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Map: Do You Live In IHOP America Or Waffle House America?

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Map: Do You Live In IHOP America Or Waffle House America?

America might be a fast-food nation, but at least it's a rich, greasy tapestry of fast food. In-N-Out Burger is the jewel of the West Coast. Massachusetts seems to breed Dunkin' Donuts franchises the way it used to breed Kennedys. Oklahoma and Wyoming are the only states to have both Hardee's and Carl's Jr. We so strongly associate regional character and fast food offerings that in 2001, The Onion reported, "Mason-Dixon Line Renamed IHOP-Waffle House Line."

To drive this 12-year-old joke into the ground, we calculated the density of all 1,543 IHOP locations (as of this February) and 1,661 Waffle House locations (as of last December) across the United States. The map at the top compares these densities, showing who in America is eating cheap waffles for breakfast, and who's eating cheap pancakes.

There is a pretty ridiculous North-South split, although Maryland, northern Virginia, and southern Florida (which is pretty much the North anyways) fall into pancake territory, while Waffle House has made inroads into Ohio and Indiana. For the record, the Atlanta-based Waffle House costs less and tastes better than California's IHOP. Also, waffles are better than pancakes. Point is, I'm jealous.

Below are maps of all the IHOP and Waffle House locations. Given that these two chains have roughly the same number of franchises, Waffle House's density in the South is pretty astounding.* Greater Atlanta looks like it has a Waffle House every 20 feet, plus 50 IHOPs or so. Greater Atlanta is where it's at.

Map: Do You Live In IHOP America Or Waffle House America?

Map: Do You Live In IHOP America Or Waffle House America?

*Waffle House does so much business in the South that the impact of hurricanes on Waffle House service is actually an informal measure of hurricane intensity.

Franchise data from AggData.com.


Jezebel I'm Biracial, and That Cheerios Ad Is a Big Fucking Deal.

The Week in Movies: After Earth, Now You See Me, and The East

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The Week in Movies: After Earth, Now You See Me, and The East

Welcome to Annotate This, where we gather reviews, trailers, and annotate the posters for movies coming out this week. It will help you decide what to avoid, what to see, and what to pretend to see. Click on the image above to add your comments to the mix.

After Earth

Even if you didn't know that M. Night Shyamalan had his hand in this sci-fi jumble flick, reading this nutso interview with co-stars Will Smith and his son Jaden about patterns would clue you in. Bascially Will Smith and his son must run about with spears in an abandoned earth. It's not about scientology, as Rich Juzwiak's will tell you here.


Now You See Me

This Robin Hood/revenge story about cool (kinda!) magicians who also pull off bank heists is fleetingly fun. The cast is stellar: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Michael Cane, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Melanie Laurent, and Michael Caine. Watch the first four minutes below—and please make me feel better and tell me you also fell for the card trick in the first minute.


The East (Limited)

The second film from director Zal Batmanglij and co-writer Brit Marling (this is a follow-up to their 2011 feature Sound of My Voice; Marling's sweet commencement speech on their creative relationship is here), The East is a corporations-vs.-anarchist cult story. While it's too earnest for it's own good, I think it could be the most fascinating movie of the summer.


Shadow Dancer (Limited)

Covering drama in the IRA in the 1990s, documentary filmmaker James Marsh (Man on Wire, Project Nim) gives that era "chillingly effective detail." Shadow Dancer stars Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough, who is captivating, mesmerizing, and makes a "dramatic virtual of unreadability." This movie inspired some purple phrasing from film reviewers, with one writing that it featured moral compasses, grey as the Irish skies, plots as twisted as the political turmoil.


The Kings of Summer

This summer's Moonrise Kingdom, a few young men escape their outrageous parents (played by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally) to live on their own in the woods. Though it doesn't add anything to the "crowded canon of oddball rites-of-passage indie comedies," it manages to stay delightfully quirky, lively, sweet and wobbly.


