Thursday Open Line


The holidays are mostly a time of bustling good cheer — but they are also a time for winter’s most frequent misery — the common cold, and the cough that often goes along with it. More than a century ago, a restaurant owner in Poughkeepsie, New York, did something to make life a little easier for cold sufferers. James Smith cooked up the first batch of cough drops in 1847, in two flavors still popular today — cherry and licorice. There are close to 48,000 pharmacies and drug stores across the U.S. Selling over-the-counter cold remedies is part of their annual sales of more than $202 billion. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the new “America’s Economy” mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>.