In today’s newsletter I share the origin story of “Taco Tuesday”, Tim Cook is retiring from Apple, Ryan Reynolds is working on a script for the next Deadpool, SpaceX might be buying Cursor, the Powerball lottery game is expanding across the pond to the UK, Prediction Markets could be a $1 trillion dollar market by 2030, NASA turned off one of Voyager 1’s science tools to try and save power, and the 2026 NFL draft starts this week.

Let’s get into it!

So you want to know where the idea of “Taco Tuesday” came from? Well, you’ve come to the right place. You see, the concept of a special day to eat tacos stretches all the way back to at least 1933, when the White Star Cafeteria in El Paso, Texas, first advertised "Mexican Tacos" on Tuesdays. The specific phrase "Taco Tuesday" didn’t appear until February 6, 1979, when Gregory Gregory, the owner of Gregory's Restaurant and Bar in Somers Point, New Jersey, began using “Taco Tuesday” to promote a special he was running at his restaurant to sell tacos every Tuesday. Thus the phrase “Taco Tuesday” was born! Gregory Gregory would later go on to secure a trademark for the phrase in New Jersey in 1982, but we’ll get back to that part of the story a little later.

Around the same time, in the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, a Wyoming-based fast-food chain called Taco John's also started using the term. They obtained a federal trademark registration for "Taco Tuesday" in 1989, which covered 49 of the 50 United States. Want to guess which state wasn’t covered? If you guessed New Jersey, you’d be right, because Gregory Gregory already got his trademark in that state. For years, Taco John's actively defended its trademark, sending cease-and-desist letters to other businesses. However, the term had become so widely used by the public that many felt it should be generic, like when most people say ‘Kleenex,’ they really mean a tissue.

So who owns the phrase “Taco Tuesday" now?

We’ll get to that I promise, but first we need to talk about just how huge the market for tacos and Mexican food is.

The market for Mexican food in the United States is roughly $76 billion dollars, and it’s getting bigger every year, with tacos being a significant driver of that growth.

Want to take a guess how many tacos are consumed in the U.S. each year? Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Ready for the answer?

Over 4.5 billion tacos are consumed each year in the United States.

That’s an insane number that makes me hungry for tacos just thinking about it!

For most of my life, I didn’t even know “Taco Tuesday” was trademarked. It’s been a saying in my family for the last 40 years. I was shocked to learn that on October 20, 2023, Gregory’s Restaurant and Bar in Somers Point, New Jersey, had forfeited their trademark of the phrase “Taco Tuesday” after more than four decades of owning it.

Want to guess who now owns the trademark for the phrase “Taco Tuesday” in all 50 states?

(pausing for dramatic effect)

No one! And you can thank Taco Bell for that.

In May 2023, Taco Bell had initiated a legal challenge against both Taco John's and Gregory's Restaurant and Bar. Taco Bell argued that "Taco Tuesday" was a common phrase that should be freely available for all to use. Facing potentially millions of dollars in legal fees, Taco John's CEO Jim Creel announced in July 2023 that the company would abandon its federal trademark. Then in October of 2023, Gregory's Restaurant and Bar in New Jersey followed suit, relinquishing their state trademark that they had maintained for close to 40 years. This means that "Taco Tuesday" is now officially in the public domain in all 50 states.

So why did Taco Bell of all companies get involved in this trademark dispute, if in the end they didn’t even end up owning the phrase “Taco Tuesday”? No one really knows what their thinking was, but Taco Bell does use the phrase “Taco Tuesday” in their advertisements, as well as probably thousands of other taco shops across the country. Maybe Taco Bell did it out of the goodness of their own corporate heart, or maybe they selfishly wanted to be able to use the phrase “Taco Tuesday” themselves, and buying out both the trademark owners Taco John's and Gregory's Restaurant and Bar was the quickest way to victory. It’s not known if Taco Bell may have sweetened the deal to convince both restaurants to relinquish their trademarks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some cash and a non-disclosure agreement exchanged hands. It’s more likely that the potential cost to fight to keep the trademarks would have cost millions of dollars in legal fees, which Taco Bell could afford, but small restaurants like Taco John's and Gregory's Restaurant and Bar could never justify the costs of going to court.

It’s a little sad to know that the little guys essentially lost out to a big, faceless corporation like Taco Bell that reported total revenues of $7.55 billion dollars, and made over $1 billion dollars in operating profit in 2025.

