If you can hear a distant "Wahoo!," it's Hollywood celebrating the monster opening weekend of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. In case you missed it in Popcorn yesterday, it smashed the record — à la Donkey Kong — for the biggest opening weekend for an animated movie in box office history. You can expect to see more video game movies going forward.

We're guessing there will be a lot more video game movies in the future. Maybe Nic Cage will play Kirby?

In today's edition:

• Tupperware going broke?

• NYPD's new robot police dog

• RIP, the King of Catan

🔑 Key Stories

"Swap to Stop"

The UK will give 1M smokers a free vaping starter kit as part of a drive to reduce cigarette smoking

• In 2019, the UK government set a goal to make the country “smokefree” by 2030, defined as 5% or less of the population smoking; as of 2021, 13.3% smoke

• Last year, an independent review of the 2030 goal found that the UK is on pace to miss its goal by at least 7 years

• On Tuesday, the UK government released a new initiative – “Swap to Stop” – that offers up to 1M people a free vaping starter kit to help them quit smoking. It will also offer pregnant women up to $500 in vouchers to help them quit smoking

Dig Deeper

• An executive at an anti-smoking organization said the swapping and incentive proposals are “welcome steps in the right direction,” but “nowhere near sufficient” to meet the 2030 goal; another said smokers need more “personalized support” to help them quit

Tupperware Turmoil

Tupperware warned it could go out of business

• Tupperware is a company that sells plastic containers for food storage. Its containers became famous due to “Tupperware Parties,” a campaign that recruited women to sell its products at parties

• Tupperware’s revenue peaked in 2013 at $2.7B; since then, it has fallen by 50%+. Analysts say it has failed to adapt its sales and marketing to younger people

• On Friday, Tupperware released a statement saying there was “substantial doubt” about its “ability to continue [operating]” and is seeking emergency funding. On Monday, its stock price dropped 50%+

Dig Deeper

• Tupperware still primarily operates through contracted salespeople rather than stores. Last year, in an effort to "reinvent the company," Tupperware began selling its products in retail for the first time. Sales continued to struggle, though, and its stock has fallen 98% in the last 12 months

Tennessee Lawmaker Reinstated

A Democratic state representative rejoined Tennessee’s House less than a week after he and 1 other were expelled

• 2 weeks ago, a gunman killed three 9-year-olds and three teachers at a school in Nashville; following that, protesters gathered at TN’s capitol building. 3 Democratic state representatives then interrupted a House session and led a protest that delayed it

• Following that, the Republican-dominated House voted to expel 2 of them, saying they broke House rules

• On Tuesday, a Nashville council reinstated one of them, and he was sworn back in an hour later

Dig Deeper

• The other expelled lawmaker is widely expected to be reinstated to his seat today. Both will face special elections this coming summer, in which they’ll be allowed to run

Psychedelic Cavemen?

A study published last week found traces of psychedelic substances in 3,000-yo human hair

• The study was based on the 1995 discovery of a mass burial site on the Spanish island of Menorca. Researchers found 200+ bodies in a cave there, which they later dated to between 1,600 and 800 BC

• A study published in the journal Scientific Reports last Thursday analyzed locks of hair from the cave. It found traces of 2 psychedelic substances – atropine and scopolamine – as well as ephedrine, an upper

• Researchers suggest those drugs were consumed as part of a burial ritual, likely led by a shaman figure

Tired of Spam Calls?

Together with Incogni

If you’ve noticed more spam calls recently, it probably has to do with pesky data brokers. They buy your data – SSNs, DOB, home addresses, health information, contact details – and sell it to the highest bidder

• Fortunately, Incogni is here to help. They are a personal data removal service that scrubs your personal information from the web

• It contacts and follows up with data brokers all over the world on your behalf. It can take hundreds of hours for an individual to do that

• With Incogni, you can enjoy the spring weather and worry less about identity theft, health insurers raising your rates based on info from data brokers, robo calls, scammers taking out loans in your name, and all the other terrible things bad actors do with personal data

Dig Deeper

• While other personal data removal services only focus on one type of data broker, Incogni helps remove your personal information from all broker types, including People Search Sites. Roca readers exclusively get 55% off Incogni annual plans with code ‘ROCA10’

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• Lake Tahoe 🤝 Plankton: Lake Tahoe is the clearest it's been since the 1980s. Scientists are crediting the resurgence of a native zooplankton

• Marriage Things: Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown announced her engagement with Jesse Bongiovi, an actor and son of Jon Bon Jovi

• The fire rises: A massive fire at an Indiana plastics recycling center forced the evacuation of over 2,000 residents. "It will burn for a few days," the fire marshal said

Wildcard

• NYC's cyber mutt: The NYPD is introducing a cyber police dog named "Digidog." The 70-lb robot dog will be used to scout out dangerous situations

• Not so special K? New ketamine clinics are struggling to stay afloat despite the rising popularity of the drug. Some use ketamine to treat depression

• 28-3 Falcons? A stone scoreboard from over 1,000 years ago was found at a Mayan archaeological site. It depicts 2 players standing next to a large ball

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

Do you have a unique hobby? What is it?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

This man’s interest in Vikings made him a millionaire.

