27. How to miss every Halloween party in 72 hours
What I learned while sleeping through Halloween and other cultural disasters.
Today’s letter includes: Jet lag revenge, why 19 songs is too many songs, government shutdowns ruining Thanksgiving travel, corporate millennials turning dating into SWOT analyses, Snoop’s mysterious NYE cancellation, Anna Wintour’s space-age farewell, and why Le Labo wearers are restaurant menaces.
Hi friends.
I’m back from Korea and here to tell you that jet lag is so real. If you’re reading this and you’re not in your mid-thirties yet, buckle up! It does NOT get better!
It went like this.
Wednesday: Listen to the Lily Allen album 3 times on the flight home.
Finally get home! Try not to sleep immediately! Fail!
Thursday: I woke up very early. I used my burst of energy to partially unpack my 5 checked bags. I was feeling good as the sun rose and I marveled at the small Korean pharmacy I now owned. Then I sat down at my computer for my first day back at work. Ugh. Had I not needed to work I might have made it to the Saints and Sinners party where “Saints are welcome; but sinners preferred.” The assignment was to dress as your favorite sin—deadly, daily, or delightfully specific, but I was much too tired to even attempt it.
Friday: Why were all of the Halloween parties on weeknights? I’m sure it’s because Friday was actual Halloween and the next day is November. Fundamentally, I know that celebrating Halloween on November 1st is wrong but did the party-throwers consider how that would have been better for me? I missed two surefire bangers this night. Unfortunately their timing didn’t align with my fall into a deep sleep at 6:30PM schedule. I did attempt to listen to the new Hayley Williams album - it’s good but wow it’s so long. 19 songs is too many songs.
Saturday: I woke up at a normal hour and decided going outside could be a cool thing to do. We naturally had no food in the house and took a stroll to the Farmer’s Market at Grand Army Plaza. Nothing releases endorphins like a farmer’s market in the fall. I’ve been listening to the song Tennis from the Lily Allen album every day. I just love the way she asks who Madeline is. My work days on Monday and Tuesday were crazy, as is expected after 2.5 weeks away, so we went to vote early and do our part in contributing to the only good news in what feels like forever! Since we missed out on all the Halloween fun, I decided to be brave and watch the movie Weapons. It’s not as scary as Hereditary but it’s in that vein. I was asleep by 10:30PM.
Sunday: It was the marathon. I ate Fan Fan Donuts while I watched hundred of much more athletic people run by. My sister and I went to a restaurant nearby and it took ten million years to make some eggs. I think they did not realize patronage would sky rocket that day. I was so tired from watching people be athletic and waiting for food, that I couldn’t make it to a post-marathon party of some friends who ran. Jet lag makes you flaky! Sleep took me at the early hour of 9PM.
I’ve finally adjusted somewhat. Nothing like a big injection of hope that the U.S. isn’t completely doomed to get you through hump day! And to prove that I’ve truly recovered I went out in MANHATTAN last night - gasp! Who is she? I was rewarded with a cute Moose Knuckles purse, a baby Moet bottle, and 4 minutes with glamorous Jassmin before she had to jet home.
Being in Flatiron at night is weird. As I sat on the 2 train home I listened to Rosalia’s new album, Lux. You can really feel her classical music training - she sings in 13 languages on the album including obvious ones like Spanish, English, Italian, and German and not so obvious ones like Japanese and Catalan. The album feels like a soundtrack you can apply to the movie of your life to make it feel extremely dramatic: Berghain while I do my morning chores; La Perla while I stroll to the grocery store; Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti as I do my bedtime skincare routine.
I have a lot to say about Korea, but I haven’t had time to gather my thoughts. Luckily, you can fill the time listening to Rosalia, Lily Allen, and Hayley Williams (who just dropped an extra song, bringing the total to 20 LOL).
Speaking of Korea, a Korean skincare brand for children now exists but it probably shouldn’t.
Anna Wintour’s final cover as editor-in-chief of Vogue dropped — and it’s Timothée Chalamet photographed by Annie Leibovitz, wearing Celine, imposed onto an image of space from the Hubble Telescope courtesy of NASA. Annie Leibovitz also was supposed to give a talk at the Brooklyn Paramount but ended up getting bumped out by Zohran - very funny to imagine ladies showing up trying to see Leibovitz and getting the youth of Brooklyn celebrating a historic moment. She was a good sport about it though: “We gave a talk last night at the [Brooklyn] Paramount theater and we were bumped out of there because [incoming New York City mayor Zohran] Mamdani was having his victory party. But it was for a good reason,” she told WWD.