Taco Bell is obviously over the moon happy that they can now freely use the phrase “Taco Tuesday” anywhere in the United States. They’ve painted their successful campaign to free the phrase “Taco Tuesday” as a win for businesses of all sizes that can now use the phrase without fear of legal repercussions. This iconic phrase, which has become synonymous with discounted taco nights across the country, now officially belongs to everyone….thanks to Taco Bell.

Now that’s ironic!

Tim Cook is retiring from Apple after nearly 15 years as CEO of the company, and having worked at Apple for close to 28 years. The new incoming CEO will be John Ternus, who’s been with Apple for 25 years since 2001, and has been overseeing the hardware engineering department for products like the iPhone, Mac, and AirPods. This transition comes as Apple has reached a market valuation of $4 trillion dollars.

Under Tim Cook’s leadership Apple led growth that saw its market cap rise from $350 billion dollars in 2011 to over $4 trillion dollars today. Apple’s annual revenue hit recently hit $416 billion dollars as the company has begun expanding into services and the new AI wearables sector.

John Ternus has led the engineering department for the iPhone and Mac, which combined generate over $240 billion dollars in annual sales. Apple’s board chose John Ternus for his technical expertise and hardware focus as the company focuses on hardware devices that have led to the company growing its valuation to $4 trillion dollars.

Not a bad plan, but I have to ask if John Ternus’ appointment as Apple’s next CEO, a visionary enough choice for a company that was founded by Steve Jobs, and brought the world such innovations as the iPhone? The markets will have to answer that question.

Ryan Reynolds is writing a new script for a Deadpool movie that will shift the focus away from his iconic character to let someone else lead the action on the big screen, while Deadpool plays more of a supporting role. I think this is a crappy idea, but Ryan Reynolds isn’t returning my calls, so what do I know.

Why would they head in this new/wrong direction? Well, Ryan Reyonlds and his creative team are looking for a fresh way to bring Deadpool back to theaters, and this apparently is their big idea.

The three Deadpool movies, including the 2016 Deadpool, the 2018 Deadpool 2, and the 2024 Deadpool & Wolverine, have brought in a combined $2.9 billion dollars at the worldwide box office.

Director Shawn Levy is expected to return to direct the new Deadpool film, with the aforementioned less focus on Deadpool, even though that’s the whole reason people would go to see a Deadpool movie, but I digress. No, not really. I’m still a little pissed. I want MORE Deadpool. Please Ryan!

SpaceX has offered to buy the AI-powered code editor Cursor for $60 billion dollars later this year after SpaceX has IPOed, or pay them $10 billion dollars for their work together. Either way Elon Musk is moving quickly to secure what he clearly sees as the future of software development for his massive and growing tech empire. This deal would give employees of SpaceX, and all of its subsidiaries, exclusive access to some of the most advanced AI coding tools on the market.

Elon Musk recently merged his company SpaceX with his AI startup xAI to create a single engineering powerhouse, that beyond the headlines doesn’t seem to offer any corporate synergies or strategy other than combining two companies Elon Musk already owns massive stakes in to make a larger company that then filed to IPO later this year at a valuation of between $1.75-$2 trillion dollars. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Michael Truell is the co-founder and CEO of Anysphere Inc., the company behind the AI-powered code editor Cursor. In the last few years since Cursor was launched the company has gained in popularity among software engineers who use Cursor’s tools to automate writing mundane but complex computer code. Cursor recently surpassed more than $2 billion dollars in annual revenue, and is continuing to grow at an incredible speed.

So it looks like mega-mind Elon Musk is acquiring another company to add to his growing mega-company SpaceX just before they IPO this Summer in a mega-IPO.

Powerball is going international in an effort to build larger jackpots that draw more players to the game from across the world. The Multi State Lottery Association is planning to expand the reach of Powerball into the UK as a first step to boost ticket sales from across the pond. The goal is to boost the chances of drawings reaching over $1 billion dollars more quickly, because as everyone knows the lotto isn’t worth playing until the jackpot is worth more than $1 billion dollars. Then we’re talking about real money!

The global lottery market was estimated to be over $331 billion dollars in 2025, and is projected to be more than $346 billion in 2026. Here in the U.S. Americans spend between $100-$113 billion dollars annually on lottery tickets, making the U.S. lottery industry one of the most lucrative in the world.

