social media – Topical Fruit

The Secret to a Good Orange Is Its Butthole

There are a million so-called “hacks” for picking the best fruit at the grocery store. But the internet may have just unlocked its weirdest produce tip yet, and yes, it involves inspecting an orange’s “butthole.”

A woman on social media claims the key to picking the sweetest navel orange is all about the little hole on the bottom, known as the “blossom end.” That’s the spot opposite where the orange was attached to the tree. Social media, of course, has given it a much more memorable name.

According to the woman, you want to avoid oranges with a large, wide opening on the bottom. In her words, you should be looking for one that is small, tight, or completely closed. She claims that is the sign of a sweet orange, while wider openings are bad news for your taste buds.

She credits this wisdom to another woman named Paige, who describes herself as an orange-picking expert. Paige even laid out a three-step ranking system for choosing the perfect orange, and color is not the top priority.

Step one is, once again, checking out the booty hole. Paige says the best oranges have a small opening, and not one that looks, in her colorful phrasing, “prolapsed” or “cavernous.”

That is apparently the most important factor of all.

Step two is weight. Heavier oranges are better, which lines up with a lot of more traditional fruit-picking advice. Extra weight usually means more juice, which is rarely a bad thing.

Color only comes in at step three. Paige says more vibrant orange fruit may generally be better, but she insists it is less important than the first two steps. According to her, an orange can still be sweet even if it looks a little yellowish or greenish, as long as that blossom end passes your backend inspection.

To back up her credentials, the woman in the viral video insists she eats two oranges every single day and has been doing so for years. That is her proof that she knows what she is talking about.

Is this advice scientifically proven? Not exactly.

But it has clearly struck a nerve online, where people are equal parts curious, skeptical, and deeply uncomfortable inspecting citrus quite this closely in public.

Still, if you catch someone staring a little too intently at the bottom of an orange in the produce aisle, now you know why.

@rawr_its_paige
How to pick the perfect navel orange. #tism #neurodivergent #neurospicy #safefood #orange #tismtrait #nightroutine #favoritefood #foodtok #navelorange #howto #Tatcha
♬ 夏とブランチ (Acoustic) – ruuka

Is 2026 the New 2016? #BringBack2016 Is Trending

It is 2026, and somehow the most cutting-edge trend on social media is… 2016. Yes, really. A full decade later, people are flocking back to peak Obama-era internet vibes under the hashtag #BringBack2016.

According to TikTok, searches for “2016” have jumped a ton, and more than 55 million videos have recently been made using 2016-style filters. And Spotify reports a massive spike in playlists labeled “2016.” The internet has officially decided skinny jeans, Vine energy, and unhinged joy are back on the menu.

Sure, old trends becoming new again is nothing shocking. Fashion, music, and pop culture are built on nostalgia cycles. But usually that takes a generation or two. This time, it only took ten years, which feels suspiciously fast. Something clearly broke along the way.

There is no single explanation for why 2016 is trending again, but one popular theory is that Gen Z is already over 2026 and wants a full-on cultural factory reset. Early 2016 is being remembered as a time when things felt simpler, and more optimistic.

The internet was still chaotic, but in a fun way, not a soul-sucking way.

This revival is not just about throwback fashion or blurry filters. People are bringing back old-school social media challenges… along with the music, memes, and overall vibe of that era.

The current online landscape is bloated with A.I. junk. Social media now feels heavily curated, overly edited, and aggressively performative. Everything looks promoted, optimized, and just a little too polished to feel real.

Back in 2016, feeds were messier and more spontaneous. Videos were bad on purpose. Trends felt organic. Not everything was trying to sell you something or go viral through an algorithmic obstacle course.

So for now, people are rewinding the clock, chasing an internet that felt more human and less exhausting.

(And if you are already feeling nostalgic, the latest of the weekly “10 Things That Happened 10 Years Ago” series is live on TheTopicalFruit.com.)

Australia Banned Social Media for Kids Under 16—Here’s How It Could Backfire

It’s official: Australia just hit the digital reset button on childhood – but not everyone’s convinced it’s actually a good idea.

As of December 10th, 2025, kids 15 and under in Australia are banned from using any social media platform, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and others. It’s the first country in the world to enforce a nationwide age-restricted ban, and reactions immediately started coming in faster than a group chat meltdown.

The law, which passed in November 2024, gave platforms a year to comply. They face serious fines if they don’t play along, and also have to take “reasonable steps” to prevent kids from setting up new accounts.

Will Real-World Socializing Make a Comeback?

Supporters of the move are hoping it turns back the clock a bit. Like, pre-smartphone era back. The idea is that without apps to scroll through 24/7, kids might (gasp!) actually start hanging out face-to-face again.

A poll found 77% of Australians support the crackdown, so a lot of parents are probably crossing their fingers that this means more bike rides and fewer TikTok dances in the living room.

How It Could Backfire

Not everyone’s convinced it will work as planned. Critics say kids could just end up feeling isolated or less informed, especially if the only online voices they can access are their parents’ Facebook posts from 2011. If kids can’t connect (and get their news) from social media, will they go elsewhere? Or will they just not connect at all?

