little of this, little of that

Last week I was in Murky Coffee when a sudden pang of urgent hunger came over me. Although I was well aware that the nearby Starbucks offers tasty breakfast treats (including a low-fat sandwich), I thought that my hypocritical bitch-then-buy attitude with the conglomerate must come to an end, and that I would purchase a freshly-baked goody from the Murky folk.

To my pleasant surprise, I found that my bagel (the "everything bagel" ... is that like a black hole of random crap that's fallen into the batter?) was conveniently priced at $0.91, making it an even $1.00 after DC's exorbitant food tax and eliminating the need for the penny exchange.

And yes, we are often quite hard on our dear penny in our fast-paced world. We mock it, calling it "worthless", a "petty penny", and altogether "senseless" (hehe).

In fact, some people have gone to such great lengths that they have set up an entire organization devoted solely to the demise of our beloved Lincoln coin. www.retirethepenny.org is a website that has promised to bring about certain doom to our coppered friend (or fiend, is it???)

According to the website, this metallic menace costs $0.014 to manufacture, making it more expensive to make that its actual value (Um.... isn't that like any Britney Spears CD?). Apparently the zinc industries are lobbying to keep the penny in our piggy banks at all costs (hehe), requiring approximately $33 million every year from the US Mint.

This is atrocious!!! Why wasn't this brought to my attention sooner???!!!??? The website lists these reasons for the justified eradication of the penny: (1) waste of money, and (2) waste of time.

Hmm ... war in Iraq, and the penny. I see a similarity! Other than that both can be used to get oil.