Yes. I wrote a piece in around 1970 advocating
for the abandonment of the penny, the punch
line of which was "pretty soon, the penny won't
be worth a plugged nickel." Here in Panama,

Nobody at the time thought it was worth considering.

Oh, I'm sure others did.

though, people still count down to the cent,
and you get in change a mixture of old
beat-up US coin, including pennies, and
shiny new local metal, including pennies that
I can't figure out how they afford to mint.

Must be fun figuring out what combination of coins to use. (G)

Time-consuming but not difficult. I ended up
tipping in balboas and hoarding the US money
and ended up with 3 centavos, which won't go
far in any country, even there. Panama, despite
its trials an tribulations, hardly qualifies as
a third-world country, as its per caput income
is almost half ours (that of next-door Nicaragua
is less than 10% of ours).

PX and commissary prices were always rounded to the nearest nickel.

A > bit of a bother at times but it probably sort of evened out in the long > run.
Many places do that now.

This was our first experience with it; that was 20+ years ago tho.

And the penny wasn't worth an unplugged nickel.

The countries I've been in that have massive
inflation have been Spanish- and Portuguese-
speaking countries. I guess Greece, too. Just
think of the disruption to daily life that
that phenomenon causes.

Quite so--don't want to have to buy your bread, milk and eggs with a truckload of almost worthless currency.

Worse, think of the plight of the storekeepers.

Both the serious ones and the ones that collect only what happens to come their way. I'm sort of the latter, having had a limited travel opportunity.

And then there are those who use old coins
for decorative purposes, as people have
noted here.

Yes, mine are stashed away somewhere, probably in an undisclosed
location.

Perhaps an undisclosable location?

So if we ever go to Asia, I need to bring over a roll of paper

towels or > similar to use as napkins in everyday places? (G)
You could go one easier and buy a roll of
towels or TP or pack of Kleenex locally.
Cheaper, likely to be of similar quality.

As long as it's of decent quality. Travelling in Europe in the 80s and
90s, we came across all sorts of quality of napkins and TP. At
Checkpoint Alpha, the TP felt like wax paper. I encountered the same
sort of TP in England about a year after our stop at the checkpoint so figured the Brits had supplied it there. (G)

Better wax paper than the stuff that Bonnie
uses, which is neither absorbent enough nor
sturdy enough. My bathroom, on the third floor
of her house, at least has decent TP.

seriously questioning (always did) the wisdom
of plastic packaging and plastics in prolonged
contact with food and drink.

And your solution is....................?

Pretty simple, actually. More locavorism. More
preserving stuff in glass rather than plastic.

It'll work, as long as people support it.

It would requre a modicum more attention
to detail and maybe add a cent or two to
each serving of food, so even though it's
a no-brainer, people will resist.

Until I get repromoted or fired altogether,
both of which are at least partially my own
decision.

Do it as long as you enjoy it. Then consider if it's worth the time,

etc > to continue.
That's boiling it down to the essence, but
there's often more than the objective
objectives.

As usual.

a tiny comfort zone. He likes beef, potatoes,
spaghetti with red sauce, salad, and shellfish (but
not with spaghetti with red sauce). That's pretty
much it. I've met even worse of course.

But you do have some wiggle room there. Fish stew with salad on the side? Roast beef with roasted potatoes on the side, maybe Yorkshire pudding also?

Fish stew wouldn't fly. Salad, fine; someone
else made that - after all, you must bear in
mind that my product also has to please ME.

OK, those were just a couple of off the top of my head ideas.

The advantage of fish stew is that it would
use some of the excess milk that he tends to
buy when he comes here; the disadvantage of it
is that he probably wouldn't eat it.

By the way, on this trip he bought a big bottle
of bloody Mary mix instead. Guess who's making
horseradish meatloaf soon?

Oh, and your heart is surely broken.

Absolutly NOT!

Heh.

He had a bad experience with it in the years before I met him.

Everyone has had a bad experience with it.

The only time I've had a taste of it was in one of those Swiss Colony
type assortments, as a spread. My mom's younger sister gave an
assortment to my parents several years for Christmas so on a Sunday
night in January, supper would be that, plus crackers. We all had to use
just a small amount of the cheese spreads "so everybody could try all of them" so I never had much of a taste of Limburger. I don't really like
much of the strong bleu/blue type cheeses anyway, so I guess I'm not
missing much. (G)

It's easily the ugliest-smelling of the B. linens
cheeses.

I had to read about it; we were in AZ at the time. It may have been

the > year Steve was in Korea.
It was before Y2K ... 1999, most likely.

OK, we were in AZ but just couldn't make it up that far north.

Right.

