Aug 14, 2024

"Your Reblochon Precedes You, Mr. Bond..."

Reblochon, as we all know, is a French cheese from the Alps region of Savoie. It's a soft, washed-rind and smear-ripened cheese that has a creamy texture and a nutty taste after being aged for several weeks in cool mountain cellars. A lot, but not entirely, like this newsletter. Meanwhile, reputations are important, cheese puns or not. To whit:

"Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial." —Cassio, Act 2, Scene 3, Othello, by William Shakespeare.

Whether it's the reputation of the stock market for continuing to go up or being best known for trying to bite Evander Holyfield's ear off during a boxing match, we touch on these and many more Reblochons in today's cheddlines:

Enjoy a nutty taste!

—Matt Davis, N2K Chedditor

P.S. We've finally got Robot Bloopers on our Instagram!

Quote of the Day

"We are shareholders in this country as citizens in the United States, people deserve to have access to government data." —Poppy McDonald

Read the story

1. Today Is (Finally!) a Good Day to Check Your 401(k)

U.S. stocks rose yesterday toward one of their best days of the year, after the first of several highly anticipated reports on the economy this week came in better than expected, with inflation looking to be slowing enough for the Fed to ease up on interest rates. The S&P 500 was 1.6% higher in late trading and on track for its fourth-best day of 2024.

All is still not clear after last week's drama, though. Today the U.S. government will deliver the latest monthly update on inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling, which could be less encouraging, or possibly even discouraging. And on Thursday will come a report showing how much U.S. shoppers are spending at retailers.

The economy is still growing, and many economists don't expect a recession, but a sharp slowdown in U.S. hiring last month did, as they say, raise questions.

Yesterday Home Depot delivered stronger profit for the spring quarter than analysts expected, but it also said high interest rates and uncertainty about the economy are keeping some customers from spending on home improvement projects. The retail giant lowered its full-year forecasts for an important measure of sales and for profit, even though it topped expectations for the second quarter.

Unlike much of the early part of this year, it wasn't just the Magnificent Seven tech stocks rising yesterday. Wall Street's rally was more widespread, and four out of every five stocks in the S&P 500 were rising. The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index were also up 1.3%.

Starbucks stock also soared 22% after it convinced Brian Niccol to leave his job as CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill to take over the coffee chain. He will start as chairman and chief executive next month and will replace Laxman Narasimhan, who is stepping down immediately.

Chipotle stock, meanwhile, dropped 6.9%. And Chipotle founder Steve Ells bought two brownstones on my street in the West Village for $32.5 million, knocked them together, and is barely ever home. He later bought another brownstone around the corner for $29.5 million to live in while they finished his other pad. Every time I walk past it, I say how vulgar it is to my wife, in a voice loud enough that I hope he hears. "It's like something a Bond Villain would live in," I say. "It's so out of character with the rest of the street." Read More

2. L.A. + AI = A 'Car Free' 2028 Olympics?

Los Angeles hopes to distinguish itself by building no new venues for the biggest sporting event on the planet in 2028, and by making the event "car free." Autodesk is helping them pull that off, and we spoke with CMO Dara Treseder.

"Part of why we're so excited about this partnership with the Los Angeles '28 team is that we are we are going to be leaving a lasting legacy of leaving the city better than we found it," she said. "You're not going to have a situation where there are all these unused venues afterwards. The 'no new permanent venue' plan means that the way we're going to put on the Games is by adapting existing venues, and or creating temporary infrastructure."

Autodesk is ubiquitous software "used to design and make anything, whether it's the phone in your hand, the building we're sitting in, the bridge you might be driving over, or the movie and games your kids might be enjoying along the ride," Dara said. "We are going to be retrofitting more than 40 venues across the Los Angeles metro area."

AI will help the firm transform the venues. "AI plays a role in helping with augmenting creative exploration, augmenting problem solving, and with automating tasks," she said. "Our AI capabilities have already proven to help combat infrastructure challenges in California. In fact, the Phoenix, a multifamily building here in the Bay area, was built using Autodesk AI in half the time, cost and carbon footprint of a typical residential building in the San Francisco Bay area."

What about the car-free Olympics in a city famous for its traffic?

"This is where technology can really play a role in helping you simulate different things, helping you understand congestion patterns and helping you ensure that the work is being done in a way that allows us to deliver a games that are exciting, energetic, motivating, without people having to waste time in traffic," she said.

Sounds like somebody is going to have a challenging four years. But best of luck, guys! Watch Now

From @cheddar

Everyone has those days—even robots.😅

Launched in 2013, Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid robot captivated viewers with its ability to run, jump, and dance, generating millions of viral views across social media.

Earlier this year, the company bid farewell to Atlas with a final video that showcased the robot's capabilities, including funny bloopers of its stumbles and falls.

Follow @cheddar on Instagram!

3. Chick-Fil-A Reintroduces Banana Pudding Milkshake for First Time in 13 Years

People line up around the block for the Magnolia Bakery's banana pudding. I know this because I live precisely two blocks away, down from the Perry Street apartment building where they still film SJP's comings-and-goings for episodes of "Sex and the City." She does live a couple of blocks away from there in real life, with husband Matthew Broderick, but nobody goes to her house. They have very tasteful Fourth of July decorations.

