MarkFord
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Responses to my posts about statin drugs keep coming in. Friend and neighbor JS said this after reading my last little essay on why I don’t trust statin drugs:
“My doctors are Chicken Shits. Why didn’t they yell at me and tell me that I was the cause of my high cholesterol count!
“I ate garbage sugar, processed foods, grains that I couldn’t even digest properly, and loved every damn minute! My doctor could have told me the truth. That I had to change my diet. Instead, he prescribed a statin pill.
Months later, JS was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic. Again, his doctor could have told him to exercise and change his diet. Instead, he recommended another statin.
“Boy, was that good news! I could continue to eat junk, get fat, and hang out on the couch, without worrying about my cardiovascular health. All I had to do was drop a pill once a day. Thank God for modern medicine!”
Since then, JS had done a lot of research. Here’s what he says now:
“Statin therapy. Is total – and I mean total – Bullshit! Doctors that recommend it should be charged with attempted murder. You think I am kidding? How about these simple facts…
“The real number of people statins save from heart attacks is 1%, not 33% as the advertising states. How do they claim 33%? Just by, using statistics. You may want to search the term Relative Risk Reduction or RRR to understand the deception that it creates.
“If you don’t believe me, ask your doctor. I did that several times, and he finally told me the truth and confirmed the 1% absolute result of a statin and then commented, ‘But 1% of a million people is a lot!’ In my book, a lot is a vacant piece of property. Tell that to the other 990,000 that got nothing in return!”
Re my Feb. 17 article on “Mentoring the Second Generation,” JV – one of the “kids” – wrote in with this:
“Hi Mr. Ford. I’m writing to give you updates on where I’m at.
“I am already seeing the results of immersing myself in copywriting.
“I am passionate about copywriting. I think copywriting paired with ads is my dream career and I want to thank you for opening up that door for me.
“I also got myself a job in Publix, and I do Uber as well. I know you support hard work. I don’t know what Publix will teach me about business, but I know that is a great example of creating loyal customers.
“In the meantime, I will be looking for a job in sales and will be crafting copy.
“Thank you again Mr. Ford. I hope you have a great week.”
The conservancy that I’m developing in West Delray Beach, FL, has one of the largest and best-curated palm tree collections in the world, as well as a growing collection of outdoor sculptures, a traditionally styled Japanese tea house, a stock of African cycads, and dozens of other exotic plants and trees.
This is one of the palms:
Mangrove Fan Palm
Binomial name: Licuala spinosa
The Mangrove Fan Palm is native to Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, its leaves are used for hats, for decorations, for walking sticks, and to wrap food. Its heart is enjoyed as a vegetable. And in traditional Cambodian medicine, it is used in several ways. The bark of the trunk, for example, is used to treat tuberculosis.
For more information about Paradise Palms, click here.
Making a Stranger’s Day
Click here for a video clip about a passenger helping out an Uber driver in trouble. When I watched it, it reminded me of a similar experience I had several years ago.
Here’s my story…
I was getting a haircut in NYC. Through the plate-glass window of the barbershop, I could see a young Black guy pleading with a pair of cops. My barber followed my gaze.
“That’s the young man that cleans all the storefront windows in this area,” he said. “A nice kid. He works hard.”
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
I went outside to see what was going on. A small crowd had gathered, taking in the scene. “I think they’re impounding his car,” one of them told me.
“For what?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Sounds like he didn’t pay a bunch of tickets.”
The kid looked frantic. He was pacing back and forth. “I need my car for my work,” he said. “Please! I’m going to pay those tickets.”
“You got the money?” one of the cops asked.
“No. But I will get it,” he said. “Just don’t take the car.”
The cop began writing him up, and his partner walked back to the squad car. I went over to him and asked if they would let the kid go if I paid his tickets. He looked at me as if he thought I was crazy.
“I’m serious,” I said.
He looked through his paperwork. The total is X,” he said. X was a lot of money. More than I expected. But I happened to have almost exactly that in my pocket, because I had just come from the bank.
He pulled his partner aside, spoke to him for a few minutes, then came back to me.
“Are you sure you wanna do this?” he asked.
“I am,” I said.
He motioned for me to follow him, and we quietly made the transaction behind his car. I thought about asking for a receipt but decided against it. He walked back to his partner and whispered something to him. Then he said something to the kid, and the kid started screaming and jumping up and down. “I knew it!” he shouted. “There is a god! There is a god!”
He searched the faces in the crowd to see if he could figure out who to thank. But I was already halfway down the street. I don’t believe in a god, but that made my day.
Julie Nolke is a Canadian comedian, actress, writer, and YouTuber. I discovered her online while searching for comic relief during the COVID lockdown She is very talented, as you can see from this clip of her audition tape for SNL…
“Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.” – Franz Schubert
The Truth About Kale
For the first 60 years of my life, I knew nothing about kale. I had never even encountered the word. Then… there it was. On every restaurant menu and on every foodie’s lips. Not only were all my posh friends ordering it, they were raving about how great it was. Healthy and delicious, they said.