Hannah Arendt (Limited)

This biopic of controversial philosopher Hannah Arendt takes on many of the qualities of its subject; it's ardent and intelligent, captivating and deft. According to this review and this one, it also delves deep into several packs of cigarettes.


Crazy Kind of Love

A newly single mother must "re-evaluate" her life, when a handsome man enters the picture. As you expected, this is love when she leasts expects it.


The History of Future Folk (New York, Los Angeles on June 7)

As the "first neo-hipster Brooklyn sci-fi movie," The History of Future Folk is without an abundance of talent or budget, and is "endearing even if it's never quite hilarious."


American Mary (Limited)

Jen and Slyvia Soska, twin sister directors, were hailed as the latest thing in the horror genre after their cult debut. Following a vengeful medical student, American Mary aims to test "how much nausea and pain an audience can take." It's uneven, but at its best it channels "vintage David Cronenberg and Brian De Palma."


I Do (New York, Los Angeles)

This well-meaning film examines immigration laws that discrimination against same-sex relationships. It unfortunately takes an "earnest, facile treatment of the issues affecting the LGBT community."

To contact the author of this post, email maggie@gawker.com.

Atlantic media staffers didn't do very well when they were tested with a phishing scam.

5-Year-Old Wets Himself During 2-Hour School Interrogation Over Toy Gun

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5-Year-Old Wets Himself During 2-Hour School Interrogation Over Toy Gun

A 5-year-old boy from Maryland reportedly wet himself while being interrogated by school officials for two hours without a parent present over an orange-tipped "cowboy-style cap gun" he brought with him to show a friend.

According to the kindergartner's mother, her son was on the bus to Dowell Elementary School in Lusby when he pulled out the toy gun to show a classmate who had brought a water pistol onto the bus the previous day.

Once at school, the boy was pulled into the principal's office and "grilled" for two hours until his mother was finally notified that her son was receiving a 10-day suspension for "possession of a look-alike gun."

In the process of being questioned, the boy "uncharacteristically" wet his pants.

The mother, a school teacher herself, said her son was "all bugs and frogs and cowboys," and "really, really" wanted to show off his cap gun to a friend, so he snuck it out of the house without telling his parents.

Though she insists she has "no problem that he had a consequence to his behavior," she feels the matter was dealt with in an unnecessarily severe manner.

While being informed of her son's suspension, the mother was allegedly told by the principal that had the cap gun been "loaded," he would have been forced to phone the police.

"Kids play cowboys and Indians," said Robin Ficker, the family's attorney. "They play cops and robbers. You’re talking about a little 5-year-old here."

Ficker is in the process of attempting to get the suspension stricken from the boy's permanent record, but, as it stands, he will have no choice but to sit out the rest of the school year.

[photo via Shutterstock]

Julian Assange, Mystery Problems, Comic Sans, and More Hate Mail

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Julian Assange, Mystery Problems, Comic Sans, and More Hate Mail

We still had a couple writers stuck on the derailed "Oh Canada" train, but our correspondence was generally well-rounded this week. We saw complaints about our Facebook thumbnail photo (it's usually going to be the photo of Gawker editor-in-chief, John Cook), people requesting that we solve problems that they haven't described, and a perplexing Julian Assange-glowing Alien connection. Below, some thoughtful notes from our pen pals:

We got two emails from one address, both of which described questions they wanted answered while giving as little context as possible. Do you have any ideas?

SUBJECT: A NEW ANONYMOUS MESSAGE!

BODY: Who sent me the anonymous message below?

Sent from my iPhone

SUBJECT: Who?

BODY: Who sent me that doctored picture of me that was mocking me?

Sent from my iPhone

As far as I can tell most of the words in this article don't relate to each other, but I thank you, dear reader, for sending us your epistolary experiments.

SUBJECT: Colonization

BODY: It sounds like Assange is an Alien trying to free colonize his race of offspring in each continent all around the world ps. I touched a crystal skull ant it lit up purple so i mite be an Alien.

