🍬 Sweet stories inside | Bulletin #153

This week: saving skyscrapers 🏙️

May 06, 2026

New Yorker Hotel 📍 New York, NY, USA 📸 Agnieszka Potoczna

A mystery ant was found colonizing Times Square planters in 2011 - a species so unknown it earned the nickname "ManhattAnt." Genetic testing revealed a shocking identity: a mild-mannered European ant that's neither dominant nor city-dwelling back home. But in NYC, all bets were off. In less than a decade it became the city's second most common ant species, spreading beyond the island at a mile per year. By 2022 it had invaded countless apartments and cleared hardware stores clean out of ant bait. From nobody to New York royalty … talk about making it in the Big Apple! 🐜

THE SCORES OF WES ANDERSON

This summer, Wes Anderson’s most iconic scores come to life in a concert series at the Hollywood Bowl: a night where cinema meets symphony. More info here 🎶

THIS WEEK IN AWA AWESOMENESS

👋 May the fourth be with you
🎂 The sweetest dynasty
🎨 A second life in São Paulo
🏙️ The Chicago skyscraper guy

What do stolen artwork, Star Wars, and Cinco de Mayo all have in common? This week in history!

Domino Sugar Factory 📍 New York, NY, USA 📸 Sara Kuprowska

THE MOST REFINED DYNASTY

At its peak, the Domino "Sugar Pope" dominated the sugar market, supplying 98% of America's granular goodness from this single Brooklyn waterfront factory, that is until the sweetness soured when workers launched one of the longest strikes in New York City history...

Parque Minhocão 📍 São Paulo, Brazil 📸 Rafa Rojas

BIG WORM’S SECOND LIFE

A massive highway was built to celebrate a dictator, winding like a serpent through São Paulo's historic center and suffocating the community for decades, until residents reclaimed it, renamed it, and turned it into the city's most democratic space…

Instagram Post

THE SKYSCRAPER GUY

Known as "Skyscraper Guy," Tom Liravongsa has made a career of rescuing century-old towers and orchestrating their second act, restoring ornate details most people never knew existed. His current co-star: a Chicago Art Deco giant hiding forgotten mail chutes, secret rooms, and a Prohibition-era speakeasy in the basement, all revealed to millions through the "backstage tours" he posts online…

This week, we want our secret link winners to win something that will really stick with them… Oh! How about an Adventure Sticker Pack? Happy searching! 🔎