Quick Hits Archive 2023

                                                                       Quick Hits Archive 2022

                                                                       Quick Hits Archive 2021        

                                                                       Quick Hits Archive 2020

July 13, 2024

• Greece has introduced a six-day workweek.  Greece!

• There are more banks in the US than publicly listed companies.

• In the recent UK election, the Reform UK party received about 14% of the total vote.  It only won five of the 650 seats (about 0.8%).

• CNBC commented that “it seems like these 100 point moves in the index keep getting easier.”

• Barcelona had 3k people protesting tourism this past weekend.

• Tourism is responsible for 130k jobs in Barcelona.

July 3, 2024

• To cool off an overheating dog, you should spray its paws with water.  The same is true for humans.  It took the death of a young NFL star in 2001 to discover this.

• 14.7% of McDonald’s ice cream machines are broken.

• Congress passed a specific act in 1980 to build a road in Alaska.  It has yet to be built.

• July 1 was Bobby Bonilla Day.  He collected another $1.19mm.  This runs until 2035 when he will be 72 years old.  He also collected $550k from the Orioles.  This contract runs through 2028.

• The Golf Channel:  Bryson DeChambeau has never finished in the top 30 of the (British) Open.  Golf Channel whispering:  Except for a top 10 finish two years ago.

June 26, 2024

• Convicted felon Martin Shkreli is being sued for playing music.  Years ago, he bought a one-of-a-kind album recorded by Wu-Tang Clan.  He paid $2mm.  When he got out of jail (all sorts of fraud), he had to sell his prized album to pay back his creditors (court mandated, obviously).  He unloaded it for $4.75mm Of course, being a slimy felon, he made copies and is now playing it during live streams on YouTube.

• Ferrari makes the same amount of dollar profit as 27 Teslas.

• Netflix is creating its own popcorn which will be sold in stores.

• New research tells us that companies that use “words like ethical, integrity, and responsibility” in their annual reports are often “associated with a variety of negative outcomes.”

• The first video phone was created in 1964.

• The first hand-held calculator patent was issued in 1974.

• Nine people have died from shark attacks in Hawaii during the last 30 years.

• The next three golf tournaments on the Senior Tour are all majors.

• Denmark is going to tax ranchers for the methane emissions from their cows and pigs.

• Johnny Manziel was drafted in the 28th round of the MLB draft in 2014.

• Olympic housing in Paris this summer does not have any air conditioning.  The US (and others) are bringing their own units.

June 19, 2024

• The Big 12 conference is considering selling naming rights to Allstate.  The two names rumored  are “The Big Allstate Conference” and “The Allstate 12 Conference.”

• No left-hander has ever won the US Open (golf).  They have won the other three majors.

• India has added over 100mm toilets in the last 10 years.

• About 50% of all digital transactions globally occur in India.

• Approximately 20,000 birds are killed each year in California by burning from solar panel reflections.

June 12, 2024

• Heading into the NBA finals, 84% of all bets and 69% of all money bet was on the Mavericks.

• In the weeks leading up to D-Day, a British newspaper had crossword puzzles with answers including Utah, Omaha, and Overlord (and other code words used by the Allies).  It was reported as an unfathomable coincidence.  But the words were likely overheard by schoolboys who contributed to the puzzles.  The children played next to a military base.

• Joey Chestnut turned down a 4-year, $1.2mm contract to eat in the Nathan’s hotdog eating contest.  He now has his own Netflix special for Labor Day weekend.

• Sales of lottery tickets in Japan grew 37% last year.

• Shortly after D-Day, the USS Texas needed to shoot its bomb shells further as the allied forces advanced and pushed the German line backyards.  The captain of the battleship decided to flood one torpedo blister (an anti-torpedo bulge on the side of battleships) to tilt the ship 2 degrees to ensure the necessary angle for more distance.

• Nike lost its bid to trademark the word “footware.”

June 5, 2024

• JP Morgan estimates that Berkshire Hathaway owns 3% of the Treasury bill market.

• A Treasury bond is either 20 or 30 years, a note is between two and 10 years, a bill is under one year.

• 80% of all new cars in 2024 have been “greyscale” in color.  This means white, black, grey, or silver.

• 40% of sports cars are non-greyscale.

• Asics, the running shoe company, is Japanese.

• 25% of Paris marathon finishers ran in Asics.

• The first debt incurred by the US was used to buy gunpowder.  It was a loan in British Pounds in 1775.  (Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here.)

• There is a bill in the Canadian parliament that would give the Health Minister full power to override any government approvals for “OTC drugs, natural health products, and medical devices.”