Feigning… something.

SUBJECT: Facebook thumbnail problem

BODY: You need to fix your Facebook thumbnail situation — I posted your video to my Facebook page and would have loved to have a pic of the cute little kid in the video. Instead, I get a picture of John Cook looking douchey and feigning... something. Can you fix this?

Thanks.

The proportion of subject line to body text in this email is all sorts of bonkers.

SUBJECT: You should be ashamed of you never ending which hunt of Rob Ford and your so called video that does not seem to surfaced anywhere!What you are doing is encouraging people like me to VOTE for for Ford AGAIN . HE WAS ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF TORONTO TO BE MAYOR SO LEAVE HIM ALONE!NEord in teh

BODY: Your lefftist mentality will be defeated like Soviet block in the late 80's!

COMIC SANS. This shit below was in Comic Fucking Sans. Just so you know, for important context and insight into the choices made by this writer.

SUBJECT: Here is a tip...

BODY: So where is the video you fucken idiots..

Bunch fucken lyers....

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone! Welcome June with happiness.

The National Weather Service has declared a tornado emergency in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area

Round 2: New Tornadoes Wreaking Havoc Near Oklahoma City

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Round 2: New Tornadoes Wreaking Havoc Near Oklahoma City

Just 11 days after a tornado laid waste to Moore, Oklahoma, multiple—though less intense—tornadoes touched down in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, causing significant damage and injuring residents.

The biggest of the tornadoes that hit tossed the Weather Channel's storm chasing vehicle (above) about 200 yards before barreling toward Oklahoma City, leading authorities to close I-35 and I-40, which were laden with numerous crashes and injured people. Though it's still too early to be absolutely sure, one KFOR reporter estimated the size of that tornado as being a mile-wide and registering an F2 or F3 on the Fujita scale, which goes up to 5.

Tornado warnings have gone into effect in Missouri as well. Updates to come.


Former Microsoft Executive Wants to Launch The Starbucks of Marijuana

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Former Microsoft Executive Wants to Launch The Starbucks of Marijuana

With the legalization of marijuana use in Washington state, it was only a matter of time before intrepid Washingtonians began to think of their weed in terms of their other favorite drug habit: coffee.

To that end, Former Microsoft executive Jamen Shively announced yesterday his intention to start the first national brand of marijuana, envisioning what the media is referring to as the "Starbucks of Pot."

But before you go out and order a Venti-sized dank nug, Shively will have to navigate the more-erratic-then-ever Justice Department, which doesn't exactly take too kindly to anyone who would like to start a multi-state marijuana enterprise. Even though Shively is actively engaging in a conspiracy to distribute an illegal substance (super illegal) he feels that he (and his investors) aren't in danger of prosecution:

"Neither Diego Pellicer [the business] nor our investors are exposed to any significant risk, in terms of criminal risk," Shively said. "In terms of criminal risk, that is vastly mitigated. ... We're making strategic investments, but we're making them in such a way that they are not in violation of either federal or state law."

Shively plans to invest over $100 million into this venture in the next three years, while creating more than 1,000 jobs in Seattle. In his press conference, Shively even trotted out former Mexican President Vincente Fox, who urged the United States to end its war on drugs and legalize marijuana nationwide.

And customers of the prospective business need not worry about getting hounded by Washington drug-sniffing dogs — they're being retrained to ignore pot.

Still, if there is to be a "Starbucks of Weed," one can only wonder what effect this will have on the freelancers of the world, eating pot brownies and using the complimentary Wi-Fi for hours on end. Ideas that once seemed great will slowly fizzle in the warm glow of an episode of "Adventure Time," and maybe, maybe, the world might just be a better place because of it.

It's such a perfect day outside, but Lou Reed is indoors, recovering from a liver transplant.