The negative effects could be even more pronounced for children with health issues or disabilities that keep them isolated, effectively eliminating their only social outlet. Others argue enforcement could be impossible anyway, since kids are already finding ways to get around the law.

A Global Test Case

It’s a massive shift for a generation that’s never known a world without social media. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is a proponent of the ban, but even he admitted, “This will be one of the biggest social and cultural changes our nation has faced.” He predicted it would eventually become “a source of national pride.”

Other nations are closely watching to see how it plays out as governments everywhere struggle with how to protect kids online. Will it lead to more analog childhoods, or just more creative loopholes?

This Guy’s “Insane” Pizza Order for His Pregnant Wife Is Going Viral

If you’ve ever placed a food delivery order that made you quietly pray the restaurant staff wouldn’t judge you, congratulations, you officially have something in common with the internet’s new hero.

A wildly complicated pizza order is blowing up online, and people cannot get over how many toppings one man stacked onto a single pie to satisfy his very pregnant wife.

And honestly, pregnancy cravings and wild food orders are basically SEO gold, so it makes sense this one took off.

The order went to a pizza shop that kindly shared the details, and it reads like a full grocery list stuck to a single crust. It started innocently enough: one large hand-tossed pizza. Then came the requests, and buckle up, because this thing had more parts than a tax return.

Triple pepperoni. Extra cheese. Banana peppers. Light jalapenos. Half chicken. Half mushrooms. Half caramelized onions. Half olives. And light sauce.

Yes, that’s nine separate customizations. And only some of them had halves specified, which raises the question every pizza worker would be afraid to ask: which half gets what? Are all the “halves” stacked on one chaotic side, like a mini doomsday casserole? Does each topping get its own quadrant? We may never know.

But the best part of the whole situation was the customer’s note, which instantly certified him as both a loving husband and a man on the brink:

“Yes, I know this looks insane, and you’re probably like who is this dude? I have a very pregnant wife. I’m done questioning what she wants. I’m scared of her, and honestly you should be too. Thank you and godspeed.”

If you’ve ever brought home the wrong snack to a pregnant partner, you understand this man’s journey. He’s not ordering pizza. He’s navigating diplomacy.

Sadly, the worker didn’t include a photo of the final product, so the world will never witness this Frankenstein pizza in all its glory. We also don’t know the final price. The receipt floating around shows $17.99, but that’s almost certainly just the base price, not the “I need hazard pay for assembling this” total.

Cat Clings to Car for 100 Miles, Becomes Furry Road Warrior

A Pennsylvania family recently learned that curiosity could actually kill a cat.

Because somewhere between packing snacks and loading up the van for a road trip, their cat Ray Ray decided to tag along. And not in the passenger seat.

About 100 miles into the trip, they pulled over for gas. Everything seemed normal until someone looked up. There was Ray Ray… clinging to the roof of the van. Not inside. Not in the back. Literally hanging onto the fabric of a soft cargo carrier, like some kind of feline action hero in a Mission: Impawsible sequel. (Sorry, that came to mind and I couldn’t not include it.)

The van had been flying down the highway at 70 miles per hour for nearly two hours, and somehow this furry daredevil held on tight the whole time.

When they spotted him, the family freaked out (understandably), but Ray Ray? Completely calm. Just blinking like, “What took you guys so long to notice?”

After a quick rescue, they realized he was totally fine… no injuries, no panic, just a little windblown.

So instead of heading home, they made him part of the vacation. Ray Ray went on to “run” a marathon in New Hampshire (spectator status only), take a road trip to New York, and even “see” Hamilton on Broadway.

The family hit a pet store for supplies… food, a litter box, and one of those clear bubble cat backpacks… then documented the whole wild journey online. Their followers couldn’t get enough of Ray Ray’s unbothered, whisker-in-the-wind attitude.

Sure, they had to sneak him into an Airbnb that technically didn’t allow pets, but at that point, what were they going to do… tell the world’s most determined cat he couldn’t come in?

From roof-riding stowaway to full-blown travel influencer, Ray Ray proved one thing: curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat. Sometimes, it gets him front-row seats to Hamilton.

Here’s the cat-mom Mara Denardo explaining this chaos.

Boomers and Gen X Are Right—Life Really Did Get Way More Annoying

Ever catch yourself stressed about replying to a text… and then stress even more because you haven’t replied in three days and now it feels illegal to even try? You’re not alone.

A recent online conversation sparked some major nostalgia (and maybe a little collective panic) as Boomers and Gen X’ers shared all the modern stressors we didn’t have to deal with 20 or 30 years ago. The main takeaway? Being an adult in the digital age feels like running a marathon through an anxiety minefield… in skinny jeans.

Here are some of the biggest “didn’t-exist-back-then” stress bombs that younger generations now have to juggle:

1. Cybercriminals
Back in the day, locking your front door was enough. Now, you’re one sketchy Wi-Fi login away from someone Venmo-ing themselves your entire life savings.

