While You Were Offline: Drake and Rihanna, Sitting in a Tree, Almost K-i-s-s-i-n-g

This just in: Print isn't dead! And people are still making the mistake of hitting Reply All on email chains when they really shouldn't! Oh, and even the new new media of WikiLeaks is releasing doctored information created by biased sources! On today's edition of The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same—oh, no, wait. That's a different column altogether. This is the one where we share the highlights of the last seven days' worth of world wide webbery with you. Well then, we might as well get started.

What Happened: Let's say you're a dude who wants to talk to a woman, but she's wearing headphones. What do you do? Those who picked "Look to the Internet for advice," try again.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: Pro tip: Any website calling itself The Modern Man that promises "to make women feel INTENSE attraction to you… even if you're not tall, rich or handsome" is something that should be at the very least treated as suspicious and given inordinate amounts of side-eye. Especially when said site includes a tutorial on "How to Talk to a Woman Who is Wearing Headphones" that begins "if a woman wearing headphones is single and hoping to meet a boyfriend (or even a new lover), she will usually be happy to take off her headphones to give you an opportunity to create a spark with her."

Uh-huh.

Although the website—and, in fact, the article—are a couple of years old by now, this week, Twitter discovered the advice and felt the need to respond as only Twitter can.

After such treatment, it's not surprising that the media started to pile on, reminding everyone how creepy the original post was.

Although, it seems, not everyone seems to agree.
The Takeaway: What if this is just the start of a trend?

What Happened: You know, if two celebrity millionaires can find much-publicized love with each other in this cynical world, maybe there's hope for the rest of us.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: Oh, Drake! You bared your soul for the world at the MTV Video Music Awards, declaring your love for Rihanna, and what did you get in return? A swerve and a cheek kiss, leading to what was undoubtedly the most viral moment of the entire evening, if the coverage is any guide. Almost immediately thereafter, stories started circulating about the history of Drake's seemingly unrequited crush on Rihanna. Was this the new tragic love story that the world was waiting for?!

Soon after the VMAs, a new site—DrakeandRihanna.com—popped up and got people very excited about what was coming (an album? a wedding?). That, however, turned out to be a hoax. But then everything started to come into focus, with an anonymous source telling ET that the pair was definitely dating. Then they kissed onstage and the Internet lost its mind:

Ain't love grand?
The Takeaway: Look, it's definitely real because Rihanna got a tattoo. That's definitely proof that everything is going to turn out well.

What Happened: Think Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Kiellor is a nice guy? Think again. He's not so polite when it comes to presidential candidates.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: You probably know Garrison Keillor as the creator and former host of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion, on which he told heartwarming tales of the fictional Lake Woebegon—a place where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above-average. Genial and good-mannered, Keillor has always seemed like a man with a particular kindness in his heart for everyone. Or, as it turns out, everyone who isn't Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Keillor published an open letter to the Republican presidential nominee that was, to be blunt, surprisingly scathing. Titled "When this is over, you will have nothing that you want," the piece started with no uncertain terms: "The cap does not look good on you, it's a duffer's cap, and when you come to the microphone, you look like the warm-up guy, the guy who announces the license number of the car left in the parking lot, doors locked, lights on, motor running," it opens. "The brim shadows your face, which gives a sinister look, as if you'd come to town to announce the closing of the pulp factory. Your eyes look dead and your scowl does not suggest American greatness so much as American indigestion."

Of course, such a piece made headlines, as much for its the author as its brutality.

Twitter was similarly thrown into discussion, with Keillor becoming a trending topic on the service for the first time in... well, possibly ever:

If only Keillor was still hosting Prairie Home Companion. The next season of the show would be its most popular yet.
The Takeaway: To put things in perspective about how unexpected the sudden trumpeting of Keillor is, we turn to our special correspondent...

What Happened: This week, Twitter figured out the formula behind most mainstream television drama.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter
What Really Happened: It all started with the revelation that The Walking Dead had almost ended up on NBC, with one small twist. "NBC then asked [original series showrunner Frank] Darabont if the show could be a procedural in which the two main protagonists would 'solve a zombie crime of the week,'" the report explained. And then came another report about an upcoming television project which shared a common theme with the NBC/Walking Dead story. To wit: "The drama, which landed at Fox in a competitive situation with a script plus penalty commitment, reimagines the legendary stories of King Arthur in a police procedural."

And thus, a meme was born. Twitter? You've got this, right?

Look, we've got nothing against police procedurals as long as there's one uptight cop who plays by the rules and a maverick who manages to get things done, with the two slowly learning to respect each other's approaches. Can we have one like—

—oh.
The Takeaway: Wait wait wait. We've got this exciting new pitch. Execs, are you ready?

What Happened: An astonishingly short prison sentence for a convicted rapist turned out to be even shorter than expected, and the Internet helped everyone understand just how short.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter
What Really Happened: Maybe you remember Brock Turner? He's the the rapist who was was sentenced to a breathtakingly short six-month jail sentence, prompting the woman he'd assaulted to share a letter she'd written with the Internet. Well, on Friday, Turner walked out of jail just three months after he walked in.

Twitter helped anyone who was confused about the timeline put that into some kind of relatable perspective:

The New York Daily News put more of the story into proper, horrifying context:

The Takeaway: No jokes for this one; instead, we have to take small victories where we can find them for now:

https://twitter.com/saibellanyc/status/771721391620157440