Quick Hits

Bitcoin, California, and more!

Quick Hits Archive 1H2026

Quick Hits Archive 2H2025

Quick Hits Archive 1H2025

Quick Hits Archive 2024

Quick Hits Archive 2023

Quick Hits Archive 2022

Quick Hits Archive 2021

Quick Hits Archive 2020

September 25, 2026

Prediction market Polymarket is paying LeBron $15mm per year. This is almost 4x his salary.
Apparently, a good way to vet someone that has virtually pitched you a crypto-related idea is to have them put in writing that “Kim Jong Un is fat and ugly.”
Old El Paso is the new sponsor for the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
Stevie Ray Vaugh got his big break playing guitar for David Bowie.
The caddie for PGA pro Alejandro Tosti dropped the bag and walked off the course in the middle of the round on Thursday. No explanation was given other than it is known that Tosti is a jerk.
Tosti once made a caddie wear the words “Need a wife” on his official caddie bib.
There is a Women’s Professional Baseball League in the US. That’s it. That’s the quick hit.
Nirvana gets 40mm monthly listeners on Spotify which leads 90s artists.
The band Cracker posted the Nirvana stat. They have 1mm monthly listens.
There is one French-speaking (majority) town in the US: Grand Isle, Maine.
The recurring beat of the Mission: Impossible theme song is MI in morse code.
When touting the success of the University of California, the New York Times writes, “Students on University of California campuses may struggle with basic math, but they are graduating at record rates.”
There is an NFL play rating system (PFF) that grades each player’s play. When TJ Watt intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown, it was graded as a negative play because he did not pressure/sack the quarterback.
When Boise State introduced its blue football field in 1986, critics complained that it might attract ducks that would crash into it.
California’s average price of electricity is double the national average ($0.27/kWh vs $0.12/kWh as of 2024).
The Chicago Bear’s 56-point-scoring differential in back-to-back weeks (won 59-3 and then lost 9-3) is only the third largest in NFL history.
The 1973 Atlanta falcons hold the record. They opened the season with a 62-7 win and then had a 31-0 loss the next week.
Stanford University has (allegedly) digitally altered the race and gender of students in its marketing material.
Kalshi is asking the CFTC if it can offer margin trading to its predictors (gamblers).
People Inc (yes, owner of People Magazine among other publications) owns 27% of MGM (the casino company). People was bidding to buy all of MGM. People recently dropped its bid. Now there are reports that MGM wants to buy People.
The Washington Redskins are selling merchandise with the old name and logo.

Sept 16, 2026

Scorigami!!! Chicago’s 59-37 win over the Carolina Panthers is the 1096th unique score in NFL history.
Scorigami!!! Minnesota’s 39-22 win over the Packers is the 1097th unique score in NFL history.
For the first time ever (with 16 games being played), every NFL score differential was unique. Games were won by 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,12,13,14,17,18,20,21, 22, and 24 points.
Mr. Pibb is the fastest growing soda this year (up 11% points).
Mr. Pibb was originally named Peppo, but Dr. Pepper sued.
An ETF provider is trying to introduce funds that track stock prices over the course of hours.
Happy Days stayed on the air for seven more years until 1984 (six seasons) after the infamous Jump the Shark episode in 1977. It stayed in the top 20 TV shows for five years after The Shark.
Hungary is the only landlocked country to be ruled by an admiral (Miklos Horthy from 1920 to 1944).
86% of students at Mt. Holyoke College claim to be “gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer / questioning.”
The average purchase price for a ticket to the UT vs Ohio State game was $822.
The low ticket price for the US Open men’s semifinal match was $28. The same ticket was $300 two weeks ago.
Arion Carter, a defensive back for the other UT (Tennessee), was suspended one game for accepting a $427 plane ticket to an NFL training camp.
Arion Carter is donating $427 to cancer research for every tackle he makes this year. His girlfriend has cancer. He made eight tackles on Saturday.
James Madison beat Wagner 87-3.
NOAA discovered a yellow sponge and a pink sea star sitting side by side on the sea floor at a depth of 6200 feet. No Square Pants were seen.
Name Chage! Novo Nordisk is dropping Nordisk. The company was formed by a merger between Novo and Nordisk in 1989. Novo was founded by former Nordisk employees in 1925.
There is such a thing as Regular Strength Tylenol.