2. Social Media Everything
It’s not just about scrolling through chaos or trying not to fall down a TikTok rabbit hole. You also have to curate your own content like it’s a personal branding exercise. Is your vacation selfie fun, casual, and filtered enough? Did it get enough likes? Should you delete it?! Rinse, repeat.

3. Constant Cameras
We used to worry about bad yearbook photos once a year. Now every brunch, workout, and wardrobe malfunction could be documented, posted, and dissected in HD.

4. Fake News & Deepfakes
Back then, you could assume the news was real and your eyes weren’t lying to you. These days, “trust but verify” applies to everything, including videos that look real enough to get someone canceled.

5. Beauty Standards Have Mutated
We went from “just be clean” to “shave everything, inject something, contour everything else.” Apparently, having a normal face is now controversial.

6. Communication Anxiety
Texting was supposed to make life easier, right? Instead, people are drowning in read receipts, unspoken response-time etiquette, and email inboxes that feel like boss fights. (And yes, some folks genuinely get stressed if they have more than 100 unread emails. Meanwhile, others are just casually coexisting with 13,000.)

7. Language Inflation
People now say literally every other word, and it’s literally making others lose it.

In short, being a human in 2025 often means managing more mental tabs than a 2008 Dell laptop. The stressors might be different now, but the need to unplug (and maybe hide in the woods without Wi-Fi for a weekend) is timeless.

So if you find yourself longing for a simpler time when your biggest media concern was rewinding your Blockbuster VHS tape, just know you’re not alone…

Butter Candles Are Back, and They’re Still Weird

Just when you thought TikTok had finally moved on to new ways of wasting food for visual presentation, the butter candle trend has returned. Yes, the internet is once again telling us to freeze a stick of butter with a wick in it, jam it into a loaf of bread, light it on fire, and call it “entertaining.”

It is what it sounds like: You cut a hole in a sourdough loaf, drop in your frozen butter candle, light it, and watch the butter drip down onto your bread like some kind of greasy, dairy-based volcano. Supposedly it’s “fancy” for dinner parties. In reality, it’s just one wick away from setting off your smoke alarm.

Couple quick pro tips, because people always freak out about this:

You need a food-grade wick… the kind made from things like hemp coated in beeswax. You can grab them on Amazon. And no, you’re not supposed to chew on the wick like it’s beef jerky.
Despite looking amazing on TikTok, the eating part is… underwhelming. Think less “classy charcuterie experience” and more “your bread is crying butter tears all over the table.”

Naturally, the comments are better than the trend itself. One person said, “Maybe I’ll try this instead of drugs.” Another added, “You never know what someone’s doing in their house, bruh.” (Imagine explaining to your neighbors why your kitchen smells like scorched bread and melted Land O’Lakes.)

So if you’re looking for a fall centerpiece that’s equal parts quirky, messy, and vaguely heart-clogging, the butter candle is back on the menu. Just don’t be shocked when your guests say, “Cool… so do you also have chips and salsa?”

(If you’re still not getting it, here’s a video of this “butter candle.” And here’s a recipe to make it.)

@erin_dittmer
🧈🕯️#tistheseason #butterclub
♬ original sound – whimsigothiic

The “Pettiest” Reasons People Have Stopped Hooking Up

Relationships can end for all sorts of reasons… infidelity, distance, “it’s not you, it’s me.” But sometimes? It’s way dumber than that. Especially with casual dating, where the commitment is low and the deal-breakers are weirdly high.

People online have been sharing the pettiest reasons they stopped hooking up with someone, and honestly, some of these sound pretty fair.

Here are some highlights from the list:

The Instagram Drama Queen. One guy said, “She got mad that I never viewed her Instagram Stories.” He barely used Instagram… which apparently was not acceptable.
The Hat Girl. Someone thought his date’s oversized beret was just an occasional fashion statement. Nope. It was her entire personality.
The Walking Jersey. A guy had his last name tattooed across his back. Romantic? Sure, if you’re in the NFL.
The Rude One. They never said “thanks” to anyone, for anything. That’s a fast track to being single.
The Loud Chewer. Do we even need to explain?
The Shoe Enthusiast. One woman spent an entire first date talking about shoes. Three hours. On the second date, she immediately launched into another shoe monologue, and the guy walked out before dessert.
The Litterbug. Someone dumped trash on the ground. Immediate dealbreaker.
The Spoiler. One poor soul had the ending of The X-Files ruined. Unforgivable.
The Bathroom Offender. “He always peed on my toilet and all around it.” Case closed.
The Chatty Movie Buddy. They would not stop talking while watching shows or at the movies. Which is basically a crime.
The Baby Talker. Nothing kills the mood faster than someone saying “pwease” and “tank you” in a baby voice.
The Fresh Prince Test. One guy wanted a Carlton Banks phone case. She said no. He realized she didn’t share his sense of whimsy… and that was that.

So yes, sometimes breakups are petty. But sometimes “petty” is just code for, “I refuse to spend the rest of my life listening to you chew like a horse.”