Latest news with #Topanga
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Danielle Fishel reveals she still has some of the hair she chopped off nearly 30 years ago on 'Boy Meets World': 'I have the biggest chunk!'
Topanga's big chop was an iconic moment in the Boy Meets World universe — and Danielle Fishel said her mom kept a memento of it after all these years. Fishel, who played Topanga, previously discussed sharing her locks with in-studio audience members after she snipped her hair during the season 4 episode "Hair Today, Goon Tomorrow." But to her surprise, Fishel discovered that she hadn't gotten rid of all the strands. On the most recent episode of Pod Meets World, the actress said her mother, who kept all of her Boy Meets World memorabilia, recently gave her a chunk from that nearly 30-year-old episode. "I have the biggest chunk," she said. On the show, Topanga tries to make a statement about vanity by chopping off her beautiful, long hair, but it backfires as the teen spirals out of insecurity. In real life, Fishel had wanted to get her "first adult haircut" for months before the episode, but the producers wouldn't let her touch her head until they could write it into the show. Even after the producers agreed to let her cut her hair, Fishel said they argued over the length. "It was an actual negotiation," she said in a previous episode of the podcast. "And there was a lot of stress about whether or not I was gonna listen because [they] knew I had all the power with the scissors in my hands." The audience gasped when she snipped her real hair, but they were eager to get a piece after the taping ended. Now, Fishel is uninterested in sharing the rest of the loot with others. After costar Will Friedle suggested auctioning off the hair for charity, Fishel shut down the idea. "Whoever buys that, what do they do with it?" she asked. Instead, Topanga's iconic chopped hair will remain in her garage for the rest of her life — or until Fishel's kids clean it out of the house. Listen to the entire episode of Pod Meets World below. Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
4 AI Tools Rescuing Restaurants and Individuals From Inflation
Family, father and kids with selfie in restaurant with smile, care and bonding with food for web ... More blog. Dad, mom and milkshake with African children for profile picture post on social media in diner From fast-casual chains to your fridge at home, artificial intelligence is stepping in where supply chains, labor markets, and budgets are buckling. If you've felt the pinch while ordering takeout or reading your grocery receipt, you're not alone. With inflation lingering, labor costs rising, and potential tariffs threatening imports — 15% of the U.S. food supply is imported, including 32% of fresh vegetables, 55% of fresh fruit, and 94% of seafood — the cost of putting food on the table is surging. Dining out, once a weeknight convenience, now feels like a splurge. Even meal prepping is no longer cheap But behind the scenes, a new kind of intelligence is helping the industry—and consumers—hold the line. It's not another subscription box or budgeting hack. It's AI. From commercial kitchens optimizing waste and labor to smart apps turning your fridge into a precision tool, artificial intelligence is quietly becoming one of the most effective tools in the fight against food inflation. Here are four ways AI is helping restaurants stay open, households spend less, and everyone eat smarter without sacrificing quality—or sanity. When you think about your rising food bills, the complexity behind the scenes of your favorite eateries or the cafeterias that serve thousands daily might not immediately come to mind. Yet, inefficiencies there directly contribute to the prices you pay. Enter Topanga, an advanced kitchen AI platform co-founded by Adam Bailey, an economist and former head of data at Sweetgreen. Topanga is quietly revolutionizing over 430 commercial kitchens and diverse foodservice operations—from bustling fast-casual restaurant chains and large-scale hotel dining halls to critical hospital cafeterias and university meal services. Its core mission is to leverage AI to slash operational costs, particularly food costs, enabling these businesses to thrive without inevitably passing every rising expense onto consumers. 'In this challenging era of margin risk, Topanga's AI gives kitchens within all types of foodservice environments the intelligence and tools to operate far more efficiently and sustainably,' Bailey explains. 