Sept 9, 2026

The battle between the States and Kalshi over whether prediction markets should be federally legislated is heating up. One of the better lines so far: “People’s inability to…wager on whether Taylor Swift will meet the Pope” does not create a market emergency.
The prediction markets have the probability of this case going to the Supreme Court at 45%.
The US Open gave media credentials to over 100 “influencers.”
During Naomi Osaka’s first round match, the chair umpire had to stop play to tell the influencers, “Guys, please, in the suite behind me…please take your seat.”
The University of Chicago’s football helmet sports a sticker that highlights the school’s 101 Nobel Prizes. (We are no fans of the biased Nobel these days, but we do appreciate the historical standards necessary to be a Laureate in Economics, Physics, and Chemistry which comprises 80% of the prizes won by Chicago.)
The UN voted 164-1 to change the size of Africa on the global map. America voted No. The new map will better reflect the true size of Africa. But the old map better reflects the shapes and angles of Africa.
For you non-Texans, highway 130, the bypass around Austin affectionately called the Pickle Parkway, has the highest speed limit in the country: 85mph.
When Sam Darnold won the Super Bowl with the Seahawks last season, he earned a bonus of $178k.
When Sam Darnold won the Super Bowl with the Seahawks last season, he had to pay California $249k in taxes. (This is somewhat misleading because he had to pay taxes on a portion of his total contract…not just the Super Bowl bonus. But hey, it is California, and they really do tax athletes on a weekly basis, so we are running with it.)
When Michigan fans stormed the field after their “win” over Western Michigan, it was statistically the most pathetic field storm since 2019. This mathematical determination is based on the 27.5-point spread by which UM was favored.
The most deserving field storm occurred when Illinois defeated Wisconsin in 2019. They were 30-point underdogs.
Of the 125 miles of shoreline on Martha’s Vineyard, 77 miles are private beaches. You can buy a key for access. Keys rarely trade publicly, but they reportedly can be worth up to $400k.

Sept 2, 2026

According to Time magazine (there was one?), Paris Hilton is one of the most influential people in Artificial Intelligence.
Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia, did not make Time’s top 100 list.
17% of Americans think they have seen a UFO.
Pizza Hut was founded by two brothers in 1958. They borrowed $600 from their mother to open the first store.
45% of Americans call generic athletic shoes “sneakers.” 41% call them “tennis shoes.” 6% call them “gym shoes.” And 8% call them something else.
There is a high school quarterback in Hawaii named Fatboy Jesus-Kapesi. He is 6’1 and 268lbs.
Last week, a high school football game in Riviera, Texas was played under a “rattlesnake advisory.”

August 26, 2026

Political satire is now illegal in New Mexico. A new law states it is a crime to share “materially deceptive media that is likely to injure” a politician’s electoral chances.
“Anchors aweigh” is the proper phrase.
Oregon has suspended reading, writing, and math proficiency tests for high school graduation.
Harvey Mudd is the most expensive college in the US at $104,512 per year.
MLB players, managers, coaches, and umpires earn a “gold card” after eight years of service. The card provides them with free access to any and all MLB games.
There are about 5,000 clouded leopards in the world.
Australian dollar (AUD) denominated bonds issued by non-Australian entities are called “kangaroo” bonds.
Apparently, Saudi Arabia stopped funding LIV golf after seeing Sergio Garcia tear up a sign at the Masters.
The first non-Indian settlement in Las Vegas was established by Mormons.
The Mormon Church owns about 2mm acres in America.
The top 5 highest paid college football quarterbacks make more money than the top 5 rookie quarterbacks in the NFL ($25mm vs $18.6mm).
You will sometimes encounter a red quarter because it was once used in an arcade to test a machine…the owner wanted to make sure the $0.25 was not counted as revenue.
UT has the most expensive average ticket price in college football ($388!).
Northwestern somehow ranks #9 on the list with an average price of $248.
Dolly Parton had 25 #1 hits on the Top 100 for Country songs.
Whitney Housont’s rendition of “I will Always Love You” made Dolly about $10mm just in the 1990s. It is thought to be the fifth highest royalty pay out of all time and the largest over a short window.
Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” tops the list with an estimated $66mm in Royalties.
Bed, Bath & Beyond is now called Neighborhood Intelligence (Name Change!).
The Iowa Attorney General is suing the California Attorney General for trying to block the Paramount/Warner Brothers merger.

August 19, 2026

When Jordan Spieth and Brian Harman were paired together during the PGA’s St. Jude Classic, there was a lefthander playing right-handed and a right-hander playing left-handed.
The bourbon company Buffalo Trace is now making a body wash (oak barrel and amber scented).
Ferrari sold its first electric car, the widely panned Luce, for $40mm at Sotheby’s auction. This is a record for a car. Ferrari is donating the proceeds to charity.
Colombia House, the direct-mail music company, is shutting down after 71 years. Through the years, it has been owned by CBS, Sony, Time Warner, Blackstone, BMG, JMCL, and Filmed Entertainment.
A Minnesota man has been arrested for a Medicaid fraud scheme. He previously won the state’s “Outstanding Refugee” award.
There is a new battery company ($2b value) that converts rust into energy.
Harvard has a new grading policy aiming to limit the number of A grades given. No more than 20% (plus four more students) of a class can get an A
A couple of Harvard courses that might see their enrollments drop:

Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food

Elves, Fairies, and UFOs:Dangerous Encounters with Otherworldly Beings in Folklore.