Expanding into the UK will allow millions of new players who are bad at math to participate in throwing away their hard earned dollars on a lottery that they are statistically more likely to get struck by lightning than to win the Powerball jackpot. Something to think about next time the Powerball jackpot is worth more than $1 billion dollars.

Prediction markets are expected to be a $1 trillion dollar a year market by 2030. There’s a massive wave of growth coming to this industry, existing players in the financial industry like the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange aren’t sleeping on this new market - they just invested $1.6 billion dollars.

In case you’ve been sleeping, prediction markets allow people to buy and sell shares on the outcome of real-world events, including elections, economic trends, sports, and pop culture.

The two 800-pound gorillas in the prediction markets industry are exchanges like Polymarket and Kalshi. Polymarket, which was founded by Shayne Coplan, is one of the biggest prediction markets in the world, and is worth an estimated $15 billion dollars. Kalshi, which was co-founded by Luana Lopes Lara and Tarek Mansour, is worth an estimated $22 billion dollars.

New capital is flooding into prediction markets as more professional traders come on board and seek to use their trading edge to beat Amateurinvestors. Market volume has surged recently to exceed $51 billion dollars in volume as more participants join prediction markets. It’s almost becoming a pastime watching the crazy bets that people are winning, and losing, at.

Like all good things there are some who seem to be gaming the system. Recent bets on prediction markets about the war in Iran and the price of oil just minutes before President Donald Trump makes announcements about the war in Iran have the smell of insider trading. I’m not saying anything illegal is happening, but some of these bets seem incredibly well timed, and some traders are making millions as a result of what seems like they had a heads up minutes before news breaks.

So, to wrap things up, prediction markets are growing and will be worth an estimated $1 trillion dollars by 2030, and like all markets some shady stuff is going on that’s making the rich richer, and poor slobs like you and me poorer. I guess nothing ever really changes.

NASA just turned off a science tool, called the plasma science instrument, on Voyager 1 to try and save power, as the spacecraft is now more than 15 billion miles away from Earth. The science tool measures the heat and speed of ionized gas in space, and it’s been running non-stop for the last 48 years since Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977. The signal to turn off the science tool took 23 hours to reach the probe as it crosses the void of space.

Each year the probe loses 4 watts of power, which might not seem a lot to you and me, but it’s a lot for a spacecraft traveling at 38,000 miles per hour through nearly pitch dark space with a limited amount of power left that’s generated by its radioactive power source.

The entire Voyager 1 mission has cost taxpayers more than $1 billion dollars since it first launched, and the probe continues to send back new data about the edge of our solar system that scientists are using to make new discoveries that can help all of humanity.

The NFL 2026 draft starts this week and takes place from April 23–25, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There will be 257 athletes to pick from across 7 rounds, and the Las Vegas Raiders hold the number 1 draft pick. The NFL draft will be streamed live on ESPN, ABC, and the NFL Network. This year’s NFL draft is so big that schools in Pittsburgh will close and switch to remote learning thanks to the expected 700,000 visitors that will descend on Pittsburgh to be a part of the 2026 NFL draft.

Who are the top draft picks of this year’s NFL freshman class?

Fernando Mendoza, who’s a Quarterback at Indiana University, is a Heisman Trophy winner and threw for 3,535 yards and 41 touchdowns in 2025. He’s expected to be the number 1 draft pick by the Las Vegas Raiders.

The next best Quarterback in this NFL class is widely viewed as Ty Simpson, who’s a Quarterback for the University of Alabama, and is ranked as the next best quarterback after Fernando Mendoza. The Arizona Cardinals and the New York Jets are the most likely teams to draft Ty Simpson.

And we can’t not talk about the NFL draft class of 2026 without talking about one of its most colorful characters, and a viral social media star: Gennings Dunker. While he might not get picked in the first round, he certainly did make an impression at this year’s NFL combine with his flowing red mullet and thick mustache, which led to him being dubbed a "viral star". Gennings Dunker is 6'5" and weights in at 319 pounds, but he ran the 40-yard dash at the 2026 NFL combine in 5.18 seconds with his red mullet bouncing in what NFL Network’s Rich Eisen called "the greatest mullet in the history of the combine". There’s even a popular meme featuring Gennings Dunker running the 40-yard dash in slow motion with the caption "Peak Male Performance".

If you’ve seen the video that’s pretty hard to argue with.

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The Business Behind The News is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.