Archive for January, 2010
Death to the Penny!
Jan 30th
Here’s some news for you: apparently, they’re redesigning the penny for 2010. Who knew?
My question is, why bother? There have been efforts in the past to phase out the penny; it is, after all, worth less than any other coin that has ever been in circulation in the US. There is no real reason to keep it in our currency, except for sentimental reasons and, apparently, zinc lobbyists.
But as far as I’m concerned, there are no real benefits to keeping the penny around. Vending machines and parking meters won’t accept them. You can’t really use them to pay for anything, so they tend to just sit around until you finally roll them and take them to the bank. Pennies now cost more to produce than they’re worth. Oh, and apparently they’re toxic.
So I say we as a country try to move beyond sentiment and realize that it would be of benefit to everyone (except the zinc industry) to move pennies out of circulation. Hey, at least I’m not alone in my thinking!
Death to the penny! Long live the nickel (so long as it still has value)!
**Random note: Once while Toby and I were dating, I went out of my way to pick up a penny on the ground. When he gave me a questioning look, I replied, “Pennies are valuable tender.” How things change…**
Where Are All the Girls?
Jan 27th
This evening, before going to bed, Tommy was looking through a little Geotrax pamphlet, which lists all the available Geotrax trains (which include a driver) that the company makes. As he was admiring the trains, he stops for a second and asks me, “Hey… where are all the girls?”
Hmm. Good question. Apparently Geotrax has no female trains or drivers. Which makes sense, given that the line is largely marketed to boys. Still, I find it interesting that Tommy seemed to think it strange that there were no Geotrax girls. I guess even at his tender young age, he realizes that girls make the world a whole lot more interesting. 
Good for you, Tommy. Good for you.
The Little Engine That Couldn’t?
Jan 25th
A favorite book of Tommy’s these days is The Little Engine That Could. Every night he has us read that to him, and then he in return reads it back to us. (If you are unfamiliar with the story, essentially an engine has broken down and needs another engine to take its trains over the mountain. It stops 3 engines– a passenger engine, a freight engine, and a rusty old engine– all of which refuse to help. Finally a little engine, one that is only used to switch trains in the yard, appears and offers to take the trains over the mountain. And, of course, it repeatedly says, “I think I can”– demonstrating the power of positive thinking.)
However, Tommy seems to have gotten entirely the wrong message from that book. Rather than coming away with “I think I can”, he seems most riveted by the phrase used by the rusty old engine: “I can not, I can not, I can not.”
If he doesn’t want to do something– be it eat, brush his teeth, or put on his clothes– he tells me, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” I try to tell him that the rusty old engine wasn’t nice, because he didn’t even try. Doesn’t matter. He likes that phrase better, it seems.
Today, his retelling of the story was a bit different. He was doing really well, right up until he got to the rusty old engine. After that, every page became, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” The little blue engine that came to help instead said, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” ….The end. Sad story. 
Come on, books shouldn’t use such a catchy bad phrase! Tommy couldn’t possibly be the only kid over the last 80 years to take away this message instead… could he?
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