Today’s quick hits

🎅 Santa may be skipping Canada this year. An ongoing strike by ~55,000 Canadian Postal Service workers could continue well into the holidays. The sticking points: The union is fighting for pay raises, better benefits, and a promise from the CPS to not hire part-time workers or outside contractors, while CPS says it needs to have more flexible work hours – and hire more temporary workers – in order to move to seven-day delivery and be more competitive.

The strike is causing mail to/from Canadians to get held up like Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing. On-time delivery performance in Canada has dropped 14% since the week of October 28, per a recent report from project44. Things caught in the post include: holiday gifts and cards, a bride's wedding dress, and even a father's cremated remains, according to Canadian media.

Thousands of passports are also stuck in transit, putting a question mark on holiday travel plans for many who may end up having to purposely mimic Kevin from Home Alone. Other affected parties include small businesses, some of whom rely on the holiday season for 30-40% of their annual revenue – and the Canada Post to deliver their products. Alternative carriers like FedEx and UPS exist, though capacity is already stretched during the holidays.

⚖️ The Kroger/Albertsons’ merger is like an uprooted plant floating in the ocean – dead in the water. Yesterday, two separate courts moved to block the $25 billion tie-up (the biggest supermarket deal in US history) – one federal and one in Washington state. The government attorneys arguing against the deal claim both workers and consumers would be harmed should it be allowed to move forward.

Kroger has said this legal outcome would likely scuttle the merger, putting Davy Jones’ locker in the position of prepping for yet another recipient. The supermarket pair, the 2nd (Kroger) and 4th (Albertsons) largest grocers in America by market share per Axios, argue the deal would help them better compete with behemoths like Walmart and Amazon and ultimately result in lower prices for consumers.

🐶💬 Science says dogs can be trained to “talk” with humans. In a new study published in Scientific Reports, researchers from UC San Diego and Johns Hopkins analyzed data from 152 dogs who were all trained by their owners to use soundboards, where buttons are pressed to produce pre-recorded words or phrases. They found the dogs in the study were able to combine two-word buttons purposefully to communicate needs and desires (like “outside + potty” or “food + water”), rather than randomly or by imitating their owners. It marks the first-ever published study to analyze how dogs use communication soundboards, which have grown popular on social media.

And if you’re looking for a window into a dog’s brain – it’s exactly what you’d think. The most-pressed buttons in the study were: “Go outside,” “Treat,” “Food,” and “Play.”