Men who wear too much cologne wear Le Labo. I like reading Magasin Menswear - it’s interesting because there isn’t a lot of menswear focused journalism compared to the insane amount for women. In the most recent dispatch, Louis Cheslaw meditates on “fragrance” and whether dudes are still wearing it. He noted, interestingly, that when he was in Japan the fanciest reservations they had sent emails ahead of time asking them not to wear any fragrance. I guess that makes sense as an over-sprayer can be unpleasant. His friend who works at Lovely Day in Soho said “the whole restaurant immediately squirms when an overly enthusiastic sprayer walks in” and that it’s usually Le Labo’s Thé Noir 29 but notes that the store is down the block, which may contribute to its ubiquity. He also asked readers what they wear and shares the results. Most shockingly, one reader admits that he uses a room spray on his body!
The government shutdown is ruining Thanksgiving travel (shocking no one). Nothing says “holiday spirit” quite like the government being shut down two weeks before Thanksgiving and taking your travel plans with it. The FAA started cutting flights by 4% today at 40 major airports because air traffic controllers are working without pay (again), and it’ll escalate to 10% cuts by next Friday. Over 800 flights were already canceled today, with delays averaging 2+ hours at major hubs. Airlines are offering refunds and rebooking, but good luck finding a seat during the busiest travel week of the year. At least we can all bond over shared misery at the airport Buffalo Wild Wings.
The New York Times is trying to make its employees influencers. It’s doing so by pushing their personality-led newsletters like with Vaughn Vreeland, who writes a weekly baking newsletter for them called Bake Time. I actually love Vaughn’s NYT videos and follow him on Instagram; he cooks in his real apartment kitchen which is appropriate for the salary he’s probably making as a journalist and not an unattainable “movie apartment” or sprawling test kitchen. This new approach obviously makes sense because investing in their own employees as influencers is way cheaper than paying outside ones, but it also gives the employee more power as their fame grows. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Bye, bye Nancy Pelosi. This one’s for you.
Snoop Dogg’s New Year’s Eve special got cancelled. NBC pulled the plug on Snoop’s planned two-hour NYE extravaganza from Miami, with the rapper citing a need to focus on his upcoming Olympics coverage instead. You know, those Winter Olympics that don’t start until February. NBC says they’ll do something “bigger and better” in 2026, which feels like when your friend cancels dinner plans by saying “let’s definitely reschedule soon!” This leaves ABC’s Ryan Seacrest basically unopposed for New Year’s Eve dominance, which is probably how he likes it.
Corporate millennials are turning dating into PowerPoint presentations. Coffee Meets Bagel hosted a “Shark Tank but friendly” singles event in Singapore where 120 professionals gave 2-minute pitches for themselves or their friends as ideal partners. Think pie charts analyzing personality traits, SWOT analyses of relationship readiness, and LinkedIn screenshots as romantic credentials. A subhead in this article covering the event made me chuckle: “The corporates yearn for offline dating.” Apparently it was a positive experience. Not sure how it would play here in the U.S.
Sweetgreen is selling their salad-making robot company to Wonder for $186M. I’m not gonna lie, I don’t really understand Wonder. It’s like a takeout operation with multiple restaurants in it? I’m not sure what gap in the market they are trying to fill. They’ve marketed to me across many channels, including giving me a $20 coupon and a pretty good brownie in person at the Not-A-Normal Show where my friend Caroline was selling her vintage goods (check it out). If anyone has tried it or understands it, let me know.
Conde Nast consolidated Teen Vogue under Vogue and had more layoffs yesterday. Including at Bon Appétit and Conde Nast Traveler.
Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone are developing a Miss Piggy movie with Cole Escala of Oh, Mary! writing the script.
Rumor has it that Substack is suppressing free content. If you’d like to resist the algorithm pushing paid content only, then liking, sharing, quoting and restacking this newsletter will help! <3
Look at this crazy cabbage!!!
