Saipan\u2019s west side gets most of the attention, so here\u2019s one for the easterners: An alert reader sent an email asking about a dazzling bright object over the eastern horizon. It appeared about an hour before sunrise.<\/p>\n
The reader suspected that it was a planet but didn\u2019t recall seeing such a thing before. So, what\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n
Given Saipan\u2019s woes lately, it\u2019s tempting to hope that the light is a mother ship from Andromeda sent to rescue the worthy from their earthborn travails. I\u2019m thinking first-class seats for the worthies who are kind to stray dogs, who finish their broccoli, and who don\u2019t bogart your last cigarette.<\/p>\n
Alas, no such luck. It is, in fact, a planet. It\u2019s Venus.<\/p>\n
Despite the dramatic sight, it doesn\u2019t get much buzz in the general media. But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette carried an article about it on Sept. 8. Its coverage even included an illustration, so I\u2019ve been one-upped yet again.<\/p>\n
For reasons of cosmic, orbital peek-a-boo, Venus is looking freak-you-out bright about an hour before sunrise these days, and when it\u2019s close to the horizon the atmospherics turn it into quite a disco ball. In fact, it\u2019s dazzling enough to cause people to report it as a UFO.<\/p>\n
By next summer the sun will overtake Venus as they race each other through the sky. Venus will then return to being a western, sundown object. And then life can get back to being boring again and we can settle back into our usual routines.<\/p>\n
Oh, well. Hey, Buddy, can you spare a cig?<\/p>\n
\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n
The Associated Press reports that Fred DeLuca, the co-founder of Subway, has passed away. He was 67.<\/p>\n
I like Subway sandwiches, but I never gave any thought to the origins of the company. When I read the news about DeLuca, I noticed an intriguing figure that inspired me to look into the story a bit.<\/p>\n
But first, some scale: Based on number of restaurants, this is the largest restaurant company in the world. The brand covers 44, 274 stores globally.<\/p>\n
For example, the site lists Guam with 14 Subways, the NMI with three, the Marshall Islands with one. China, 518; Philippines, 27; Japan, 457; Taiwan, 129; Thailand, 63.<\/p>\n
Venturing further afield? Afghanistan has two, Malta has six, Iceland has 23, and Zambia has eight. So Subway\u2019s got you covered from A-to-Z.<\/p>\n
If I ever take a trip to Mars, I\u2019m sure my first meal there will be a Cold Cut Combo.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the news story about DeLuca mentions that Subway\u2019s roots run back 50 years. When I read that I thought, hey, just wait-a-minute here, you guys said that DeLuca was 67. Are you telling me that this global empire was launched by a mere 17-year-old? That\u2019s what intrigued me.<\/p>\n
And that is, apparently, the way things went. As the story goes, DeLuca borrowed $1,000 from a family friend and the two opened up a sandwich joint in Connecticut so DeLuca could earn money for college. Which brings us to the other co-founder, the family friend named Peter Buck. Buck sure didn\u2019t need any money for college, since he already held a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia.<\/p>\n
Speaking of money, Forbes lists Buck\u2019s net worth at $3.6 billion, and estimates DeLuca\u2019s at $3.5 billion.<\/p>\n
The name of their first restaurant wasn\u2019t Subway, and, in fact, it wasn\u2019t even a success. But they stuck with it and improved things, changed the name to Subway, and started selling franchises in 1974.<\/p>\n
According to Entrepreneur magazine, all of the Subways are franchises; the total investment to start one is $116,600 to $263,150; the franchise fee is $15,000; and it takes from eight to 10 employees to staff a franchise.<\/p>\n
As for DeLuca, he shared his insights in a book, Start Small Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start – and Run – Your Own Successful Business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saipan\u2019s west side gets most of the attention, so here\u2019s one for the easterners: An…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6314,513,1723,1050],"class_list":["post-210676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-given-saipan","tag-taiwan","tag-ufo","tag-zambia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}