Spare Change?
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Dear Shaun,
I love keeping coins. Not collecting coins, I’m not a total weirdo, I just enjoy having coins in my pocket to help pay for something. There is something satisfying to me about having exact change. Friends, strangers, cashiers, most people I come in contact with always poke fun at me about this trait I have. Is this trait toxic, or just useful?
-Kooky Coin Collector
Dear Kooky Coin Collector,
Kooky? Spot on. But toxic? Only if you suck on that nickel for too long. But you’re using those coins, not keeping them in your mouth like a toddler or a sometimes-bored 37-year-old (shush). Maybe if you were making exact change at the register with the coins that are coming out of your mouth, then you’d get those odd looks and they’d be deserved.
I assume that part of this is self-consciousness, and not a community of people who are a little mean to you. That being said, I am used to having society look down their nose at something that brings a guy a little bit of joy and hurts no one. For me, it's musicals. Very few times in my life, outside of my college theater’s green room, have I felt comfortable saying out loud a musical’s soundtrack I was really enjoying. If I ever dared to, I was met with disgust and derision.
Musicals used to be the cream of the crop of culture. Now, when you mention them to certain company, you are shamed. When something can’t be expressed with just a normal sentence, why can’t you hit a high note to get across how much you are in love? I think it is a beautiful use of mixed media to honor the human condition in such an expressive way. If you heard a good singer, you’d be like, “wow, they can really sing.” If you saw a good dancer, you’d be like “wow I wish I could move like that.” When you hear a good song, you can’t get it out of your head and make sure to press repeat when it is over. So why when a medium COMBINES those things do we hate it? Was it because of Bono and U2 making that Spiderman: The Musical, where a bunch of actors got hurt or died? Was that it? Was it Hamilton? Did the liberal tote baggers of the world ruin the idea of genius for you?
Sorry, coins, yes. I think it is great that you use coins still. Some people truly just throw them out. Isn’t that such an American thing? Throwing money away? It is an inconvenience for people to have it in their pocket so they just throw it out. This is a true fact: annually Americans throw out roughly $62 million in coins. The Worcester Public Schools are in a $22 million deficit! Let’s dig through the trash, folks! That’s my solution, what’s yours?
So yeah, keep using coins. Save them, keep them in a jar, and then help pay for a teacher to educate our kids in Worcester. What else are we going to do? Rely on Kate Toomey?
NEWS
The Sort of Late Show was one for the books, folks. It was incredible. Thank you for showing up and supporting this weird little show. We’ll be back in the fall!
This week I’m at Off the Rails on Wednesday for a fun little show called Game Show Mash Up, hosted by Charlie Arsenault. I’ll be there with Thomas Sargent and Liz Dufrense and it should be a fun time. Plus it is FREE! Thursday, I’ll be at Strange Brew Pub in Norwich, CT, you can get tickets here.
Some more stuff is coming up this summer including Worcester Hot Dog Safari’s Top Dog Competition. There will be so much more including Heavy Metal Flea Market, Beyond Wrestling, and the Glitter Boys all at Ralph’s all day! For more info visit @worcesterhotdogsafari on Instagram.