Walking Dead Zombie, Husband Accusing Each Other of Ricin Letters

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Walking Dead Zombie, Husband Accusing Each Other of Ricin Letters

In this month's episode of Framing Someone with Ricin, a pregnant Texas actress and her Army Vet husband are accusing one another of mailing the latest round of ricin-laced letters to President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg.

The epic tale of love, loss, and strong feelings on gun control began last week when 36-year-old actress Shannon Guess contacted authorities claiming that she had found directions for making ricin, Google search results for Obama and Bloomberg, and a refrigerated Tupperware container of ricin in her home. Guess has appeared as an actress in such productions as the Walking Dead, the Vampire Diaries, the Blind Side, and an Avis car commercial.

Authorities responded by arresting her husband, 33-year-old Nathaniel Richardson. A search revealed castor beans (which naturally contain ricin) in Richardson's car, but the feds released him Friday, saying there wasn't enough evidence to hold him. The beans were allegedly purchased with a credit card, but Richardson claimed that he doesn't use plastic.

Richardson is now accusing his wife of framing him, and she was brought in for questioning after Richardson was released yesterday afternoon. The New York Post reports Guess wore "tight jeans, platform shoes and a tight blue tank top that showed off her obviously pregnant belly" to meet authorities at the courthouse. According to CBS, Guess knew "specific details" about the letters.

A source told the Post that the Richardson and Guess were having problems. “[Richardson] says they are going through a divorce and that she was away for a few days,” a law-enforcement source told the paper. “He says it was when she got back that she found the [purported] ricin.” Authorities intend to polygraph both Guess and Richardson.

The unhappy couple were married in 2011 and Guess has five children from previous relationships. Guess's IMDB profile claims that she has two tattoos, plays the flute, and holds paralegal and teaching degrees. Her biography page also says that she was abandoned by her mother at the age of two and was raised by her father. She has been married three times according to the Post.

Richardson was a wheeled-vehicle mechanic at Fort Bliss, and now works at the Red River Army Depot, an Army vehicle repair center. The Texarkana Gazette reports that Richardson's Facebook page lists his work and education as “Them Streets.” Richardson also describes himself as a “nerd, dork, cracker. May 1980 to present.”

The ricin-laced letters at the heart of the investigation were mailed on May 20 from Shreveport, LA, and bore messages warning against gun control. Shreveport is about an hour-and-a-half away from the couple's home in New Boston, TX. According to CBS, the ricin was "crudely made and of poor quality," and the US Postal Service announced that none of the letters posed a health risk. Officials say ingesting crude, homemade ricin, typically made by grinding the beans and soaking them in acetone, would likely produce symptoms as mild as diarrhea.

[via, photo via Fox]

At least nine people have died in Oklahoma after a new round of tornadoes tore through the already t

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At least nine people have died in Oklahoma after a new round of tornadoes tore through the already tornado-ravaged state last night.

Ten Year Chicago Hotel Strike Ends in 'Unconditional' Defeat

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Ten Year Chicago Hotel Strike Ends in 'Unconditional' Defeat

A strike that lasted ten years and became a fixture of Chicago's “Magnificent Mile,” finally ended Wednesday when workers at the Congress Plaza Hotel offered to return to work with no conditions.

The strike, which the union called the longest hotel strike in history, was started in 2003 after hotel owner Albert Nasser pulled out of an agreement with the union and demanded wage cuts. This week, workers finally decided they had lost this battle.

“It is the right time for the union and the strikers to move on,” Local 1 President Henry Tamarin wrote in a statement, effectively ending the strike. “There is no more to do there.”

The picket line was a prominent sight for visitors to Chicago, who witnessed workers continue their strike in front of the hotel in all seasons, trying in vain to secure better wages. Nasser, the owner, hasn't visited Chicago since the strike began, but that didn't stop strikers from flying to Geneva to try to confront him.

