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'She Says It Like She's Trying Not To Laugh.'
Everett (@everett.Toy) is cracking TikTok up after showcasing some of the curious pronunciation and diction mannerisms of a robotic self-checkout machine's voice at Stop & Shop, a retailer that's no stranger to implementing robotic help in its stores.
One of his more recent posts shows him buying yams. Viewers are tickled pink with the "aggressive" manner in which the grocery store's self-service system calls out the produce.
"Okay the self checkout voice saying 'YAM' is kinda aggressive," Everett writes in a text overlay of the TikTok, which shows him processing the sale of a yam on the self-checkout machine. He leaves it on the automatic register's scale until a robotic voice shouts, "Move your…YAMS"
The TikToker, chuckling, grabs the vegetable and places it into a bag on a rack next to the register. A quick scroll through the comments section of his clip reveals that there is what appears to be a growing subset of folks who are stoked with the way self-checkout machines verbally identify different pieces of produce. "Organic bananas" is a favorite that Everett previously shared in another viral video.
"It's no organic bananas," one commenter wrote.
"I've been waiting for this since the organic bananas post and it did NOT disappoint!" another person remarked.
@everett.Toy Replying to @brittanyzajac11 @Braijan is this how yours says it?? Also can someone tell me the difference between a yam and a sweet potato? #fyp #funny #humor #groceryshopping #selfcheckout #yams #sweetpotatoes #organicbananas ♬ original sound – EverettIn Everett's organic bananas post, the difference in inflection between the words "organic" and "bananas" makes it sound like an AI-generated statement combining two words that were clearly not recorded with consideration of the other word in mind. What's more is that "bananas" almost sounds like a question. Just listen to the original video that garnered 6.8 million views for yourself:
@everett.Toy And yes I will pay more for organic just to hear her say it #fyp #funny #humor #groceryshopping ♬ original sound – EverettPeople love the "organic bananas" post so much, that someone even gave Everett's post the remix treatment, turning a simple instance of self-checkout fun into what many think is an absolute banger of a track.
@zeo_choons Replying to @filmnerd24 #organicbananas #selfcheckout #selfcheckoutproblems #selfcheckoutvoice #krogerselfcheckout #techhouse ♬ original sound – ZeoEverett also seems to have a soft spot for the way the machine announces someone is purchasing bok choy, which he shows off in another video.
Most social media content surrounding self-checkout kiosks has to do with the five-finger discount or simple complaints about them.
One Walmart customer recently claimed that an employee of the popular retailer overrode her review, inputting a 5-star rating onto the screen without giving her a chance to put in a rating of her own. And then there's this clip of a frustrated CVS shopper wigging out on a self-checkout machine, which was highly relatable for many shoppers.
Everett's post, however, adds a new vertical to self-checkout-themed content: the vocal stylings of the robots who power them. The Daily Dot reached out to Stop & Shop via email, and a rep from the business responded with the following statement:
"We are finding it b-a-n-a-n-a-s that this TikTok is getting so much traction! It's not every day our self-checkout machines become a viral sensation, but we're here for it. At Stop & Shop, we are all about ensuring our customers have the best experience while shopping in our stores, and we're happy to see them finding a little added fun in the self-checkout aisle."
The Daily Dot has reached out to Everett via TikTok comment for further information.
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*First Published: May 6, 2024, 8:00 pm CDT
Jack AlbanJack Alban is a freelance journalist for the Daily Dot covering trending human interest/social media stories and the reactions real people have to them. He always seeks to incorporate evidence-based studies, current events, and facts pertinent to these stories to create your not-so-average viral post.
At The Market: It's Time To Plant Your Summer Garden
Have you heard the suggestion to plant after Mother's Day? That is because, generally speaking, mid-May is when the weather is consistently getting warmer. Most importantly, the likelihood of a freeze becomes much lower. While we can't follow any moniker too strictly, we do know that this time of year is perfect for starting your home garden.
For many without the time and space to grow their own food, the farmers market is a perfect solution to getting locally-grown, fresh produce. But, if you do have the time and interest, planting a garden can result in an abundance of nutrient-dense food for months — with the added bonus of the satisfaction of knowing you grew it with your own two hands!
