Monopoly at McDonald’s, Johnson and Swift on ‘SNL,’ Skydance victorious, and every single Uglies flavor

Hello! Welcome to the Oct. 10, 2026, edition of the Saturday Wrap. Here’s everything you might have missed from The Omnicosm.

Is Monopoly at McDonald’s as a-peel-ing as it used to be?

The 1990s were a great time to be a kid at McDonald’s. You had giant, metal play structures in the shape of McDonaldland characters. You had those bags of lemon cookies. You had Teenie Beanie Babies Happy Meals. And you had the Monopoly at McDonald’s game. 

While the world would learn years later that the McDonald’s Monopoly game had been compromised, that didn’t stop me and my siblings from not only obsessively collecting every game piece from our Friday night smorgasbord of McDonald’s food, but also watching other customers to see if they had neglected to remove the Monopoly pieces from their food as they went to throw their trash away. (Read more)

Uglies Kettle Chips won some awards. I tried the entire lineup.

This edition of Snackology is gonna get ugly.

Because we’re diving into the full lineup of Uglies Kettle Chips today.

This newsletter is no stranger to potato chips. And while Lay’s and Pringles have been featured prominently in Snackology, I always enjoy finding a smaller brand that’s doing really good — and really fun — work. Earlier this year, I brought you my thoughts on all five regular flavors of Chicago’s Local Style chips. We’re going to almost double that chip haul with Uglies’s nine varieties of kettle chips. (Read more)

Olipop Pomegranate Sparkle is my new favorite flavor

Did you know that the Yeti characters sometimes seen on cans of Olipop have names? The duo of Oli and Pop made their debut in November 2024, anchoring seasonal cans of Vintage Cola and Ginger Ale. 

The prebiotic soda company added Pip to the family as the mascot for Crisp Apple last November, and is now expanding the lineup of Yetis yet again with Pom, the face of Olipop Pomegranate Sparkle. (Read more)

Wonder is more than just bread. It’s cupcakes and donuts. And also bread.

When you think of Wonder, you probably think of white bread. That white bag marked in primary colors is an iconic bit of American food. There’s white bread. And then there’s Wonder bread. 

But did you know that Wonder vastly expanded its offerings last year? The bakery jumped into the world of cupcakes, mini donuts and honey buns in March 2025. (Read more)

McDonald’s Pickle Boost races to the Chicago Marathon

The Chicago Marathon is this Sunday. If you’re running the marathon, you should obviously carbo-load ahead of time on the full menu of Monopoly at McDonald’s options. But after that — if you’re looking to put some pep in your step — the fast-food chain has you covered with McDonald’s Pickle Boost. (Read more)

The Taco Bell x Duolingo collab makes sense in any language

Happy belated Global Taco Day! 

I’m sorry that Snackology missed the worldwide celebration yesterday — I assume there was a parade of some sort — but the newsletter is here today to make up for my tardiness.

What better way to celebrate Global Taco Day than with Taco Bell? The fast-food chain has teamed up with Duolingo to release Duo Habanero Sauce and the Duo’s Usual combo. (Read more)

V8 Energy’s got what your body craves. It’s got electrolytes.

V8 Energy is expanding its roster of energy drinks with two major developments: The addition of cans of V8 Energy with Electrolytes and the release of V8 Energy with Electrolytes Drink Mixes. (Read more)

Food Finds: Hershey wants you to buy a Hershey’s bar to promote Hershey

This is just a normal Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar. But it’s been given a retro rebrand to promote the super-real movie Hershey. If you haven’t seen the trailer for that biopic yet, do yourself a favor and watch it. I can’t describe how fake it looks in a believable way. (Read more)

‘Like displaying heads on pikes’: Skydance merges Paramount and Warner Bros.

Paramount Skydance’s obsessive and hostile quest to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery ended this week, with the merger closing and the announcement that storied studios Paramount and Warner Bros. would now exist under the umbrella of David Ellison’s Skydance branding.

“What once was the peak, is now just the beginning,” Skydance boasted as the combined company’s new name was announced.

I still can’t believe that after over a century of moviemaking, these two studios are now owned by some dork, some failed actor, who has never successfully run one studio, much less two of them together. (Read more)

A victory for Verity as Tom Cruise’s Digger hits rock bottom

Digger was supposed to be a critical and box office triumph for Tom Cruise. Instead, the Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed film couldn’t even break $10 million over its opening weekend while notching a 51 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. (Read more)

Taylor Swift swings by SNL to celebrate Dakota Johnson’s birthday

Taylor Swift was on SNL.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about Dakota Johnson.

Johnson was back hosting SNL just three seasons after her second time hosting the show. (There was a nine-year gap between Johnson’s first and second hosting gigs.) Did Lorne Michaels feel bad for letting Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake hijack her Season 49 episode? Or was he just such a huge fan of “Big Dumb Cups” that he had to get the Verity star back? (Read more)

‘Do you really need pickles right now?’ Veronika Slowikowska joins Shane Gillis for his SNL promo

After Dakota Johnson and Ashley Padilla teased last weekend’s episode, the duo of Shane Gillis and Veronika Slowikowska made the pitch for Gillis’s return to SNL through a series of quick bits. I’m not sure why we got a full promo for the Jalen Brunson season premiere, but it’s a bummer to see SNL abandon that format now. (Read more)

The Omnicosm is written and produced by Bill Kuchman.
Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.

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