👋  Good morning. File this one under “acting jobs you’ll never get”: New York City’s Metropolitan Opera just held auditions for a starring snake in an adaptation of Mozart's "Così fan tutte." A carnival performer-turned-opera actor was in charge of picking out the new leading reptile, hoisting each into the air under bright stage lights and staring them in their beady little eyes to test demeanor. The winner: Princess the big sun-glow boa constrictor.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The most interesting business stories of the week

• Big sleep’s final frontier is your nose: A new wave of companies is betting the fastest route to sleep runs through your nose. We looked at bedside device that puffs AI-tuned scents your way throughout the night, and another that wafts 40 secret essential oils past your face all night to improve both sleep and brain health.  Read more
  
  
• A bougie way to escape a hurricane: A Florida startup, PriorityEvac, promises its members a seat on a private flight out of town through its new hurricane evacuation program. The membership costs $1.25k but the company’s founder says what they’re really selling is “peace of mind.”  Read more
  
  
• The rise and fall of Columbia House mail-order music club: The legendary mail-order music club that'd send dozen albums for a mere penny just announced it's officially going out of business after 71 years. How the heck did Columbia House make it work for so long?  Read more
        
• The miniature housing market is a $2.5B business: No longer mere child's play, designing a dream house in miniature is an increasingly popular hobby among young adults — and it carries a surprisingly outsized price tag.  Read more
  
  

WORTH A CLICK

👵  An oldie but a goodie:  The big business of bachelorette party buses

🔥  One of our most-read stories this week:  The tiny logos behind a global power shift

⚒️  A free resource:  7 niche jobs you never knew existed

AROUND THE WEB

📷  Game: A daily word game with images as clues.

🔋  Kinda wild: Next time you use a battery, give thanks to the dead frog that inspired its invention.

📚  Bored?: Build your own 3D library.

👁️  That’s interesting: The whole deal behind those huge coin-operated binoculars bolted to scenic overlooks.

💀  For spooky season: A travel guide for seeing the world’s most impressive catacombs.

🐶  Aww: Sleepy puppy.

SHOWER THOUGHT 

Treating a bad worker the same as a good one won't make the bad worker better but teach the good worker to stop caring.  SOURCE