3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS

* Prohibition helped make Walgreens the giant it is today. While prohibition made alcohol sales illegal from 1920 to 1933, “medicinal” alcohol was still perfectly legal. Anyone with a doctor willing to write them a prescription could score a pint of otherwise unobtainable whiskey. In 1919, Charles R. Walgreen had about 20 pharmacies in Chicago. In 1929, there were more than 500 in several states.

Question: Which businesses today will benefit most from legalization of the natural drug industry? (Not just pot. Psychedelics too!)

* No guns were recovered from those arrested during the January 6 breach of the Capitol Building, according to the FBI. Though many news sources reported “shots fired” during the riot and it was, thus, believed that there was an exchange of gunfire, it seems this may not have been the case. Asked at the March 3 Senate hearing if any firearms were recovered or if any of the  300+ people arrested faced firearms charges, FBI counterterrorism official Jill Sanborn said, “To my knowledge, none.”

* A Russian physicist was zapped in the head by a high-energy beam of radiation and lived. Back in 1978, while doing some troubleshooting, Anatoli Bugorski stuck his head inside a particle accelerator, not knowing it was on. A focused beam of protons entered the back of his skull and exited through his nose, burning a hole in his brain. He miraculously recovered with only paralysis on the left side of his face and loss of hearing in his left ear. Bugorski, who is still alive, couldn’t say anything about his ordeal for years because of the Soviet Union’s policy of secrecy on nuclear power-related issues.

THE NUMBERS

* $69.3 million – the sales price of “Everydays – The First 5000 Days” at a Christie’s auction, a new high for a piece of art that exists only digitally. The piece, a collaged JPG file, is composed of images that the artist known as Beeple has been posting online every day since 2007. It was not only the first purely digital NFT (nonfungible token) sold by Christie’s, it was the first time the 255-year-old auction house offered to accept digital currency as payment.

I’m finalizing a book I’ve been writing (for years) on how to invest in art. This is exactly the sort of insanely volatile market sector I tell everyone – other than hedge fund managers who would likely spend their gazillions on even stupider things – to avoid.

* $99 billion ‒ the amount of money spent by US pet owners last year on such things as pet food/treats, supplies/OTC medicine, veterinarians, and services (walking, grooming, etc.), according to a survey by the American Pet Products Association. This is up from $95.7 billion in 2019, an increase that coincides with the increase in pet ownership during the pandemic. An estimated 11 million households reported getting new pets.

About 10 years ago, I urged a relative – who loved pets – to get into this business. I gave her a plan for selling into this trend that would have resulted in a multimillion-dollar business now. She didn’t take me up on it. That’s fine. But I can’t help but wonder if she ever thinks about that when she sees reports like these.

* 700 ‒ the number of unaccompanied migrant children that were apprehended by border patrol on Wednesday alone. This week, border patrol has arrested an average of 450 children daily –  up from 340 last week. According to The New York Times, the number of detained unaccompanied migrant children has tripled in the last two weeks.

THE THOUGHTS 

* “Face the demands of life voluntarily. Respond to a challenge, instead of bracing for catastrophe.” ‒ Jordan Peterson

* “Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.” ‒ W.H. Auden

* “The best way to save time is to spend it wisely.” ‒ Michael Masterson