• An MLB player has been permanently banned for gambling on baseball games.  He won only 4.3% of his $150k in wagers.

• Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia, was asked to sign a woman’s shirt, on her breast, while she was wearing it.  He obliged.

• Someone is bidding over $2k for marijuana butt smoked by Snoop Dog.

• In last week’s Canadian Open, a player’s caddie fell and hurt himself.  They pulled a random fan out of the gallery to carry the bag in his place.

• Supermac of Ireland has failed in its attempts to revoke McDonald’s trademark on the term Big Mac.  But it has successfully won the right to use the term Chicken Big Mac.

• AB Inbev had to get special permission to brew Corona in Germany because the beer contains rice and corn.  German law restricts beer ingredients to malt, hops, yeast, and water.

May 29, 2024

• GameStop sold $933mm of stock during the last week.

• Ben Hogan finished in the top 3 in 48% of the pro tournaments he entered.

• Prisoners in California can choose the gender of the guards that conduct strip searches.

• Illinois passed a bill to change the word “offender” to “justice-impacted individual.”

• Sony is reportedly in talks to buy the Queen music catalogue for $1b.

• The inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League had teams without nicknames.  The six cities were followed by PWHL.

May 22, 2024

• Amherst College is now offering a major in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies.  They must hate Native Hawaiians. 

• The Kyle Fair was a bust.  The 750 people named Kyle that gathered in Kyle, TX pales in comparison to the 2300 Ivans that met in Bosnia seven years ago.  We reported on the first Kyle Fair last year which attracted 1500.  We do not expect to report on the 2025 version.

• Dozens of cannabis plants were spotted (and removed) from the garden of the Wisconsin State Capitol grounds.

• The Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve is being shut down.  It was established in the wake of Super Storm Sandy (not to be called a hurricane…if you are an insurance company looking to not pay claims).  The 1mm barrel reserve was never tapped and will be sold.  Gasoline is not stable enough to store for long periods of time.

• Petrobras, the state-controlled oil company of Brazil (yet still publicly traded if you dare), has had eight CEOs in five years.

• The owner of the Italian soccer league winner (inter Milan) defaulted on its debt to its private equity lender (private credit, as it were).  The management of the team is still from the old owner.  The president of the club is blasting the new owner for adding “risks to the club that could seriously jeopardize its stability.”

• Detroit’s population recently grew for the first time since 1957.

May 15, 2024

• The average consumer spends $61 a month on streaming services.  This is up from $48 last year.

• The Swiss Army Knife company (aka Victorinox) is going to make a knifeless version.

• May is Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) heritage month.

• The mayor of NYC wants to hire illegal aliens as lifeguards because they are “excellent swimmers.”

• Microsoft’s partner OpenAI is going to first release its app on the Mac.

• Japanese electricity demand is set to increase for the first time in 20 years.

• The Minnesota legislature is looking to pass a bill that will allow for people registering to vote can use “in a van down by the river’ as their home address.

• Zimbabwe’s new currency is called the ZIG.

• Two pandas in a Chinese zoo are actually dogs that have been dyed black and white.

May 9, 2024

• Exxon closed its deal to acquire Pioneer.  Oddly, the founder and CEO of Pioneer, Scott Sheffield, was served up as the scapegoat to get the deal done.  The FTC demanded he not be on the new XOM board to prevent him “from engaging in collusive activity that would potentially raise crude oil prices.”

• Did Costanza actually make the Major League Baseball’s uniforms this year?

• The average 30-year mortgage lasts less than 10 years.

• Apple’s $110b stock buyback is bigger than the economies of Guatemala, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, and Panama (each one, not combined).

• The Carolina Hurricane (hockey) are limiting home playoff ticket sales to residents of the Carolinas and southern Virginia.

• The UK has converted one of its largest electricity generation plants from coal burning to wood burning.  The UK considers burning wood a “renewable” energy.

• Tiger Woods finished in the top three in 53% of all the tournaments he played over a 10 year stretch.

• A record $210.7mm was bet on the Kentucky Derby.

• A man who attacked Dave Chappelle in concert is sewing the concert venue for not having the proper security.

May 1, 2024

• Novo Nordisk’s market capitalization is bigger than its home country’s economy (Denmark).

• Greece is building its first skyscraper.

• CZ was sentenced to four months in jail.  Recall he stole billions as the founder of terrorist-enabling crypto firm Binance.  He is estimated to be worth $30b.