Klaus Teuber, the creator of the Settlers of Catan board game, died last Sunday at age 70.

Teuber was born in 1952 in a small German town near Frankfurt. In the 1980s, he worked as a dental technician. He found the job stressful and didn’t enjoy it.

To unwind from work, Teuber started designing games based on books he liked. “In the beginning, these games were just for me,” he told Forbes in 2016. “I always have stories in my head — I would read a book, and if I liked it, I wanted to experience it as a game.”

In 1988, he designed a game inspired by the 1970s-era “Riddle Master” fantasy trilogy.

“I was sorry to see it come to an end, so I tried to experience this novel in a game,” he said in 2014. That game was called Barbarossa, which in 1988 won Game of the Year, the most prestigious board game award.

After Barbarossa’s success, Teuber became a full-time game designer. He won the Game of the Year award twice more for other games in 1990 and 1991. Then in 1995, he created a new game: “The Settlers of Catan.”

His life would never be the same.

In Catan, players compete to colonize the fictional land of Catan. They do so by collecting brick, lumber, wool, ore, and grain to build settlements. Players trade to advance their strategies. The first 5,000 games sold so quickly that Teuber didn't keep a first-edition version for himself.

Catan was originally published in Germany. After being 1995’s Game of the Year and winning another prestigious gaming award, it quickly expanded globally.

Board game enthusiasts loved Catan’s depth and strategy, which kept players engaged when it wasn’t their turn. “The secret of Catan is that you have to bargain and sometimes whine,” said Teuber.

Unlike his first games, Catan was inspired by Teuber’s imagination – not books.

“When I read about the Vikings, when they discovered Iceland, I thought: ‘What would happen if some explorers come to an island where there’s no one? What will they do?’”

For Teuber, creating Catan felt different from his other games: “I was discovering something rather than inventing it.”

In a reversal, Catan has inspired books – as well as TV shows, films, and live events. On some college campuses, in-person Catan has become an intramural sport.

Since 1995, Catan has been translated into nearly 50 languages and its sold 40M+ copies, making it one of the best-selling board games of all time.

Teuber passed away on April 1 after a “brief and severe illness.” At the time of his death, his net worth was over $5M.

His legacy lives on in the signature, hexagonal shape of the Catan board, and the millions of people who will continue to play in the world he created.

If you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected]!

🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Have you ever used an electric bike? 🚲

Yes: 23%No: 77%

Yesterday's Question:

What TV show has had the most significant impact on your life?

Julia from London: “Grey's Anatomy is up there - I have autism and 95% of my social skills are learned as opposed to intuited. A massive part of my development was devoted to watching emotion-filled dramas to learn why/how people react to different things. Like watching Grey's Anatomy as a teen and asking my mum every two minutes why that character was angry, or if this character is lying, or was that reply rude? It worked pretty well, shoutout to Shonda Rhimes (and mum)! “

Erica from Florida: “My answer is Jeopardy. When my older sister and I were young, my grandmother lived with us. We were only allowed to watch three shows as she was in charge of the television. One of the shows was Jeopardy. This spurred my lifelong love of trivia and pursuit of knowledge. And to this day my sister and I watch Jeopardy every night (even though we live in different states ) and connect and talk about it. On a side note, I was probably the only 6-year-old up on Middle East politics as one of the other shows we watched was 60 minutes.”

David from LA: “All in the family. We laughed ourselves silly as a family, while learning lessons about bigotry, racism, and other topics. This show doesn’t get enough credit as to how groundbreaking it was”

Friday's 20 Questions:

Every Friday, we ask our readers 20 Questions and feature the answers here throughout the week. Last week was "Candy Edition": We gave you 20 options, and you told us if you would take them or leave them.

11. Milk Duds: Take 50%, Leave 50%

12. York Peppermint Pattie: Take 64%, Leave 36%

13. Twizzlers: Take 50%, Leave 50%

14. Snickers: Take 77%, Leave 23%

15. Jolly Ranchers: Take 47%, Leave 53%

🧠 Final Thoughts

Does the Paleo diet now include psychedelics? Asking for a friend...

Happy hump day!

—Max and Max