Funny Money

From Dark Roasted Blend, this fascinating article:

Funny Money: Unusual and Fascinating Currency

Graphical Marvels, Forged Notes, Hyperinflation "Riches" and Propaganda Bed Sheets

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value - zero."
(Voltaire, 1694-1778)

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For years I've been collecting foreign coins. Thanks to one of my Brit friends I met online, I have one of these coins:

50 pence or "p".

It was also fascinating to me to learn that they also have no one pound paper note. Several times we (Americans) have tried with little success to convert to dollar coins. I like the idea and would use them, DID use them when they came out.

I once worked in a convenience store and during the shift change, when the register was being counted, the girl I was relieving proudly showed me three Mexican coins she had taken in payment for one of the store's specials, 3 burritos for a dollar. She took them as fifty cent pieces, which they resembled. but were 20 peso pieces. She took $1.50 of her own money and told me she was taking the coins home, she now had "60 Mexican dollars!". I took a quarter out of my own pocket, walked outside to the newspaper vending machine, purchased an Amarillo paper (75 cents now!!!), took it inside and opened to the paper's financial pages where I showed her that a peso - at the time- was worth something like one-fourth of a US cent, which made her investment come to the sum total of about fifteen cents. (she gave out more change with the burritos than that)

She looked so distressed that I put the buck and a half in the register and took the coins. Checking today's rate, my 60 pesos are now worth $4.58. I also have quite a few other Mexican and South American country coins, plus some from various European nations. I've researched them and found that a few are worth more than face value because they have become collector's items.

Money - Pink Floyd

Keep On Smilin' - Wet Willie

aubade

aubade \oh-BAHD\ , noun;
1. A song or poem greeting the dawn; also, a composition suggestive of morning.

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Sometimes I wake up sneezing, but I don't think that counts as an aubade.

Maybe It's Because I'm a Blob

You Are a Lava Lamp

You are dreamy, relaxed, and contemplative. You like to get lost inside your own head. You never know where your thoughts will take you, and you consider reflection to be a wild ride. You're happy to sit and be alone for long periods of time. You only do well with others who are like minded. You appreciate other peaceful, creative types. Great things can come when great minds get together.

Are You a Lava Lamp or a Disco Ball?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

The Day the Music Died

via Mental Floss

Fifty-one years ago today, a plane crashed shortly after taking off from Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four people aboard. They were pilot Roger Peterson, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson, known as “The Big Bopper.” February 3rd, 1959, became known as The Day the Music Died.

Valens, Richardon, and Holly were on tour with a show called “The Winter Dance Party Tour” with Dion and the Belmonts. The tour bus was so cold and miserable that one band member reportedly developed frostbite. Buddy Holly had had enough, and decided to charter a plane in Clear Lake to fly to Fargo, North Dakota for the next gig. Dwyer Flying Service was hired for $36 a seat, and the plane was ready to leave after the show at the Surf Ballroom. Waylon Jennings, a backup singer for the show, relinquished his seat on the plane to Richardson because he was running a fever. Another backup singer, Tommy Allsup, lost his chance to fly in a coin flip with Valens.

Wiki entry: Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll.". His works and innovations inspired and influenced both his contemporaries and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Don McLean, and Bob Dylan, and exerted a profound influence on popular music. Holly was in the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Holly #13 among "The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time".

There's an excellent movie about Holly's rise to fame: The Buddy Holly Story, starring Gary Busey in what was, IMHO, an Oscar-deserving performance. Busey not only nailed Holly's look and mannerisms, he also did a fantastic job singing.