Someone stole my phone this week.  It’s a weird story where it was locked inside of a locker at the gym and then when I came back after my workout and unlocked the locker, it wasn’t there anymore - but my keys and wallet and cards were all there. 

Wouldn’t you take bank cards too if you were looking to steal stuff?  None of it makes sense because when you call it, it still rings - don’t people normally turn the phone off when they steal it?  And YES, I am continuously looking at the Find My app but it looks like the phone isn’t connected to a data network anymore as the location has only updated twice.

So what do you do when you don’t have a phone?

How do you go to the bathroom? How do you play music in your car? How do you authenticate yourself on websites?  How do you take pictures? How do you wait for literally anything that takes longer than 2 seconds?  How do you check the weather, the time, set an alarm, keep track of things in a calendar, the list goes on and on.

Our phones really have become synonymous with our everyday living.  Social media and screen addiction aside, things like payments, two factor authentication, and apps with real utility leave gaping holes in your life when you can no longer access them.  Yes there are always work arounds and “manual” ways of doing things but it really is a bit of a punch in the gut when you realize action item after action item can’t be completed the way you used to do it at a snap of the finger.

But you all already knew that...with your non-stolen phones and all.

(I’ve had to use my debit card to pay?…I know, first world problems…)

This week's issue is a 4 minute read:

🌮 Taco Bell on Stage

👕 Kanye’s Collection

🥐 Michelin’s System

Keynote of the Year Candidate

We’re so used to keynote presentations from big tech companies being these grand spectacles of exciting (or anti-climatic) announcements with fancy stages, celebrity/influencers, and a ton of bells and whistles .  For instance every September the world pays close attention to what Apple will be announcing on stage...which is usually just the same phone with more storage or a better camera.  There’s also Google I/O, Microsoft Build, Facebook Connect, and...

Taco Bell Live Más Live 2024.

The Mexican fast food chain I grew up eating every single Sunday of my teenage life held a big event earlier this month where they had their CEO and CMO up on stage announcing big changes to their menu.  Things like chicken nuggets, Baja Blast ice cream, new sauce packets, and the BIG reveal - a Cheez-It Crunchwrap that has a Cheez-It cracker 17 times bigger than a regular Cheez-It cracker were all announced.  If this doesn’t get you running around sweaty on stage like Steve Ballmer then I don’t know what will.  

Taco Bell’s CEO David Gibbs said they plan on releasing a new product every five weeks this year, twice the rate of what they did in 2023.  Meanwhile if you live in Canada, firstly good luck finding a Taco Bell but secondly, I swear that menu has been the same since 2004 - I’ll believe it when I see it!  Taco Bell’s goal is to continue to introduce new things that will keep people coming back for more.  I’d go all the time if they just brought back 69 cent tacos!

As we live with stupid levels of inflation, people are thinking twice about going to fast food chains - is it really worth it to spend $13.89 + tax on a Big Mac meal these days?  Fast food chains need to continue to find new ways to encourage people to show up and spend their money on unhealthy choices (am I wrong though?).  Perhaps we start to see over the top announcements coming out from the likes of McDonalds given they have already mentioned they plan on focusing on affordability this year.

I mean, a Taco Bell commercial during the X-Games would’ve worked perfectly well too but now I want to know if this is going to be a yearly thing...and how do I get tickets?

Kanye’s Twenty Dollar Dream

If you have followed Kanye West (Ye) in his fashion endeavours, you’ll come to realize everything he’s ever worked or collaborated on has been suuuuper expensive.  Nike Red October’s to rare Yeezy’s to Pigalle collaborations - the list goes on and on about how unaffordable Kanye and fashion have been.  

This all said, there was an interview with Forbes where he said he wanted to make clothing affordable for everyone and eventually free (how?). Everyone, including Ye, thought this was going to be the Gap collection he unveiled, until Gap didn’t want him anymore.  And then Kanye went into the shadows of rejected billionaires only to emerge out of the shadows with these boot things he calls “Pods” - originally priced at $200.  And a new album(s).  But I want to talk about the fashion.

While Ye worked with Gap in 2022, the plan was to do $20 clothes.  Gap had other plans pricing the YZY t-shirts and hoodies between $140 to $200.  But Ye always had this altruistic plan of selling his clothing for $20 a piece.  And so with Yeezy.com dropping the $20 clothing line recently, Ye has fulfilled his promise to mankind - cheap clothes.  

The majority of it looks like what you would find in H&M or Zara for probably the same price point.  We’ll have to see if Ye comes out with even more $20 clothing that perhaps doesn’t look like Zara knockoffs.  But foldable shoe boots for $20?  I mean, I’ve spent $20 on way worse purchases!

Michelin and their Stars

I’m sure we all had a moment in our lives where we were today years old when we found out that Michelin ratings came from the very same tire company with the same name.  But have you ever wondered how it all came to be?  Like, how did a tire company create the authority to decide on what was a world class restaurant?

The year is 1900 in France and André and Édouard Michelin founded a tire company during a time where there were fewer than 3000 cars in the country and there wasn’t an extensive network of roads nor easy access to gasoline.  So they decided to create a pocket-sized red booklet called the Michelin Guide, which would give people the necessary information they would need as they drive through France - where to fill your tank, where to fix your car, as well as where to eat and sleep.

As cars became cheaper and performed better the Michelin guide became that much more essential.  The thought was that if people used the guide, they would drive more and subsequently need to buy more tires.  Although there wasn’t any evidence that showed the guide increased sales, people began to rely on it for where to eat. The brothers caught on to this and created a restaurant rating system using secret diners to visit and rate restaurants.

To this day, the rating system that was created in the 1930’s still holds up - one star means the restaurant is “worth a stop”, two stars means it’s “worth a detour”, and three stars means it’s “worth a special journey”.