Check the timestamp on this one. Damn. I need some-a this new stuff...

If Americans have become jittery about popping pills to treat their everyday ills, you would hardly know it from the optimism surrounding Sepracor Inc. On Dec. 16, the Marlborough (Mass.) company won approval from the Food & Drug Administration to market Lunesta, a new sleep aid. Giddy investors pushed Sepracor's stock up 16%, to $60, in the two weeks following the news, as the tiny, still-unprofitable company announced a $60 million campaign to market the drug directly to consumers. Sepracor's ads, set to begin airing in February, will try to convince the bleary-eyed masses that they can safely take a pill every night to help them sleep... The market for drugs that treat insomnia is expected to double, to $5 billion, by 2010...

from: Waking Up The Insomnia Market by Arlene Weintraub
source: Business Week, 17 January 2005

Well, I guess the only thing to do is fix another cup and see if I can catch some early morning Zs...

Aromatic and heady, the smell of freshly brewed coffee envelops customers the moment they enter Misha's Coffeehouse and Roaster in Old Town Alexandria - so rich, nutty and inviting, the aroma offers a taste of the steaming java even before they order a cup. ...the simple pleasure of savoring a good cup of Joe has become for some an obsession -- for others an addiction. There are nearly 18,000 specialty coffee shops around the United States.... With nearly 180 million drinkers a day, the market for coffee has been a highly competitive one since the early 1990s. Starbucks... has more than 6,000 locations nationwide and... opens four new stores every day.

from: Unique fresh blends latest trend...
source: The Washington Times, 27 January 27 2005

btw, while putting together that last monster post, I found the long-lost first couple chapters of my book, Gonzo Marketing. They really were lost too. For a couple years. Seems I uh "forgot" to pay the rent on the gonzomarkets.com hosting site and they then mysteriously disappeared. If lots of you send me mail saying "Oh yes, please post those chapters!" then I'll start serializing them here, bit by bit over the coming weeks. If I say "by popular demand" you'll know I got lots of requests. If I don't, I'll say instead "due to lack of popular demand."

Meanwhile, pay no attention to that noise in the background. That's just my coffee grinder going into cardiac arrest. And oh yeah, just to keep my hand in, here's an entirely gratuitous book cover clip from my fast growing private collection...