Nostalgia

How many of you dear readers remember gum ball machines ... which, for a penny, you could get a small orb of bubble gum in one of many primary colors? Usually you needed two or three to make a good chaw. But, in order to encourage kids to be gamblers, if you got a speckled gum ball, the merchant owed you a nickel ... maybe for a Clark candy bar (or five pennies for more gum balls.)

Billion Dollars

Mike Bloomberg spent a supposed billion dollars on his failed presidential campaign bid. This seems like a colossal waste of money. For instance, he could have instead bought:

- 20 billion pieces of Double Bubble gum

 - 20,000 Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWDs

 - 50 billion plastic straws

- 11.2 miles of the high-speed coastal rail link between L.A. and San Francisco

- 4 thousand tickets on the Virgin Galactica Spaceship Two suborbital flight

- 5 delegates to the Democrat nominating convention from American Samoa