Banana pudding-wise, I've learned that the best time to get some is a morning during the week. Otherwise, is it worth it? I'm not sure. Particularly not since they told the New York Times the recipe, which is basically just condensed milk and Jello vanilla pudding with some wafers, bananas, and heavy cream thrown in. I mean, it's delicious. Obvs. But is it line-around-the-block delicious?

Of course, it's more than that. It's dreams. It's New York, baby. And people are prepared to pay big money for a part of those dreams. I've seen people line up for three hours to have a mediocre brunch round here. Residents are looking down on you, tourists! But whatever. Your rent is probably less than $5,000 a month so the joke's on you. Me. You. Me.

In news that we assume is related, Chick-Fil-A is bringing back its banana pudding milkshake after a 13-year break, starting on August 26. The shake, reminiscent of the classic dessert, is made from banana ice cream, crunchy vanilla wafer bits, whipped cream, and of course, a cherry on top.

Alongside the milkshake, the Honey Pepper Pimento Cheese Chicken Sandwich, first introduced in 2023, is also returning to the menu for a limited time, now with a new spicy version available. Alas, it is not available in a milkshake version. Read More

You Need 2 Know About This Box!

Meet the Sunset Box, a quarterly subscription service sending home, wellness, and travel goodies straight to your doorstep, curated by editors at mag Sunset, the Western-lifestyle magazine that just so happens to be a sister company of ours.

Since you clearly have good taste (you're an N2K subscriber, after all), we think you'll love this box. Use code CHEDDAR15 for 15% off your subscription.

Gimme the Box!

Note: Sadly does not contain any cheese.

4. Let's Make Government Data More Transparent, Says Microsoft's Former CEO

Whenever I think of Steve Ballmer, I see him sweating through his ill-fitting collared shirt and screaming "developers" 14 times in a row at a 2006 Microsoft conference. Because I'm shallow, I guess.

Wanting to be known for something else probably explains why he bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion in 2014 and, now, why he's launched "Just the Facts" with USAFacts, the nonprofit he funds, to provide clear information on key issues, like health, the economy, and immigration.

"Hi, I'm Steve Ballmer," he explains, in his video presentation. "I spent 34 years growing Microsoft, 10 years owning the L.A. Clippers basketball team. I love computers, data and facts. That's why I started USAFacts to help understand what our government is up to and what's going on in America."

Not for the tax break or for the ego boost, then. (He's worth $120 billion.)

USAFacts president Poppy McDonald joined us to explain more. "He could do anything he wants to," she said of the billionaire, who still is only worth roughly half as much as Elon Musk. "And the reason that he's making government data accessible to the public is because of his own experience. When he left Microsoft as CEO, he wanted to do more from a philanthropic perspective, to lift kids out of poverty. And being a numbers guy, he wanted to go first to the main source of that, those efforts. And that's the government. And so he wanted to see of the revenues government collects, what was it spending to have kids out of poverty and was it effective? And he thought it would take a few weeks to pull that data. It ended up taking about six months, and he was so frustrated, he said, no wonder people don't have access to information they can trust."

So he ~~funded a reputable journalism outlet to do a host of public records requests and hold big government accountable for its lack of transparency~~ started his own nonprofit to do it all from scratch.

"We are shareholders in this country as citizens in the United States, people deserve to have access to government data," Poppy said. "So, we work really hard to bring the data together from the 90,000 government entities in our country and make it accessible to the public."

That doesn't sound so terrible. And Poppy insists this is all non-partisan, which is one reason Mr. Ballmer's donations to fund it are tax deductible under 501(c)(3) status. Worth noting that his other donations over the years have mainly been to progressive causes. Watch Now

5. A-List Athletes to Take NYC by Storm at Fanatics Fest

Gas up your private jet for the weekend. For $50 you can stand under the same roof in New York as Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, Kevin Durant, David Ortiz, Payton and Eli Manning, Jalen Brunson, Sabrina Eskew, Stephen Smith and Hulk Hogan.

Fanatics Fest happens this Friday, August 16, through Sunday the 18th at New York's Javits Center—which is where most of us all got our Covid vaccinations the first time around, although don't bring it up, especially not around Hulk Hogan, who aside from shutting down Gawker, my single favorite website ever, is more on Kyrie Irving's wavelength when it comes to such things.

Back to Fanatics Fest. CEO Lance Fenster joined us to talk about it!

"I used to run New York Comic-Con and a bunch of pop culture events, and so it actually felt kind of natural to think about Comic-Con for sports," Mr. Fenster said. "Why doesn't that singular big live event platform that brings fans and brands and athletes and leagues and teams together into one place, right? You see it with Comic-Con. You see it with South by Southwest. Why not sports? And so that's our ambition. We're trying to build that platform that really brings all sports leagues, teams, athletes, brands, lifestyle together to just wow and engage fans."

Tom Brady and Stephen A. Smith will be on stage. Spike Lee and Ben Stiller will be talking about the Knicks. "There'll be media, culture, entertainment, sports, collectibles all put together, surrounded by cool interactive experiences," he said.

Most important, New York Liberty player Sabrina "No relation to Eugene" Ionescu will be there. Not to mention a press conference between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson about their upcoming boxing match. Breaking news: Tyson is still probably going to kill the guy. Read More