LOOK CLOSELY AND YOU JUST MAY FIND A CUTE CARTOON OR THROWBACK REFERENCE DRAWN ONTO THE GLASS OR CAST INTO THE PLASTIC OF YOUR VEHICLE.
These hidden flourishes are known as “Easter eggs” and they’re more common than you may realize.
For example, owners of a new 2023 Toyota Sequoia or Tundra are discovering a hidden message on their windshields. Perhaps in reference to the new and improved features in the 2023 models, the lower edge of the trucks’ windshields include the words “Badass Trucks” spelled out in Morse Code.
Hidden under the airbox cover of the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX is an engraving of a T-Rex devouring a velociraptor, an apparent reference to Ford F-150 Raptor.
Every Jeep Gladiator contains a small “419” molded into the bed liner, a reference to the area code of Toledo, Ohio, where every Wrangler is built.
However there’s more to these hidden messages than designers and engineers having a little fun. Automakers trademark their Easter eggs, which prevents aftermarket suppliers from including them on replacement parts.
Therefore if your “Badass Trucks” windshield cracks, the only place to get an exact replacement is from the factory.
STOP HORSING AROUND
Seniors at Conrad High School in Montana pranked their principal by exploiting an obscure law that forced him to spend a school day caring for a dozen horses.
Principal Raymond DeBruycker told Newsweek that three days before graduation this spring, a dozen seniors rode horses over 4 miles to school, through different towns and across railroad tracks.
“Montana has an old law saying if a student rides their horse to school, the school principal has to feed and tend to the horse throughout the day,” Conrad Public Schools posted on Facebook. “It looks like Mr. DeBruycker has his work cut out for him today.”
Fortunately DeBruycker took the prank in stride. “I’m happy to give the kids a memory they can talk about that is not harmful in any way.”
THE LAST MILE
It’s estimated that by next year, there will be 300 million online shoppers in the United States. That’s 91% of the entire population.
The backbone of this emerging ecommerce economy is the delivery driver. They may be invisible to many customers, but without them you’d never get next-day delivery of those Pac Man oven mitts you ordered at 2 a.m.
Earlier this year, Circuit, makers of route planning software, published the results of a study they ran to identify the unique challenges facing today’s delivery drivers.
Drivers revealed that the most annoying aspect of their job is a new practice called tip baiting where customers include a healthy tip when they order and then reduce or remove the tip after the delivery is complete.
Other top frustrations include nonexistent or incorrect addresses, customers not being home, excessive customer demands, or being asked by customers to participate in TikTok videos.
Nearly 1 in 5 delivery drivers say they’ve encountered this phenomenon where a customer leaves a note on their door or in the delivery instructions requesting that the driver do a dance for their home security camera after dropping off their package. The customer then posts the footage on TikTok or other social media channels.
Many drivers feel pressure to do whatever a customer asks in order to avoid receiving a bad review or complaint. But not all drivers.
“I’ve seen them ask me to do a twirl or a dance. It’s mostly Ring cameras. Every house has a Ring camera these days,” a driver from upstate New York told Vice. “I’ve only seen these requests in the app. If they said it in person, I would probably smack the s**t out of them.”
Yikes. It should be no surprise then that drivers sometimes exhibit bad behavior themselves.
Most startling, 79% of food delivery drivers admitted to eating customers’ food.
Nearly 1 in 4 revealed that they had purposely damaged packages, while 17% confessed to stealing or opening and then resealing packages.
And, in a move utilized by this writer when discussing revisions with editors, 6% of drivers say they pretend they can’t speak English to avoid unwanted conversations.
