hundred McDonald’s in France, a good enough place to grab 10 grams of protein for a Euro.”

Says Michael Fassbender’s titular killer six minutes into David Fincher’s The Killer, on Netflix. The Killer is a good film, Fincher does a great job reinventing his style and Fassbender is, as always, great. And yet… I couldn’t get the image of Fassbender dressed as a German tourist scarfing down a weird Ham McMuffin hack out of my mind for the entire duration of the film.

It’s little details and quirks that make fictional characters seem alive and real. But this fast food menu hack — which consisted of two slices of ham with fried egg sandwiched between them — filled me with questions to the point of distraction.

Why did he ditch the bun? Why would he order a Ham McMuffin over the sausage? Did he order the second piece of ham on the side or did he order two McMuffins, and combine them, in which case, where the f*ck is the second egg? What is he doing with all the bread? Do assassins not have time for cheese?! I don’t think it was Fincher’s intention for me to focus on a McDonald’s sandwich hack for the entirety of his film but also… how could I not?

With this week feeling a tad slow, I rolled up to McDonald’s, ordered two Ham McMuffins without cheese (even the person taking my order thought I was weird), as well as two sausage McMuffins with cheese so I could put my own spin on the hack. Here is what I discovered.

The Killer Ham McMuffin Hack

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

At first, I thought this sandwich might’ve consisted of two eggs but after seeing the way it looked stacked, there is no way Fassbender is eating two eggs in the movie; with two eggs this thing looks massive. So I went the one-egg route. As soon as I took a bite out of this reassembled sandwich I realized the genius behind Fincher’s choice — this is some psycho-killer shit.

You have to be a bit deranged to eat this sandwich. It is disturbing on so many levels. The texture is awful, without the bun a hot spotlight is put onto the weird mouthfeel of the ham. It’s incredibly rubbery, and the combination of sweet, thick ham and dry fried egg is legitimately one of the worst single bites of food I’ve ever experienced in covering fast food.

Handling the sandwich is also really off-putting. The ham is fleshy, and instantly holding this sandwich makes you feel like you’re doing something wrong. Something that should be illegal. Maybe not as bad as murder but also…kinda close.

After two bites I was done, I couldn’t handle this sandwich anymore. Let’s move on to what I hoped would be a better version, the same build but with sausage and cheese.

A Much-Less Disturbing Version Of The Same Sandwich, With Sausage And Cheese

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

For this alteration on the hack, I essentially built the same sandwich but with sausage patties and cheese instead of ham. As I built this sandwich I became convinced that The Killer did get cheese after all, it’s just impossible to remove the cheese once it’s been melded onto the English muffin top. I tried to carefully peel the sausage patty from the top bun but I was only able to get some of the cheese removed.

Biting into the sandwich I tasted black pepper, a meaty slightly sweet sausage flavor, a hint of salt from what was left of the American cheese, and a neutral dry egg flavor. I’d like to say that this keto-friendly hack was a huge improvement over the ham version but it’s not. Note really, at least. It’s only slightly better but still a sad comparison to eating the sandwich as it’s intended with the bun.

Turns out most of what makes a McMuffin good is the muffin. Who knew?

The Bottom Line:

This hack and any alteration of it that involves removing the bun is only for the disturbed. Even if you’re living that keto lifestyle, there has to be a better option than this! Now replacing the bun with a hashbrown in its place… that might be a hack worth trying.

Find your nearest McDonald’s here.

There appears to be a growing trend on TikTok: heartbreaking slice-of-life stories, told as a slideshow. These usually mimic a text conversation between two people caught in a vulnerable moment, showcasing something quite moving and profound in the mundane.

Take for instance the “orange peel story” which went viral only a couple of weeks ago. It follows two college students post break-up, one of whom still has feelings for the other. A tender exchange encourages them to believe that they will find love again.

Now, there’s a new story making the rounds, and it’s every bit as touching.

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This one is called the “lemon pie” story (it’s unclear if all text-based TikTok stories should have a fruit theme), and it was written by @sappoop, who reminds us in their bio to not get too depressed by their stories, since they’re fiction.

Regardless, people are having real feelings after reading it.

It all begins with the straightforward line, “hey, we need to break up.” Presumably from the girlfriend in the relationship.

The boyfriend must have not seen it coming, because he asks if he did something to make the girlfriend upset.

“no, you’re perfect,” she replies. “it’s me.”

Blindsided, the boyfriend writes, “please tell me what’s going on,” using the pet name “lemon.”

He is only met with more cryptic answers as she writes: “My heart is in no condition to love right now.”

The girlfriend then asks if the boyfriend remembers the night they first met. She recalls that night, when she had been caught stealing lemons out of the boy’s lemon tree by his mother. The boy convinced his mother to let it all go, sparing the girl from getting into trouble. That was the night he gave her the nickname “lemon.”

To thank the boy, the girl had made him a lemon pie—which they both reminisced about being terrible.

But that nostalgic feeling is cut short when the girlfriend requests that the boyfriend not contact her again. She then blocks his number.

Only one day later, the boyfriend uses a burner phone to reach out. This doesn’t exactly go well, since his ex informs him that she will be blocking this number as well. But before she does, she makes an unusual, somewhat foreboding request:

“will you promise to regularly contact my number, even with both of your phones blocked?” she asks. “update me about your life? even if the texts don’t go through, at least i’ll have some hope in heart that you didn’t forget about me? ask me how my day was and pretend I’m responding back. will you promise to take my heart and claim it as your own?”

The boy continues trying to contact her throughout the years, all to no avail. Until one day, he does get a response from. Not from his beloved “Lemon,” but her mom, informing him that her daughter had passed away due to heart failure.

The boy’s life goes on, but he keeps his promise. He texts “Lemon” from time to time, telling her when he meets someone else, when he gets married…and finally, when he gets diagnosed with heart cancer.

“Maybe our hearts are linked after all,” he writes.

The story ends with the boy telling the girl that he picked some lemons from his mom’s house, and plans to make her a lemon pie, just as “horrible” as he remembered it.

Click here to read the full story.

Over 6.2 million people have read this story, with several calling it even more tragic than the popular orange peel story.

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“i’m on the toilet at school sobbing rn,” wrote @zombehcorpse in the comments.

“Who makes these…I’m sobbing at 6:20 in the morning,” one person wrote.

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These types of stories might leave us emotionally wrecked, but we can all admit that shedding a tear over a fictional scenario feels really good once in a while. And it can be pretty good for us too. So keep these devastating TikToks coming!

Fans have been shocked as news broke that Hall & Oates have actually split like seeds, making plans to never see each other again. Daryl Hall filed a lawsuit against John Oates in Nashville Chancery Court, as Philadelphia Magazine noted that a business trust dispute was the cause of the filing. It has also been reported that a temporary restraining order was issued for Hall against Oates on November 17.

While details of the case or the restraining order’s reasoning are still pretty unknown, they might be for a while. According to Axios reporter Nate Rau, “At least for now, all of the filings in the litigation are under seal.”

Although the duo hadn’t been releasing music together for a while, they had seemed pretty cordial in recent years.

“We get along just fine,” Hall previously shared in a 2014 interview with The Guardian about their relationship. “We weren’t — and aren’t — very much alike: we have different interests. But the differences aren’t important, what’s important is what we share — and that’s music.”

“Daryl and I are more like brothers than actual friends,” Oates added. “We’re very different as people, but we have this incredibly strong musical bond. He is creatively unsatisfied and that drives him forward. He’s very smart, and, in my opinion, has one of the greatest popular voices of all time.”

Here’s hoping the two give some more insight into the lawsuit.