'We believe that true sustainability in the food industry is intrinsically linked to smart cost savings. It's AI identifying and eliminating financial drains, especially around food, which is the most direct way to keep menu prices affordable and these essential food businesses alive and serving their communities.' Here's a look at how Topanga's AI-driven approach makes a tangible difference in reducing food-related costs, directly benefiting both the foodservice operators and, ultimately, your wallet: By embedding AI deep into the operational fabric of the foodservice industry, Topanga helps these businesses significantly reduce their primary expense drivers, especially food costs. This not only strengthens the viability of restaurants and other foodservice providers in a tough economic climate but also acts as a crucial buffer against rising prices for consumers. The intelligence Topanga provides is a key strategy in making the entire food ecosystem more resilient and affordable. Moving into your own kitchen, AI-powered meal planning apps like Mealmind are designed to take the stress and guesswork out of grocery shopping and cooking, directly impacting your food budget. You tell Mealmind your dietary preferences, goals (like weight loss or muscle gain), and even your budget, and its AI gets to work. The result? Less food waste, fewer last-minute expensive takeout orders because you have a plan, and a noticeable reduction in your grocery bill. It's like having a personal nutritionist and budget advisor rolled into one. Did you know that a significant portion of food waste occurs in our own homes? Forgotten leftovers, produce wilting in the crisper drawer – it all adds up. Nosh is a food management app that uses AI to help you keep track of what you have, use it before it expires, and ultimately save money. These apps turn your pantry and fridge into a well-organized, cost-effective system, ensuring the food you spend your hard-earned money on actually gets eaten. While its parent company also develops sophisticated AI platforms for retailers, the Too Good To Go consumer app offers a brilliant, simple way to save money while fighting food waste on a local level. The concept is straightforward: restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and grocery stores often have perfectly good surplus food at the end of the day that would otherwise be discarded. This model is a win-win: businesses recoup some cost on food that would be lost, and consumers get a great deal. It's a direct, tangible way AI-facilitated connections are helping people eat well for less. As food costs continue to challenge household budgets, AI is proving to be more than just a buzzword. It's delivering practical, effective solutions that can lead to real savings. Whether by supporting restaurants like Topanga to manage their expenses or by empowering individuals with tools like Mealmind, Nosh, and Too Good To Go, artificial intelligence is reshaping our relationship with food and finance for the better. By embracing these technologies, consumers can gain more control over their spending, reduce waste, and navigate the rising tide of food prices with greater confidence.
Fox News
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
‘Boy Meets World' stars declare the ‘worst' and most ‘idiotic' episode of the series
Several of the "Boy Meets World" cast members seemed to agree on which episode was the worst of the series. On a recent episode of the show's rewatch podcast, "Pod Meets World," Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle discussed the eighth episode of the sixth season, "You're Married, You're Dead," which they collectively dubbed "arguably the worst episode" of the show. In the episode, Cory, played by Ben Savage, goes to a Hooters-style restaurant called Cleaváge to prove that though he's married to Topanga, played by Fishel, he's still one of the guys. But while there, he loses his engagement ring in the process. Strong, who played Cory's best friend Shawn, explained, "This episode felt very weird to me in that it felt like somebody had written a draft of an episode that was very clearly like Topanga is upset that Corey goes to essentially a strip club or Hooters. And then they kind of backed off of that by, like, having Topanga be very understanding." "This ranks up there with arguably the worst episode for me of the series for every reason." "And in the rewrite, it's almost like everything the characters are saying is going against the actual plot, and so it felt kind of forced in a way, and then some of the jokes felt rushed," he continued. "I don't know. Something felt off. It felt like this was a bad tape night for some reason." He also had issues with the fact that much of the cast wasn't in the episode much, but admitted portions were "pretty funny" and praised his co-star Savage. But as an episode, "it just didn't land in certain parts for me." Friedle, who played Cory's older brother Eric, had even harsher criticism. "This ranks up there with arguably the worst episode for me of the series for every reason," he said. "The entire episode I thought was idiotic," he said, adding that though people think he's being harsh, "I know TV. This was not it. This was a bad episode of television all the way around. That's what I think about this episode." Fishel agreed with her co-stars, mentioning she feels like maybe they weren't in it as much because they could sense it was bad. She also took issue with her character's reaction to everything, saying, "And I am furious that they put the words, 'Well, as long as there's women willing to dance like that, there will be men to see them' in Topanga's mouth. How dare you? How dare you?" Fishel felt it went very much against Topanga's character, adding, "If that's a point you want to get in there, you better find someone else," further explaining she didn't like that Topanga and Angela, (Trina McGee) bad-mouthed the female dancers in the episode. "Boy Meets World" aired on ABC for seven seasons, from 1993 to 2000.