Leafy green plant starts from Aspen Moon Farm. (BCFM – Courtesy photo)And, while you may think that farmers want you to only buy from them, you will find that most small farmers encourage their community to be as connected to their food system as possible. And, what is more connected than having your own hands in the dirt?
For this reason, most of the farmers at the Boulder and Longmont Farmers Markets sell plant starts throughout spring. This way, you get the plant when it is ready to go in the ground and farmers get some investment in their growing season before the true bounty of summer is harvested. Plus, you'll know that the plants were given the same care and attention as all of their crops versus those that are shipped to big chain stores.
Here is some inspiration on what to plant this year:
TomatoesTomatoes have an endless possibility of variety, where to plant and what you can do with them after harvesting. Consider what you will want to use them for when choosing between larger heirloom varieties, sauce tomatoes like San Marzanos or cherry tomatoes perfect for snacking and salads. Tomatoes will grow in pots or in gardens and need lots of sunlight to produce the most fruit.
Tomato start from Rocky Mountain Fresh, ready to be planted. (BCFM – Courtesy photo) BasilIf you are planting tomatoes, you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not plant basil, too. It is the perfect summer herb to finish a tomato, basil, mozzarella salad, add to cocktails or make homemade pesto. Most herbs will even grow inside if you have a window that lets in a lot of sunshine.
PeppersSimilar to tomatoes, peppers are exciting, because there is a wide variety to choose from. In Colorado, peppers with shorter growing seasons do well, such as Anaheim peppers, jalapeños and sweet bell peppers. Depending on what kind of peppers you choose to grow, you can plant them in pots or give them more space in the ground.
Bok ChoyAdd something different to your garden with this delicious Chinese cabbage variety. Perfect for a stir fry or soup, bok choy can also be eaten raw. Such a versatile vegetable is ideal to have in your garden. Bok choy is also a great example of produce that is harvested before it gets to the hottest part of summer, unlike tomatoes. The staggered harvest dates allow you to have abundance throughout the entire growing season.
CucumbersThese delicious, crunchy crops require slightly more space to grow than some of our other suggestions, but are so worth it. There are a few varieties that grow more compactly, so make sure you pick the right one for your space and desired use. Growing a crop that is easy to preserve — in this case as pickles — will assist your future self late in the season when you have exhausted all ways you can think of to eat them fresh.
At the end of the day, it is all about planting what you like to eat. If you don't have a lot of space, choose the crops that can be grown in pots and continue purchasing things like squash and cucumbers from your local farmers. Plant variety, and plan for what your harvests will look like throughout the growing season. The process can feel overwhelming, so you can always start small this year and allow your garden to grow over time.
Get all the gear you need to start planting this Mother's Day weekend by visiting us at the farmers markets this week. Visit us on Wednesday or Saturday in downtown Boulder or on Saturday in Longmont.
Review: When Japan Became Modern: Meiji-era Art And Artifacts Are Now At Smart Museum
The West was trending in Japan 150 years ago.
That might seem like a silly way to put it, but it's also true. After two centuries of isolationist policy, Japan was forcibly opened up to foreign visitors and trade. What ensued was an era of modernization in architecture, fashion, industry, government and art like no other, gloriously evidenced in "Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan," a building-wide exhibition currently on view at the Smart Museum of Art.
The Emperor Meiji, restored to power in 1868 after more than half a millennium of shogunate rule, wore radical change on his very being. He suited up in European military dress for his official photographic portrait, an image that appears here in the guise of a hand-colored photograph pasted into a U.S. Consular report. The Empress Haruko, though depicted early on in layered kimonos, issued a memorandum in 1887 proclaiming that traditional Japanese garments were unsuited to modern life. From then on, she and her entourage sported only the frilly, French-style dresses seen in a war print illustrating an imperial visit to a field hospital during the First Sino-Japanese War. Not everyone agreed, however, that Western customs were the way to go. "Temptation," a large hanging scroll, is of unclear authorship but has an unmistakable message: in it, a filthy foreign devil leads a blindfolded Japanese woman, enveloped in flowing obi-tied robes, off a cliff toward hell.