Labor writer Micah Uetricht explains some of the other tactics the union used to try to force the owner to raise wages:

When companies refused to budge, UNITE HERE would escalate its tactics, often driving their targets insane. I once accompanied the union to a 5K “fun run” for attendees of a healthcare conference whose organizers had refused to cancel their Congress reservations. Strikers jogged alongside baffled spandex-clad runners, shoving fliers in their sweaty hands and explaining the impact of the hotel’s intransigence on their families. One older organizer devised a complicated scheme to make runners believe he had laid a tripline across the trail––he would pretend to pull it taut ahead of them, causing confused runners to halt in their tracks.

In its statement ending the strike, the union pointed out the standard wage for room attendants in Chicago is now $16.40 an hour. Congress hotel room attendants still make $8.83 an hour, which is what they did when the strike began.

Incredible photographs from the ongoing protests in Istanbul.

Philip Seymour Hoffman Just Completed Detox for Heroin

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Philip Seymour Hoffman Just Completed Detox for Heroin

Actor, producer, and director Philip Seymour Hoffman is speaking publicly about abusing heroin earlier this month.

The 45-year-old has always been candid about his struggles with drugs and alcohol, but spent the last 23 years sober. In that time he's had a hand in a multitude of critically acclaimed films, and he won the Academy Award for best actor in 2006 for his work in Capote.

Hoffman told TMZ that he began abusing prescription pills last year. That escalated to heroin use earlier this month, at which point he says he realized he had a problem. Hoffman says he only snorted heroin for about a week before he checked himself into an East Coast detox facility on May 14.

Hoffman's detox stint forced him to miss a May 18 promotional event at Cannes for the new Hunger Games film Catching Fire. But the actor is now back to work; he's currently in Europe for production on a new film. He is also slated to appear in John Slattery's upcoming directorial debut God's Pocket with Christina Hendricks.

[via, photo via AP]


Old, Addled WSJ Board Member Flips Out Over NYC's Bike-Sharing Program

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Old, Addled WSJ Board Member Flips Out Over NYC's Bike-Sharing Program

The rich have a complicated relationship with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. They enjoy that he has developed a city that caters almost exclusively to them, but hate that it is almost exclusively theirs. There are now also those pesky little plebeians riding around on their brand-new bicycles (read: death chariots).

Enter Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz to set the record straight about New York City's new bike-sharing program, CitiBike. Suddenly, Bloomberg is now the enemy, because he has once again empowered bicyclists, with their haughty green agenda. He never listened to what the people (wealthy old conservative women) wanted. Even worse, he has defaced the beautiful neighborhoods of downtown New York with these CitiBike stations, which somehow pose an imminent fire threat.

That's not to say Rabinowitz's outrage isn't grounded in some version of reality, because it's true that bicyclists consistently break the law, and people are going to be struck and hurt by tourists on these bicycles. That's inevitable. But so are people getting hit by the dangerous amount of cars in Manhattan and the city grinding to a virtual halt every single day because of congestion.

"Do not ask me to enter the mind of the totalitarians running this government," Rabinowitz says, echoing other insane rhetoric. She then lays out a scenario where a bike-share program represents the kind of runaway totalitarianism that is the usual practice of her kind, the corporate elite. Except she hates bicycles, so she's confused. Nobody consulted her. Dorothy confused. Dorothy angry.

Community creator Dan Harmon tweeted that he will be returning to the show for its fifth season.

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Community creator Dan Harmon tweeted that he will be returning to the show for its fifth season. He was dismissed from the show before its fourth (and worst) season.

Farewell Room Service, We Loved You So

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Farewell Room Service, We Loved You So

The New York Hilton Midtown, the largest hotel in New York City, is discontinuing room service, and industry experts say that other hotels will probably follow suit.

The 2,000-room Hilton will end room service for good in August, laying off 55 workers and introducing a cafeteria-style grab-and-go restaurant as a replacement. The Hilton Hawaiian Village was the first to completely eliminate the service, and a spokesperson cited a decline in room service orders as the impetus.