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong Recall Their Awkward 'Boy Meets World' Kiss: ‘Maybe the Worst Episode of Television'
If you were traumatized by Topanga and Shawn kissing on Boy Meets World, you are not alone. On the March 27 episode of Pod Meets World, former Boy Meets World stars and current podcast co-hosts Danielle Fishel, (who played Topanga) , Rider Strong (Shawn) and Will Friedle (Eric) recapped the sixth episode from season 6 titled "Hogs & Kisses." In the BMW episode, Topanga and Shawn kiss for basically no reason, according to the stars of the show. "This episode is maybe the worst episode of television I've ever seen ever in my life," Fishel, 43, said on the rewatch podcast. 'It's terrible. There's not one redeeming quality other than Ben [Savage].' 'It makes no sense. It's stupid, and it is not funny,' she continued. In the 1998 episode of the series, the characters film a promotional film for the fictional Pennbrook University. In the video, Topanga and Shawn share a kiss, causing Corey (Savage) to worry that something is going on between the two friends romantically. Related: Rider Strong Says It Actually Did Make Sense for Cory and Topanga to Get Married at 18 on Boy Meets World On the podcast, Fishel added that this was the episode that she knew she was "done" with the show. "I checked my soul out of my body," she said. Strong, 45, recalled that he didn't even remember doing the episode until Fishel brought it up. Friedle, 48, exclaimed that it was "one of the worst TV kisses" he had ever seen, mostly because, as the podcast hosts recalled, the smooch hadn't even been rehearsed. "You just put your lips together," Friedle said with a laugh. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories."Yeah, I don't remember making out all week," Fishel recalled. Strong admitted that there was maybe something to the random kiss between two platonic friends, if only because it falls into the canon of Boy Meets World so well. He said on the podcast, "I feel like there's a 300 or 400 page book, like, a Ph.D thesis to be written about the magic of kissing on Boy Meets World, like the how and all the nuances. Right?" Read the original article on People
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Topanga Raises $8M to Bring AI-Powered Efficiency to Foodservice's $27B Packaging and Waste Problem
LOS ANGELES, CA / / March 26, 2025 / America's foodservice operations are running on outdated infrastructure, losing billions in food waste and single-use packaging costs each year. Topanga, the AI-powered kitchen intelligence platform, is fixing the problem at the source-not with more recycling bins, but with automation that eliminates waste and unlocks margin. Now, backed by an $8 million Series A funding round led by Blue Bear Capital, with participation from Struck Capital, Amasia, and Wonder Ventures, Topanga is scaling its platform across enterprise foodservices in colleges and universities, healthcare, and hospitality settings. Eliminating food and packaging waste at the kitchen level is one of the fastest, most scalable ways to lower operating costs, drive down resource intensity, and build a food system that's both profitable and sustainable. Tackling Foodservice's Hidden Costs For decades, waste has been written off as the cost of doing business. But between packaging and overproduction, U.S. foodservice operators are losing more than $27 billion annually. Legacy systems make it impossible to course-correct in real time-so inefficiencies compound, and margins shrink. Topanga is changing that with real-time automation designed specifically for modern foodservice teams. What Topanga Offers ReusePass: A tech-powered reusable packaging system with a 99% return rate, integrated with Grubhub and used by major players like Aramark, Sodexo, and Compass Group. StreamLine: An AI-driven smart scale that automatically measures food waste and helps kitchens reduce overproduction by 70%-saving up to $78,000 per kitchen location each year. "Kitchens don't have time for more dashboards-they need automation that actually saves money and reduces labor," said Page Schult, CEO and Co-founder of Topanga. "We built Topanga to make waste reduction effortless, turning what used to be a sunk cost into a strategic advantage." Why Investors Are Backing Topanga "Topanga is addressing a critical and often underappreciated driver of both environmental impact and operational inefficiency: waste in commercial kitchens. Their enterprise platform delivers measurable sustainability outcomes alongside meaningful cost savings, aligning with the growing demand for solutions that are both environmentally and economically compelling. We are proud to support Topanga as they scale their technology and expand their impact across the food service industry," said Vaughn Blake, Partner, Blue Bear Capital. What's Next With this new funding, Topanga will: Launch and scale StreamLine across enterprise foodservice operations. Expand ReusePass into senior living, healthcare, and hospitality environments. Grow its engineering, design, biz dev, and client success teams to meet rising demand. About Topanga Topanga is a kitchen intelligence platform that helps foodservice teams waste less, save more, and operate more efficiently-with real-time automation, not more admin. From AI-powered packaging returns to smart food waste reduction, Topanga empowers teams to cut costs and boost sustainability without compromising performance. About Blue Bear Capital Blue Bear is a venture capital and early growth equity firm driving the expansion of digital technologies and machine intelligence into multibillion-dollar verticals across the energy, infrastructure, and climate industries. The team comes from leading energy private equity firms and features technology expertise from the tech startup world alongside operational leadership from large-scale technology developers. Blue Bear's portfolio covers operational AI, IoT, and cybersecurity technologies, all deployed with enterprise customers to drive connectivity and intelligence across the world's most critical Media ContactLauren Wallack-EstesOutlier Partnerslauren@ SOURCE: Lauren Wallack-Estes View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Sign in to access your portfolio
