Here and There

What is it with America’s love of the penny?

Last week, the U.S. Postal Service raised the rate of a first-class standard stamp from 37 cents to 39. The increase was noted widely as the first since 2002.

I’m annoyed.

Not at the increase itself. I understand inflation. I’m annoyed that the good people at the USPS didn’t do us a common courtesy and simply make stamps 40 cents.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the postal service (the people who deliver mail AND the cross-country musical wizardry by the same name). I love the fact that in this so-called digital age (the era of automated everything, where “mail” is so slow and archaic, it’s taken on the name of one of the most pesky, persistent, and slimy of slimy pests — the snail), there’s still such a thing as putting paper into an envelope, licking the envelope closed, and affixing a stamp. The process of course gets more medieval from there, as we drop said envelope into a blue metal box, where it is picked up (rain, wind, sleet, or snow) by people in light blue uniforms and funny-looking white wagons.

Sorry, I’m waxing romantic, pining for the days when mail meant everything…when I lived and breathed by the delivery of assorted letters from friends and the occasional magazine.

I merely mean to say that despite my annoyance over its monetary policies, I appreciate the men and women still providing this horribly outdated service.

Shifting gears slightly…

Cheers to store owners and cashiers across the land with their Need a Penny, Take a Penny/Have a Penny, Leave a Penny jars…their reluctance to offer pennies as change, instead rounding change up to the nearest nickel, that surely soon-to-be rendered useless brother of the penny.

*Footnote:
In researching this post, I came across a couple of interesting “you knew they had to be out there” websites for groups whose mission is to “save the penny.” Pretty much my enemies: Americans for Common Cents; Penny Lovers of America; Common Cents New York.

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