👋 Finish this week strong, and don’t half-ass your projects. Take it from Nathan Crowley, Wicked’sproduction designer, who had 9m tulips planted on a farm in Norfolk, England, for the film’s opening number rather than using special effects. Luckily, the dedication won’t go to waste — the tulip farm will be open to the public next spring.
🎧 On the pod:Why Thanksgiving turkey is so cheap this year.
NEWS FLASH
💰 Think that bad egg on your team is a pain? Think again. An individual Macy’s employee hid as much as $154m in expenses over nearly three years, making so many accounting irregularities that the company delayed its quarterly earnings report, which was set to release today. The now-former employee acted alone in consistently hiding small package delivery expenses, according to the company. What the company can’t blame that employee for: Preliminary earnings showed quarterly sales slipped 2.4%.
🍝 The world’s thinnest spaghetti, 372 nanometers wide, was created by researchers at the University College London. Why? Starches have medicinal applications, such as in bandages where they can keep bacteria out but allow in moisture. Since pasta is a starch, researchers made nanofiber strands by using electricity to pull flour and liquid through small metal holes, much like how you’d make spaghetti, perEngadget. That said, more research is needed for health care to adopt this tech, and the resulting pasta would overcook too quickly to eat.
🧀 Can Lunchables make a comeback?: Once a staple of school lunch boxes, the meat-cheese-and-cracker kits saw a 12% plummet in Q3 sales, driving a 2.2% dip in sales for parent company Kraft Heinz, perCNN. Driving the drop: nutrition concerns; competition, including from influencer-entrepreneurs like MrBeast; and a school lunch partnership that backfired after an investigation found the kits contain high levels of sodium, lead, and cadmium. Kraft, which called the report “misleading,” said it will reveal an innovation to the ~$2B brand in the months ahead.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Another unlikely brand partnership is here: KFC and Build-A-Bear Workshop released a collection of stuffed bear accessories, including a KFC bucket costume, a stuffed chicken leg, and chicken pajamas.
Not quite as odd: Krispy Kreme launched a line of Grinch-themed holiday doughnuts. Its Merry Grinchmas Doughnut Collection includes a new Grinch-shaped doughnut that’s filled with “coal” — or cookies-and-cream filling — and dipped in green icing.
Update: A federal judge ruled in favor of a Massachusetts school that disciplined a student for using AI-generated text, including citations for fake books, in an assignment. The judge denied a preliminary injunction to remove a detention from his academic record and alter his grade, though his parents’ lawsuit remains active.
TOOLBOX
We’ve finally reached “Let’s circle back after the holidays” season. Spend your extra time on this stellar content from around our media network:
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… to ramp up your brand marketing. Here’s how to get in the spirit, successfully.
Listen to this: The wild story of one man’s rise from janitor to tech billionaire.
Want some inspiration?Tune in to hear how one entrepreneur turned selling furniture on Craigslist into a business doing $100m+ in sales.
THE BIG IDEA
The smelly space mystery
This weekend, Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station discovered something shocking when they opened the hatch of an unmanned supply craft: It smelled really bad.
Like, “immediately close the hatch and put on a protective suit” bad.
That’s what the cosmonauts did, per Ars Technica, in addition to activating “an extra air-scrubbing system.”
So, what was the smell?
Nobody knows!
NASA reported that air quality levels in the ISS were normal.
But US astronauts said they smelled “spray paint” and the cosmonauts claimed the smell was “toxic.”
Ars notes that Russian spacecraft have had leaks in the past, but it’s still unclear what caused this smell.
Whatever it was…
… space smells enough already:
Astronauts have reported smelling gunpowder and burnt steak after returning from spacewalks, perSpace.com.
Comets surrounded by stinky gasses, including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, have been found.
Saturn’s moon Titan is full of hydrocarbons like methane and benzene, and apparently smells like gasoline.
The good news is that there’s no air in space, so it’s unlikely that you’d ever be in a situation where you could smell this stuff. And if you were, it would be the least of your problems.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place? Here’s exactly how to navigate difficult prospects and buyers.
Pass more tasks to chatbots: Keep track of the AI hacks that actually feel like cheat codes. Use this task delegation kit to whip up your very own playbook.
DATA POINT
Not-so-happy holidays: It looks like many employees are hoping Santa brings a new job down the chimney this year. The majority (65%) of professionals report feeling “stuck” in their careers, according to Glassdoor’s 2025 Worklife Trends survey of ~3.4k workers.
Those in tech are feeling particularly fed up, with 73% of respondents reporting dissatisfaction with their careers. Women were slightly more hard-hit with professional agita, with 68% saying they feel stuck compared to 62% of men.
It makes sense that workers are feeling stuck — in many cases, they are. The share of US workers quitting their jobs dipped to 1.9% in September, falling below the 2% mark for the first time since June 2020. And on Glassdoor, career opportunities ratings fell 7.5% in the information technology sector — the largest of any industry.
AROUND THE WEB
🎥 On this day: In 1942, future Best Picture winner Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premiered in NYC.
🪦 That’s interesting: Tony Ho Tran writes about photographing gravestones for findagrave.com.
👀 My First Million: Matchmaking for wealthy people, and six other business ideas.
📋 Chill out: with this list of small, practical ways to improve your day.