• A Pennsylvania court has ruled that Perrier water can be taxed as it is soda and not essential water.  This case started because someone was annoyed at the $0.24 tax on a 16-ounce bottle (she sued in 2019).

• There are 34mm people in America of Irish descent.  The current population of Ireland is 5mm.

April 24, 2024

• The highest ranking for a US airport in the World Airport Awards is #24 by Seattle-Tacoma.

• Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” was originally recorded and released in 1982 to very little fanfare.  When the band members changed (all but the lead singer), they rereleased it in 1987.  It reached #1.

• The University of Utah has the second most NCAA gymnastics championships.

• Only eight colleges have ever won the NCAA team gymnastics championship (started in 1982).

• A California bill will do away with Clear, the airport screening system that allows you to cut the security line.  The author of the bill says, “The least you can expect when you have to go through the security line at the airport is that you don’t suffer the indignity of somebody pushing you out of the way to let the rich person pass you.”

April 17, 2024

• Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee thinks the moon is made up “mostly of gases.”

• Minneapolis is rethinking its mandatory driver pay hike after Uber and Lyft decided to take their business elsewhere.

• US employees of TikTok cannot sell their stock awards, yet they are on the hook for the tax owed.

• Meta’s Reels product has a 79% ad-hit ratio with Gen Z’ers…this is the percentage of users in this demographic that has purchased a product from an ad during a Reels view.

• More American adults drank coffee in the last day than water.  (This is according to the national Coffee Association.)

• A single Las Vegas Sands casino property in Singapore had $1.2b in revenues in the first quarter.

• Homeowners being able to rent their homes for two weeks a year tax-free is called the Augusta Rule.

April 10, 2024

• Mass General Hospital thinks it is racist to drug test newborn crack babies.

• Jersey Mike’s is reportedly for sale.  The asking price is $8b.

• The CEO founder bought a single sandwich shop in 1956.  He was 17 years old.

• Overdue property taxes in New York City have jumped over 30% in three years (almost $900mm in total).

• TikTok’s parent company had $120b in revenues in 2023 and $40b in operating income (EBITDA).

• There are over 420 submarine fiber cables under the world’s seas that transmit over 99% of the internet network.

• The aggregate length of these cables is more than three times the distance from the earth to the moon.

• The Regent International apartment building in Hangzhou, China houses approximately 20,000 people.

April 4, 2024

• Amazon’s “Just walk out” grocery checkout is not powered by AI but rather cameras and 1,000 people in India.

• “Journalists” flying on Air Force One have been warned to stop stealing souvenirs from the airplane.

• Canada Goose, the parka maker, has closed its Aspen store and is opening one in Hawaii.

• The MTA (the NY authority that runs the subway and other NY-only tolls) is demanding that the NYC Marathon organizers pay it for lost revenue due to the Verrazano bridge being closed to cars during the race.

• The Verrazano tolls collect $750k a day according to the MTA.

• The WSJ reports that the company Super Micro is more commonly known as Supermicro.

• California has run out of money for its shark detection system.

• One of the earliest documented uses of a mechanical bull for entertainment purposes was in New Jersey in the 1930s.  (Chalk Creek Junior was curious about Mickey Gilley, so down the rabbit hole we went.)

March 27, 2024

• Lactose-intolerant coffee drinkers have filed a lawsuit against Starbucks for charging extra for plant-based milk.

• It is illegal for Chinese nationals to gamble in Singapore casinos.

• Petrobras, the national oil company of Brazil, spent $40b to build out 115k barrels of refining capacity.  It could have bought 6mm barrels of refining capacity for the same amount of money.

• In Oakland, there were almost 14,000 cars reported abandoned during g a six month stretch in 2023.  The police will not respond to abandoned or stolen cars.  The city is spending $1mm on excess storage for all the stripped cars.

• Scottie Scheffler’s caddie has made more money on the course than Rory McIlroy this year.

• BYU could not be a 5-seed in the NCAA tournament because they will not play on Sundays.

• Subway is dropping Coke for Pepsi.

• The number of mentions of “ESG” during management conference calls has dropped from over 3,000 at the beginning of 2022 to about 1,200 now (probably round-tripping back to zero soon).

• A Texas man has legally changed his name to “Literally Anybody Else,” and he is officially running for president (he has filed with the FEC).

• 5,000 shares of Trump’s SPAC were exchanged for $10.87 instead of waiting one day and selling them at over $42.

• Robinhood is issuing a gold credit card that is actually made of gold.

March 20, 2024

• A scammer in Buffalo fraudulently filed bankruptcy for two other unrelated companies.  Presumably this guy did so to make money by shorting the stocks involved.  But he filed the petitions via mail…as in USPS.

