Good Morning/Nite Dazees,

I’ve been thinking about the difference between price and cost.

Not just the money, but the time, peace, freedom and energy it takes to truly pay for something.

You ever want something so bad that you forced yourself to suffer through an unlimited amount of bullshit just to get it?

Did getting it change you? And when you finally got there, was it still worth everything you paid along the way?

That’s the part I’ve been wrestling with. Some shit looks affordable until you see the entire bill.

Some of the things I’ve been chasing aren’t worth what they cost me. Admitting that should feel like growth.

Instead, it still feels suspiciously like quitting.

But nobody likes a fuckin quitter.

Lucky number this week: 9

Week 2 of High Confidence calls for a hybrid. My plug had nine legitimate contenders.

I screened all nine off nose alone before one actually made the cut. More on that in Call The Plug.

Proceed with caution to the most important [WORD COUNT] words of your week.

-Joey

I ate Carmelies Smashburgers & Cookies last week after a Facebook post said they sell out in a few hours. I pulled up early and cars were already lined up.

The menu only has five things: beef smashburgers, chicken smashburgers, fries, chocolate chip and red velvet cookies. All hitters. Not one miss.

Packaging gets an A+. The burger boxes were dope, but it was the individual canvas bags for each cookie that blew my mind.

Guess who’ll be spinning the block again this week for a double up?

KidSuper founder Colm Dillane is turning Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza into a free outdoor runway this week for five emerging designers for The People’s Runaway . Each designer gets $5K, mentorship from Colm Dillane and a real NYFW platform.

No ticket. Just pull up. Everybody’s invited.

At last year’s show I saw Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, A$AP Ferg, Fabolous, Slick Rick, Ne-Yo, Wisdom Kaye, Kodak Black and Jordan Clarkson in the crowd.

I may or may not have passed a jar of Lemon Haze to A$AP Ferg, who said he’d never smoked a lemon terp that good before. But who remembers exactly?

A time was had. I’m hoping for an even better one this year.

Week 2 of High Confidence is hybrids.

My plug came back with nine different flavors. I did a blind sniff test and, to my surprise, Toad Venom won.

I’m already a fan of the Animal Face × SinMint Cookies cross. But every time I’ve had Toad Venom, it’s been a different experience. That’s the problem when a strain gets this hyped. Too many cuts, too many batches and too many people selling flower under the name.

This batch smells amazing and reminds me of the original Toad Venom I remember.

My plug might’ve just tossed me a Hail Mary with one second put back on the clock.

Too specific, Western Michigan fans?

Fuck off. Go IU!

Bill Gates’ daughter Phoebe Gates (his real daughter, not one of those side chick babies rich guys are known to have), 23, co-founded an AI shopping app called Phia.

It also allegedly took credit for affiliate sales it didn’t actually generate.

Bloomberg reported that Phia’s browser extension could automatically insert its own affiliate tracking during checkout and claim purchases somebody else sent to the retailer. An internal estimate said it accounted for 51% of the merchandise value Phia claimed in June. Phia disputes that calculation.

When Bloomberg first contacted Phia, the company called it a newly discovered software bug.

Then Bloomberg reported internal Slack messages showed Gates and co-founder Sophia Kianni had known about the cookie-stuffing features for at least seven months.

Meanwhile, Phia has raised $43.5 million, landed Gates on Forbes 30 Under 30 and attracted investors including Khloé Kardashian, Hailey Bieber, Paris Hilton and Kris Jenner. The features reportedly ran on sites including Gap, Nike, and Nordstrom.

Gates has said she wants Phia to succeed with “no ties to my privilege or my last name.”

Her pops is worth north of $100 billion and she’s out here moving like a Nigerian scammer.

Somebody play Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat.”