Elizabeth Banks

The Beanie Bubble

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Robbie and Ty step out in pink

The story behind the success of a stuffed-toy phenomenon, The Beanie Bubble is in many ways a template World 2.0 tale of one man, a vision, plus a lot of help from other people, most of whom get left in the dust when it is time to bask in the glory. It could be Jobs, or Musk, or Thiel, or Bezos, but here itā€™s Ty Warner ā€“ in many ways he got there first, building up a company selling understuffed, very soft toys to children. The toys became a thing, a canā€™t-lose investment. Starting in the 1980s but accelerating to warp speed in the 1990s, Ty Inc. rose and rose on the back … Read more

Cocaine Bear

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The bear on the rampage

As ā€œthe title is the movieā€ movies go, Cocaine Bear is up there with Snakes on a Plane. Plot: a large shipment of cocaine falls out of a plane and a black bear gets hold of it, tries it and likes it. Itā€™s very moreish. Addicted, she (itā€™s a lady bear) is soon on a stimulant-induced rampage through the national park where she lives, in search of more of the parcel-taped bundles containing the precious white powderā€¦ and woe betide any human who gets in the way. It was just Samuel L Jackson in Snakes on a Plane but there are a whole bunch of people at the wrong end of an angry bear … Read more