One way in which the CIA could tell if someone was a Russian spy was if they knew the capital of Illinois (the spies all studied hard enough to know it was Springfield…not Chicago like most Americans).
From 1927 to 1948, the size of the average donut hole shrunk from 1.5 inches to 3/8 of an inch.

August 13, 2026

The Florida Chamber of Commerce has named NYC mayor Mandami its Economic Developer of the Year. It has announced this with a billboard in Times Square.
The defense for the guy who shot Charlie Kirk says that since the defendant killed his intended target, he should not be eligible for the death penalty.
A Shake Shack employee called in sick, robbed the restaurant at which he worked, then showed up the next day for work like nothing happened.
The kiosk at a Shake Shack in Salt Lake City was programmed to recalculate the bill if the customer did not include a tip. (Coincidence?)
When Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas was forced to lip-sync when performing live on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967, she ate a banana while “singing.”
In Major League Baseball, if a runner fails to tag up on a fly ball but crosses home plate before the third out is recorded at a different base, the run is allowed according to the “Fourth Out Rule.” If the defense leaves the field before either throwing to third (and thus recording the “fourth out,”) or officially complaining/appealing to the umpire, the run stands.
No animals have green fur.
Deer and boars think tigers are green because they are dichromats. They cannot see the color orange…it appears as green.
A bettor won $4mm after betting on Jackson Kouivan to win the 3M Open (PGA).
Kouivan won $1.6mm for winning the 3M Open.
July 23 was the biggest day for commercial flights (globally). There were 153,359 flights.
Roberto Clemente is the only player in MLB history to have a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam. Now that is ultimate!
There are 21 US cities that used to have 100k residents but no longer do.
UTEP has the highest acceptance rate (100%) of all the 138 FBS (major D-1) football schools (sorry AY).
U-Michigan announced that freshmen courses in the first semester will no longer have grades.
Merion’s wicker basket design on its golf flag sticks (they call them “standards”) was awarded a patent in 1916.

August 5, 2026

Janik Sinner sits at 4th on tennis’s career prize money list.
The NY Post reports that Greta Thunberg’s sister is a “risqué pop singer who’s got nothing to say about climate change.” The story is sponsored by Ford and its F-150.
Marie Antoinette did not say “let them eat cake.” The philosopher Rousseau did when Marie was still a child in Austria.
Walmart’s pharmacy customers spend 5x as much as other customers outside of the pharmacy.
In response to the SEC’s proposal to lengthen the reporting periods for public companies from every three months to every six months, Exxon said it wants to report earnings every four months. (If we could make the rules, we would mandate that every company must use a calendar year reporting cycle regardless of the frequency.)
There are approximately 19,400 working turbines in Texas.
Iowa has the second most turbines in the country with 6,300.
According to CoPilot, Bob Seger, The Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac are three of the most played artists on the radio.
According to Gemini, the top three are The Beatles, Rihanna, and Michael Jackson.
From our cross-country driving experience (not through a lot of big cities), CoPilot is correct!
A map used during a State Department presentation at a conference in Brazil mislabeled every single country in Africa. OpenAI was to blame…and the worker who relied on it.
Kody Clemons is the 15th major leaguer to hit an “ultimate grand slam” with two outs.
An ultimate grand slam is a walk-off homerun with the bases loaded when trailing by three runs.
There have been 24 perfect games pitched in MLB.
Wisconsin was the first state to have an income tax. Nine states currently do not have one.
Only 4% of homes in the UK have air conditioning.
There are over 100,000 “agentic trading accounts” on Robinhood. These are retail trading accounts that are automated and run on AI (in theory designed by the human creator).
An upstart AI company offered instant interviews to anyone that got a company tattoo.
A professor at Cambridge who is already under investigation for plagiarism is now being questioned about his resumé. He claims to currently be a visiting professor at Ohio State in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. OSU has no record of this person ever being an employee at the school. And the DEI office closed last year.
Only three Congressmen have been expelled since the Civil War. Michael Myers (Halloween!) in 1980, James Traficant in 2003, and George Santos in 2023.

July 10, 2026

There was a recent Tech IPO called Bending Spoons. It owns AOL.
In Alaska, the two men running for Senate have the same name. Where’s Eddie Murpy when you need him: “The name you know!”
Potato prices are down about 90% over the last month.
Only 25% of homes in France have air conditioning.
The CEO of Axon (the taser maker) made $164mm in 2024. He made $40k last year.
The NBA is going to test a new rule in the summer leagues. A fouled player will only get one free throw. If he gets fouled on a two-point shot, the one free throw will be worth two points. If he gets fouled on a three-point shot, his one free throw will be worth three points.
Bald eagles were taken off the endangered species list in 2007.
Apparently, the most used word in online dating profiles in the state of Texas is “oil.” It is “lounge” in New Jersey.
The only song to never leave Apple Music’s Top100 since 2017 is Come Closer by Wizkid.
Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. They shot for five weeks before firing him and replacing him with Michael J Fox.
There is a movement in California to incorporate “Girl Math” into the K-12 curricula.