• 40% of India’s 1.4b population is under the age of 25.

• Ireland held a referendum to change some of the language in its constitution.  Critics labeled the wording as being the equivalent of “the woman’s place is in the home.”  The actual language is more contorted, “The State recognizes that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.”  The vote was not successful.

• Ireland’s population in 1961 was 95% Catholic.  It was 69% in 2022.

• The CEO of Palantir said, “The best thing that could happen to short sellers is we will lead their coke dealers to their homes after they can’t pay their bills.”

• PETA is asking schools to stop saying “cheese” during photos.  We are supposed to say “nutritional yeast” to get smiles from the children.

• Minneapolis has passed a city ordinance increasing the minimum wage for Lyft and Uber drivers.  Lyft and Uber have announced plans to cease operations in Minneapolis.

• The NCAA pays about $2mm for each game of March Madness ($2mm for each team making the tourney, $2mm more for each win).  The NCAA pays out this money to the conferences (not the teams) over six years.

• Cocoa prices have doubled in 2024.

• An 11 foot, 750lbs alligator was seized from a home outside Buffalo.  No word if it was owned by the fake bankruptcy filer.

March 6, 2024

• Rihanna was paid $6mm (some reports have it at $9mm) to perform at a wedding in India.

• Rihanna has not performed a concert in eight years.

• A student housing building in College Station has a $47mm note on it.  It has 173 units ($272k per unit).

• In 2019, San Francisco had more drug users (injection, not smoking) than high school students.

• San Francisco has just passed a referendum to require a drug test to receive welfare (presumably you need to not have drugs in your system, but maybe it is the other way around).

• California is proposing a bill that will provide interest free mortgages to illegal immigrants.  No downpayment.  No monthly payments at all.

• Otter Tail County, MN has 1,000 lakes, the most in the country.

• There is a proposed law in Canada that will criminalize the promotion of fossil fuels (speaking nicely about them).

• The Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted to unionize (not many NIL deals coming down the pipe for the Ivy League).

• In India, 78% of people over the age of 15 have a bank account.  This is up from 44% in 2011.

• Renderings of the prospective ballpark for the A’s in Las Vegas do not have bullpens, air conditioning, luxury suites, or lighting.

February 29. 2024

• Texas has 15,300 wind turbines in operation.

• Reddit is issuing its users shares in its IPO.  But the company is warning them that their ownership might increase the volatility of the shares.

• The ex-PM of Thailand faces prosecution for insulting the royalty.

• The husband of a mergers and acquisitions manager at BP overheard his wife talking about a prospective deal.  The husband bought shares of the target company and made a killing.  He fessed up to his wife.  She ratted him out to BP.  BP fired her.  She divorced him.  He is going to jail.

• A woman lost an $800k disability payment because she was busted participating in a tree-throwing competition.

• Some desert landslides go up hill (a “retrogressive” slide).

• Green was the most popular car color in the mid 90’s.

February 21, 2024

• Any Super Bowl bets not related to the actual game on the field are illegal (i.e. any bet involving Taylor Swift).

• The top securities regulator in India, when asked about retail traders buying options, said “If you need diabetes and high blood pressure, then go into this market.”

• China issued more permits for coal plants in 3Q2023 than all of 2021.

• The holiday we just celebrated is still technically Washington’s Birthday… not President’s Day.

• Morgan Stanley is being sued after issuing a $1b margin call against a billionaire.  The lawyers attribute part of the move to “snobbery.”

February 14, 2024

• The first Super Bowl commercials in 1967 cost $37k for 30 seconds.  This past game’s price tag was $7mm.

• The NFL spent $1mm to grow special grass for the Super Bowl.

• U2 played at the new Sphere in Vegas two days before the Super Bowl.  Tickets could be had for $70.

• No Alabama football player has ever scored in the Super Bowl.

• Walmart sells 37% of all televisions in the US.

• New York state taxes online sports betting companies 51% of gross gaming revenues.

February 7, 2024

• The British navy had more personnel in the Revolutionary War than today.

• US Bitcoin mining uses more electricity than the state of Utah (2.3% of the nation’s).

• There is an upstart sports competition trying to take on the Olympics.  It is called the Enhanced Games.  There is no drug testing as it, “openly celebrates scientific innovation.”

• A single software application, Geth, is responsible for maintaining the Ethereum network at the largest crypto platforms.  Decentralized?

• Some blogger has an article in Ski magazine in which she subtitles, “the ski bum lifestyle is physically dangerous for black people.” 