"I don't think anyone makes a profit on room service because of its labor costs," John Fox, senior vice president of PKF Consulting, explained to Crains New York Business. "I'm sure all the big hotels will be looking at what Hilton is doing."

Indeed, other hotels have flirted with the idea. The Grand Hyatt on 42nd Street has reduced room service hours, introducing a 24-hour market as an alternative. And Public, in Chicago, also scaled back, replacing traditional room service with a brown paper bag delivery that is simply left outside of guests' rooms.

"People don't like paying a $7 service delivery fee or waiting 45 minutes for their food or greeting a server while their [sic] half-dressed," hotelier Ian Schrager said of the new service.

[via, photo via Shutterstock]

Protests Grow in Turkey As Police Withdraw From Taksim Square

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Protests Grow in Turkey As Police Withdraw From Taksim Square

What started as a protest against a development project that will demolish a vital city park has become a widespread and angry protest against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with scenes that echo the Arab Spring.

In a rebuke of the increasingly Islamist government (which just toughened alcohol laws), protesters have taken to the street in over 90 demonstrations across the country. The Turkish Interior Minister says that there have already been 939 arrests of protesters.

Taksim Square, where the protests began (and which is to be remade as "a replica Ottoman-era army barracks and mall"), has remained the focal point of the protests. This afternoon, police left the square, allowing thousands of protesters to enter, congregate, and chant anti-government slogans. Protesters openly drank beers in a clear provocation of the Islamist-leaning government.

“The police were here yesterday, they will be there today, and they will be there tomorrow in Taksim,” Prime Minister Erdogan said in a televised speech this morning. However, by nightfall, the police, who have brutally repressed the demonstrations, were nowhere to be seen in Taksim Square.

Streets that would normally be filled with tourists have now become abandoned. Demonstrators ransacked bulldozers and equipment of the construction company that had already begun demolishing the Taksim Square, and spread out to demonstrate across the city.

The Times describes the widespread anger:

On streets running off Istiklal, young men tore up granite slabs from the sidewalk and bashed them against the road, picking up the splintered pieces to throw at the police. On some streets, protesters set up makeshift barricades with trash cans, panels of wallboard from construction sites and potted plants taken from outside fancy hotels.

On another major boulevard, protesters stopped a municipal water truck, which they believed was on its way to refill the police water cannons, and opened its valves, flooding the street. Nearby, protesters marched past the headquarters of the state television network, T.R.T., shouting, “Burn the state media!”

Turkey, a country that had avoided the same kind of upheaval that struck its regional neighbors, has now become a hotbed of protest.

[Associated Press]

Student Referred to as an "UGLY HOE" in High School Yearbook Caption

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Student Referred to as an "UGLY HOE" in High School Yearbook Caption

Yearbooks are supposed to commemorate the school year, but one high school student probably won't want to remember hers. A high school in Texas is now investigating how a yearbook caption got changed to refer to a cheerleader as an "UGLY HOE".

A spokesperson for the school district says they have evidence that the caption was changed at some point between when the final version was approved and when the books were printed, but administrators are still investigating who made offensive alteration. Although the approved version was checked by both student editors and faculty advisors before it went to print, the district sounds confident that they will be able to identify the culprit. A representative for the district said the responsible party will be punished under the school district's code of conduct.

Although only a dozen of the yearbooks had been distributed before officials noticed the caption, the picture quickly went viral. The school is holding on to the remainder of the 300-odd yearbooks and administrators are trying to decide how to proceed.

"Our educators have hearts and concern for the students, so immediately our concern is for that student and her well being, and to make sure we get this problem corrected as quick as possible," a district spokesperson said.

A 17-year-old student is facing criminal charges for a similar, unrelated incident in Missouri after she allegedly replaced a friend's last name with the word "masturbate."

[via, photo via WFAA]

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