You can blame Jaquandor for much of this post. A bit ago, he linked to this lovely poem about an old maple tree coming down.
I don’t think I pay attention to the trees, or nature generally, enough. A few months ago, a huge branch fell from our tree, a maple as it turns out, in the farthest part of the back yard. The massive branch, too heavy for me to move, barely missed the shed, but it turned into an accordion our compost container.
Just recently, the branches have been removed, and the tree is now clipped, but still massive. The last time said the tree was trimmed, we were told it may need to come down altogether in a few years if the clipping doesn’t help it regenerate. That’d be too bad, for it provides great shade.
Meanwhile, nearer to the house, an oak tree has sprung up. It wasn’t even there when we moved in in 2000, and we didn’t plant it, but it is thriving nonetheless.
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Also, Jaquandor did one of his random Wednesday Conversation starter questions. To wit:
“Should we get rid of the dollar bill in favor of a coin?
“And what changes would you make to US currency in general?”
Yes to the dollar coin (which Americans seem to have rejected). This still bugs me. The US Mint continues to make the Presidential dollar coins, four each year. 2015 brings Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, which I’ll buy in November from a vendor at thrice face value because they are no longer distributed to the banks.
Take Jackson off the $20 bill and put Harriet Tubman on it.
Leave the damn $10 bill alone; Alexander Hamilton was the most significant immigrant in early US history, he was a founding father, I attend what was his church (albeit a different building), AND they’ve made a cool, hip hop Broadway musical about him. (The junior senator from our state agrees about Hamilton and the $10.)
Someone else suggested getting rid of the penny, which cost way more than its face value to mint; I’d be good with that as well. Canada has one dollar and two-dollar coins, as well as no more pennies, which pretty much ensures that the United States will maintain the status quo.
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When I visit Blogger blogs to make comments, usually for ABC Wednesday, I HATE the setting by which one has to verify one is not a robot by picking all the steaks, or salads, or whatever. The pics are small enough that it is really a hassle.
And it’s worse when the instructions are in, e.g., French. I had to pick out the “boisson”, which, oddly, I remembered from high school French as some sort of drink, but still.
I also hate the ones that ask me to do a math problem, and the word numbers are in, German. I guessed it was four plus two, but it’s likewise a pain.
New Zealand has $1 and $2 coins, which were introduced in 1991 to replace the $1 and $2 notes. Our lowest denomination coin is 10 cents (we also have 20 cent and 50 cent coins; the one cent coin and two cent coin were dropped in 1990). The five cent coin was eliminated in 2006 because it cost more to make than it was worth, and the remaining 10¢, 20¢ and 50¢ coins were made smaller. All of this happened without much problem, the most recent changes being so trouble-free partly because most people use debit cards or credit cards to buy things, not coins, and the old coins were too large and heavy to carry around in any quantity, anyway.
So, it IS possible, absent politics, to make common-sense change—um, I mean, changes.
I like the $1 coins, whatever the design. (You never hear of the half-dollar anymore, except as a hail size.)
By now, it probably costs more than 5 cents to make a nickel.
It costs 8 or 9.4 cents (depending on the source) to make a US nickel http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304419104579324744258339068
Reverse seigniorage! How useful is that?
Chaz- it’s idiotic.