• Six Michael Jordan sneakers sold for a total of $8mm at auction.  They were sold as individual sneakers.

• On particularly windy days in England, the electricity regulator pays wind farms to not generate electricity as the grid cannot handle excess generation.

• The US has not implemented the changes from the 15% global minimum tax which was passed into law in 2021.  Other countries are taxing US companies per this global agreement.

• The National Association of Realtors has trademarked the term “realtor.”

• The National Association of Realtors is the second largest lobbying machine in the US (only behind the Chamber of Commerce).

• The 5-Hour Energy guy who bought the rights to Sports Illustrated only to put it out of business reportedly told the staff upon taking control, “The amount of useless stuff you guys do is staggering.”

January 31, 2024

• Saudi Arabia accounts for only 3% of the global supply of natural gas.

• Saudi Arabia generates a third of its electricity by burning oil.

• 10% of all full-time remote workers were laid off in 2023.

• 25% of young adults who live with their parents say their “sense of independence” has improved.

• There are approximately 1.5 billion empty apartment/condo units in China (some estimate this to be as high as 3b units).

• “Scientists” in the Netherlands have determined that the recent -44.6C temperature in Sweden would actually have been -51C without climate change.

January 24, 2024

• Sports Illustrated is going out of business…sorta.  The magazine has been under a license agreement between two companies…one that owns the brand and the one that publishes it.  The one that publishes it is being taken over by the guy who started 5-Hour Energy.  Before he bought the whole company (there is still a pending tender offer), he decided to buy stock and bonds of the company in the market.  He accumulated enough stock to fire the board of directors putting himself in control.  He stopped paying the licensing fee to the owner of the SI brand, and then he fired all the staff of the magazine.  To recap:  5-Hour Energy guy paid a lot of money to buy the rights to a brand and then he terminated his rights to the brand.

• Joey Gallo struck out 42.8% of his plate appearances last season with a .177 batting average.

• North Dakota is the third largest oil-producing state.

• The WWE (pro wrestling) bagged a 10-year $5b distribution contract from Netflix.

• The head of Southwest’s flight attendants’ s union is upset that the airline “does not value employees equally.”  She was referring to the different contracts offered to pilots.

• Dean Phillips, the only democrat challenger to Biden, won 20% of the vote in the NH primary.  He will get zero delegates.

• Adrian Beltre had a hit off 9% of all the players to ever throw a pitch in a MLB game.

• A California woman was arrested for stealing $2500 worth of Stanley drinking tumblers.  An arrest in California is the real headline!

• A Californian congressman, Ted Lieu, is introducing a bill to ban pest glue traps.

January 17, 2024

• Hertz is selling 20k EVs to buy…ahem…gas powered cars.

• 21% of adults in the US say they are not drinking alcohol this January (we do not believe this).

• 29% of adults say they will drink on fewer days during January (we do believe this).

• NBC paid the NFL $110mm to stream the Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game exclusively on Peacock.

• The average rent for studios to two-bedroom apartments in the largest 50 metro areas in the US has been down seven straight months.  The median rent is now $1,717.

• The claim that a dog in Portugal was the world’s oldest on record is now being challenged.  The dog died last year at supposedly 31 years old.

• The Emmy’s on Monday drew 4.3mm viewers.

• Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch’s mother was the EPA administrator at the time of the original Chevron Deference case.

• Quantas Airlines had 14 fatal crashes between 1927 and 1951.

January 10, 2024

• The NFL accounted for 93 of the top 100 TV broadcasts during 2023.

• The first blue fin tuna auction of the season in Japan sold for $789k.  That is a little over $1500 a pound.  This fish is sometimes called Black Diamond…not to be confused with the black apples in India!

• A 13-year-old beat the game of Tetris.  He cleared 1511 lines in 40 minutes.  The game then just ended.

January 3, 2024

• There is an apple native to Tibet called the Black Diamond.  It is a dark purple color.

• Nunchakus are a training device more so than a weapon.

• 3% of the world’s population has gray eyes.

• India is the only country that has both lions and tigers in the wild.

• White tigers only exist in captivity (and are not a separate species).

• Scorigami!  Baltimore beat Miami 56-19,  It  was the 1084th unique score in NFL history.

• The US Navy has the world’s second and fifth largest air forces.

• Juul’s private share price has collapsed from $279 in 2018 to $1.07 today.

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Quick Hits Archive 2023​

Quick Hits Archive 2022

Quick Hits Archive 2021

Quick Hits Archive 2020

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