Much of the most exciting material on view in "Meiji Modern," curated by Chelsea Foxwell and Bradley M. Bailey, falls somewhere in between these extremities, exhibiting a fusion of old and new, traditional and modern, Japanese and foreign. Cloisonné artisans like Hattori Tadasaburo innovated the already complex decorative technique to achieve new effects of translucence, relief and color blending, elegantly demonstrated in a phoenix-and-paulownia patterned globe lamp and a vase enveloped in leaves of bok choy. Kobayashi Kiyochika's moody prints capture the bowler-hatted crowds, gas-lit streets, and devastating fires that defined Tokyo in the late 1870s and early 1880s, updating the old-fashioned medium of woodblock to produce new effects like chiaroscuro, sketchiness and shading. A wastewater bowl by Shibata Zeshin appears to be made of metal alloy but instead is lacquerware, rendered featherlight due to his decision to replace its traditional wood substrate with paper.
Zeshin also contributes a simple bowl for serving sweets, turned from conifer wood and minimally decorated with three exquisitely rendered poem cards, imitated in lacquer. A couple of objects throughout "Meiji Modern" are decorated in a similarly clever, picture-in-a-picture sort of way: a sake ewer from the Kinkozan Studio of Kyoto features four overlapping landscape paintings superimposed atop a glitzy array of patterns, while a large ivory-colored vase by Kintozan illustrates 110 individual types of vessels produced throughout the country, like a ceramics catalog — made of ceramic! These wares feel almost postmodern, in the uncanny way of certain artworks of the past, as if they've somehow slipped through dimensions to fit with contemporary visitors.
Not everything on view is so exquisitely refined. Much of what isn't falls into the category of ephemera — woodblock prints and lithographs made quickly and cheaply, to provide ordinary Japanese viewers with news and entertainment, not unlike the illustrated press of today. Dozens are on display throughout "Meiji Modern," and they make for fascinating viewing, bursting with the hairstyles, political exploits, famous buildings, popular pastimes, theater stars and trendy accessories of the times. Umbrellas were the travel mugs of 1882.
Harder to appreciate are all the tchotchkes. Crystal balls held aloft on minutely rendered metal waves, a trompe-l'oeil incense burner of a hawk on a perch, a finely carved ivory of a god sitting on a lotus riding a boar — these are small objects of incomparable quality but, in my view at least, about as much aesthetic interest as Royal Doulton figurines or Patek Philippe watches.
Far better natural and unnatural scenes can be found in the many folding screens that are a highlight of the show. Utagawa Kokunimasa's sprawling "Hell Courtesan" is as witty as it is macabre, scattering across its silver-leafed panels anatomically correct skeletons who promenade, play music and board games, even get acupuncture treatment. A pair of golden screens by Takeuchi Seiho renders a white heron on a branch and a trio of black crows pecking at the ground with brushwork of extraordinary deftness and grace. Noguchi Shohin paints a monumental vista of poets gathered amid craggy mountains in a style associated with the Chinese literati, evidence that not all influences during the Meiji era came from Europe and America. The first female painter to become an Imperial Household Artist, Shohin is also the only woman creator named in the exhibition, though many more had a hand in producing the workshop wares on display throughout.
In addition to painted screens, "Meiji Modern" also features a rare surviving hand-embroidered example. Produced by Nishijin Studios, its idyllic woodland grove emerges from hundreds of thousands of stitches in colored silk floss, the effect part Romantic landscape painting, part photographic realism. Not on view at the Smart but included in the traveling exhibition's first installment at the Asia Society in New York was an even more astonishing screen by Hashio Kiyoshi that used some 250 shades of blue and grey thread to translate a photograph of waves into a stunningly realistic tapestry.
Kiyoshi's screen won a Medal of Honor at the San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915, one of many successes achieved by Japan at the world fairs that at the time were so important to a nation's global standing. "Meiji Modern" contains numerous items associated with these events, interspersed among artworks created for both the export and domestic markets, as well as all the print ephemera of modern daily life; together they form an exceptionally well-rounded vision of an era, all of it now belonging to American collections.
Lori Waxman is a freelance critic.
"Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan" runs through June 9 at the Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave., 773-702-0200, smartmuseum.Uchicago.Edu/exhibitions
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