Dystopian Dorm 🛏️

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Dystopian Dorm 🛏️

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Goodbye, Spooky Season. Welcome to the first day of Mariah Carey Season. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

✈️ GROUNDED

It was a truly terrifying Halloween weekend if you were trying to get somewhere on American Airlines.

The carrier grounded more than 2,000 flights between Friday and Monday, leaving tens of thousands of people stranded over the weekend. And I can think of no Halloween trick more savage than forcing people to camp out on the floor of Chicago O'Hare with nothing but a Chili's Too and free airport WiFi.

The airline gave the usual airline spiel – bad weather, high winds, etc. But this past weekend wasn't a fluke. Unlucky souls on Southwest went through a similar hell three weeks ago.

What's going on?

Weather problems are nothing new, but airlines don't have the staffing they used to. When winds in Dallas keep flights from taking off, those pilots and flight crew members aren't able to make their next gig, and that sets off a chain reaction of delays and cancellations.

The pandemic brought air travel to a near halt in 2020, and airlines had to scale down. They offered staff buyouts, early retirement packages and unpaid leave to cut costs. Now, as vaccines have revived travel demand, airlines are struggling to hire people back.

Godspeed, Thanksgiving travelers

Unions at the various carriers say some of the service disruptions have been a result of bad management and flawed scheduling systems. And they say that the problems will not end with this weekend's woes, even though American insists help is on the way.

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#️⃣ NUMBER OF THE DAY

$6 billion

The world's richest person is picking a public fight with the UN World Food Program, because that's a valuable use of everyone's time.

Some quick background: Last week, the program's director challenged Elon Musk to help solve world hunger by donating just 2% of his personal net worth. On Sunday, Musk tweeted that he would sell $6 billion in Tesla stock "right now" if the UN agency can demonstrate how the money would be spent. But I for one won't be holding my breath – Musk isn't exactly known for his philanthropy.

👀 DORM FROM HELL

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's right-hand man, appears to be LARPing a "Fountainhead" sequel that literally nobody asked for.

The 97-year-old billionaire is bankrolling a huge new dormitory building at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on the condition that his own design is executed to a T. The trouble is, the design is so offensive that one architect quit in protest.

How bad could it be?

For starters, 94% of the 11-story building's single-occupancy rooms have no windows — a feature Munger says will encourage residents to spend more time outside in the common areas, meeting other students.
"The basic concept of Munger Hall as a place for students to live is unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent and a human being," said Dennis McFadden, an architect on the campus' Design Review Committee, in his letter of resignation.
The architecture critic Paul Goldberger described the design as a "grotesque, sick joke — a jail masquerading as a dormitory."

Imagine shelling out more than $67,000 a year — the approximate cost of out-of-state tuition plus on-campus housing and other expenses at UCSB — and not getting an ocean view. Or even natural sunlight. In Santa freakin' Barbara!

Munger considers himself an amateur architect, which is about as useful as an amateur heart surgeon. Thankfully, Munger sought help from people with actual training in architecture to create the blueprints. And he's standing by his vision.

"When this thing goes up and becomes an extreme success, which is absolutely inevitable, I think there will end up to be more buildings like it on the UCSB campus," Munger said, displaying a level of unearned authority that only a $200 million donation and a lifetime of unchecked privilege can buy.

UCSB says the building will go forward as planned despite McFadden's resignation and the flood of criticism that's followed.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

🏦 Jes Staley has stepped down as the chief executive of Barclays following a UK investigation into his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The bank said the investigation "makes no findings that Mr. Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr. Epstein's alleged crimes."

🦑 A digital currency based off the Netflix series "Squid Game" is trading at $0 after its creators cashed out, effectively stealing an estimated $2.1 million from investors in what's known as a "rug pull" scam.

😷 A single confirmed Covid-19 case sent Shanghai Disneyland into a snap lockdown, with tens of thousands of visitors and staff forced to undergo coronavirus testing before they were allowed to leave the park.

✈️ Southwest Airlines is investigating reports that one of its pilots used the anti-Biden slang "Let's Go, Brandon" — a code that means "F---k Joe Biden" — over a plane's public address system during a flight.