Five Guys Burgers and Fries is the fastest growing restaurant chain in the U.S. It’s doubled its number of American locations since 2009 . . . while doubling the size of plenty of Americans in the process. And clearly we’re okay with that.

In a new nationwide survey, Five Guys was named America’s favorite burger chain. It beat out the chain that USUALLY wins the survey, even though it’s only in a few states . . . In-N-Out Burger.

Fuddruckers came in third, A&W came in fourth, and Smashburger came in fifth.

On the other end, Dairy Queen was named America’s least-favorite burger chain. Although if you’re going to Dairy Queen for burgers and not their BRILLIANT ice cream creations, that’s your fault.

Jack in the Box came in second-to-last. McDonald’s was third from the bottom, Hardee’s/Carl’s Junior was fourth, and Burger King was fifth-to-last.

(PR Web / Forbes)

66-year-old Steve Gustafson was trimming a tree in his yard at the Villages retirement community near Orlando, Florida on Tuesday.

He heard his nine-year-old terrier, Bounce, yelping . . . and Steve knew his dog needed help.

It turned out a seven-foot-long, 130-pound alligator had grabbed Bounce and was swimming away with him. Steve shouted, quote, “You’re not going to get him!” and LEAPT into the water to save Bounce.

The alligator tried to pull BOTH of them under the water . . . which was about three feet deep . . . but Steve was having none of it. He pushed the gator into shallower water and wrestled Bounce free.

Bounce was cut . . . and her rabies tag was bent. Steve needed a few stitches . . . but neither of them were seriously hurt.

(Orlando Sentinel)

21-year-old Michael Mayweather of Racine, Wisconsin has a history of anger problems. In fact, right now he’s on probation and taking court-ordered anger management classes. Classes which clearly aren’t working.

Michael’s 19-year-old brother Abrey lives right near Michael’s anger management classes. So on Monday afternoon, they were hanging out before the class and playing “Madden NFL 13″.

Abrey was beating Michael and taunting him. And that’s when Michael got angry and they started FIGHTING. They ended up ripping the front door OFF THE HINGES, and brawling into the hall of Abrey’s apartment complex.

At least four people called 911.

Both Michael and Abrey were arrested and charged with domestic abuse.

(Racine Journal Times)

Back on July 20th, 18-year-old Paula Asher of Woodford County, Kentucky T-BONED another car carrying four teenagers. She was DRUNK, and drove off. Cops quickly tracked her down and arrested her for a DUI, and the hit-and-run.

And when Paula got home, she decided her first move should be . . . telling her friends on Facebook what happened. So she posted, quote, “My dumb [a**] got a DUI and hit a car . . . LOL.”

Fortunately, none of the teenagers she hit were KILLED. But when their parents found out that Paula was publicly LOLing over hitting them, they alerted the county.

On August 14th, Paula was in court and the judge told her to deactivate her Facebook account. Paula didn’t. So the judge just hit Paula with TWO DAYS IN JAIL for CONTEMPT OF COURT.

Those two days will probably seem like nothing compared to what she gets for being an underage drunk driver who committed a hit-and-run . . . but the “LOL” post on Facebook and refusing to delete her account definitely won’t help her get leniency.

She’s due back in court next week.

(NBC 3 – Louisville / NBC 18 – Lexington)

A guy in Australia witnessed a FIRE TORNADO last week, and the video is on YouTube. It happened after a dust devil formed over a brush fire and sucked up a bunch of debris. At one point, the whole funnel looked like it was burning.