I was not interested. Kale is, first of all, dark green in color, which is a reliable indicator of bitterness. It is flat and dry and wrinkled, which is visually repulsive. Even the aroma is off-putting. I was eventually persuaded to try it. And guess what? It was even worse than I’d feared!
Why, then, are my friends still recommending it? I can think of only one answer to that. They are lying. They don’t like it, but they think they should. Much like, in our early teens, my peers and I would pretend to like the taste of beer.
Frankly, I don’t think humans were made to eat kale. And now, finally, I have some proof. Take a look here.
Nah. Let’s take a taxi…
When in the Big Apple, K prefers the subway to vehicular transportation. I don’t get it. The subways are dirty and crowded. But I comply. Next time we are there, I’m going to remind her that there is yet another reason to call an Uber: the crazy amount of violence occurring in NYC’s underground stations. It seems like every week now I’m looking at a YouTube video of some crazy beating up someone on the platform. The victim is usually a woman, and an older one at that. The beating goes on while other subway riders look the other way.
Now these nutcases have raised the ante. Beatdowns are passé. The new thing is pushing people onto the tracks. So far this year, there have been 25 such incidents, including two that were fatal.
In the clip below, you can see a particularly appalling attack of this kind: a full-grown man being body-slammed into the tracks.
Here’s Katy Perry singing “One of the Boys,” a song that was not inspired by the book I reviewed above (and, as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with any of the book’s themes). It’s about something that might be considered impolitic today. It’s about a tomboy, who, as she moves into puberty, realizes that she really is a girl after all.
Here Today; Gone Tomorrow
A Lesson From the Demise of Juul
When you are part of a fast-growing business in a fast-growing industry, it’s easy to imagine that growth is normal and that the good things that come from growth are going to keep on keeping on. But as I’ve discovered many times in my career, it ain’t always so.
In fact, it’s common for fast-growing start-ups to hit a point where sales level out. Or start to fall. There are many reasons why that happens. Four of them can be lethal.
From the inside:
* Insufficient capitalization.
* An inability to discover the optimal selling strategy before the clock runs out.
From the outside:
* An economic downturn in the industry.
* An unanticipated act of government over-regulation.
This last one is what happened to Juul, a pioneer in the e-cig industry that got big fast by promoting its e-cigs to minors by producing them in flavors like mango and crème brûlée. By 2018, the company was dominating the market. Altria (Marlboro’s parent company) bought 35% of Juul for $12.8 billion, giving the business a total valuation of $38 billion.
When the media began reporting on how popular Juul’s products were in middle schools, the FDA took action, and in June banned the company from advertising in the US. Altria’s $12.8 billion investment has since crashed by 97%.
Click here.
Uber’s Latest Feature: Is It Good for the Customer Experience?
When dealing with issues in business, you’re always looking for ways to increase productivity by simplifying routines and incentivizing employees to accomplish more in the time they have.
Uber recently introduced a feature that may simplify decisions for its drivers and motivate them. But it may also reduce the quality of the customer experience. I’m talking about the new technology that shows Uber drivers the customer’s destination and what they will earn from the trip before they accept the ride. The company claims this will result in fewer cancelled trips for riders. Yes, it will reduce those annoying, last-minute cancellations. But it will also – almost certainly – mean that if you want an Uber for a short ride, perhaps anything less than 30 minutes, you may have to wait a long time to get one.
Click here.
The Numbers Are Pretty Clear
We are in a bear market. The questions, for investors and retirees on a fixed income: How bad is it? And how long will it last?
Three facts from Bonner Private Research:
* The average bear market on the S&P 500 lasts 13.7 months and ends with losses of around 38%. That’s based on data from the eight bear markets since 1973. (A bear market being defined as a decline of more than 20% from the high.)
* The 1973 bear market lasted 21 months and resulted in a peak-to-trough decline of 48%. It took 69 months to make new highs. The dot.com bear lasted 31 months, saw a 49% peak-to-trough decline, and took 31 months to make new highs. The 2007 crash lasted 17 months, resulted in a 57% decline, and took 40 months to recover from.
* This bear market, so far, has lasted six months and resulted in a decline of around 20%.
After enduring the pandemic, ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft are now facing high inflation, driver shortages, and dwindling passenger numbers. According to a new report, the average fare is at an all-time high. And collectively, the companies had 20% fewer riders and 35% fewer trips in Q1 compared to Q1 2019. Click here.
New data shows home prices jumped 20% year-over-year in March. The rise marks the highest jump in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index in its 35 years of data collection. Click here.
The Biden administration’s proposed tax holiday for gas is dumb for so many reasons. First, because it could only, at best, make a 2% difference of 15 cents. But also because this type of tax – a use tax – is one of the few that actually helps keep prices low. Click here.
Common Sense Prevails…
In Sports: After smashing national records and winning the NCAA championship, transgender swimmer Lia Thomas announced that she was hoping to compete in the Olympics. Maybe not, said FINA. On Sunday, the swimming world’s governing body announced a new rule disallowing trans females from competing in women’s events if they went through puberty as males. Trans men, however, will be free to compete against natural-born men without restrictions. Click here.
In Energy Production: Germany, a longtime European leader in the green energy world, is going to reopen shuttered coal plants as oil prices continue climbing. Click here.