Deep chocolate pudding
categories: California, New York, dessert
servings: 6

1 qt milk
1/3 c cocoa
1/2 c sugar
1 ds salt
1/4 c cornstarch
1 2/3 c bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/4 c unsalted butter, melted
2 Tb vanilla
whipped cream
1 Tb chopped hazelnuts
6 sprigs mint

Combine milk, cocoa, sugar, salt and cornstarch
in medium saucepan. Bring to simmer, stirring
constantly until thickened. Combine chocolate,
butter and vanilla in bowl. Pour milk mixture
over chocolate mixture. Mix well. Pour through
fine strainer. Distribute among 6 glasses.

Chill in refrigerator. When cold, top each
serving with whipped cream and garnish with
nuts and mint sprigs.

Vince & Eddie's, NYC via Rose Dosti, LA Times 11/3/94
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)

Hi Michael,

Yes. I wrote a piece in around 1970 advocating
for the abandonment of the penny, the punch
line of which was "pretty soon, the penny won't
be worth a plugged nickel." Here in Panama,

Nobody at the time thought it was worth considering.

Oh, I'm sure others did.

But the general consensus was probably to keep it around.

beat-up US coin, including pennies, and
shiny new local metal, including pennies that
I can't figure out how they afford to mint.

Must be fun figuring out what combination of coins to use. (G)

Time-consuming but not difficult. I ended up
tipping in balboas and hoarding the US money
and ended up with 3 centavos, which won't go

Your 3 cents worth?

far in any country, even there. Panama, despite
its trials an tribulations, hardly qualifies as
a third-world country, as its per caput income
is almost half ours (that of next-door Nicaragua
is less than 10% of ours).

Not hardly.

PX and commissary prices were always rounded to the nearest

nickel. > ML> A > bit of a bother at times but it probably sort of
evened out in the > ML> long > run.

Many places do that now.

This was our first experience with it; that was 20+ years ago tho.

And the penny wasn't worth an unplugged nickel.

Except at the bank or post office.

speaking countries. I guess Greece, too. Just
think of the disruption to daily life that
that phenomenon causes.

Quite so--don't want to have to buy your bread, milk and eggs with a truckload of almost worthless currency.

Worse, think of the plight of the storekeepers.

Taking it to the bank must have been a challenge. (G)

And then there are those who use old coins
for decorative purposes, as people have
noted here.

Yes, mine are stashed away somewhere, probably in an undisclosed location.

Perhaps an undisclosable location?

Maybe so. (G)

You could go one easier and buy a roll of
towels or TP or pack of Kleenex locally.
Cheaper, likely to be of similar quality.

As long as it's of decent quality. Travelling in Europe in the 80s

and > 90s, we came across all sorts of quality of napkins and TP. At

Checkpoint Alpha, the TP felt like wax paper. I encountered the same sort of TP in England about a year after our stop at the checkpoint

so > figured the Brits had supplied it there. (G)

Better wax paper than the stuff that Bonnie
uses, which is neither absorbent enough nor
sturdy enough. My bathroom, on the third floor
of her house, at least has decent TP.

Scotts? My parents used it for years, always with the paper unrolling
from the back. I know one of my siblings uses that brand, wouldn't be
surprised if all of them do. I started buying a better quality one (2
ply) as soon as I got out on my own.

And your solution is....................?

Pretty simple, actually. More locavorism. More
preserving stuff in glass rather than plastic.

It'll work, as long as people support it.

It would requre a modicum more attention
to detail and maybe add a cent or two to
each serving of food, so even though it's
a no-brainer, people will resist.

But harder to use in a take out situation.

a tiny comfort zone. He likes beef, potatoes,
spaghetti with red sauce, salad, and shellfish (but
not with spaghetti with red sauce). That's pretty
much it. I've met even worse of course.

But you do have some wiggle room there. Fish stew with salad

on the > ML> > side? Roast beef with roasted potatoes on the side,
maybe Yorkshire > ML> > pudding also?

Fish stew wouldn't fly. Salad, fine; someone
else made that - after all, you must bear in
mind that my product also has to please ME.

OK, those were just a couple of off the top of my head ideas.

The advantage of fish stew is that it would
use some of the excess milk that he tends to
buy when he comes here; the disadvantage of it
is that he probably wouldn't eat it.

Can't win for losing in a situation like that.

By the way, on this trip he bought a big bottle
of bloody Mary mix instead. Guess who's making
horseradish meatloaf soon?

Sounds interesting/sort of different.

assortment to my parents several years for Christmas so on a Sunday night in January, supper would be that, plus crackers. We all had to

use > just a small amount of the cheese spreads "so everybody could
try all of > them" so I never had much of a taste of Limburger. I
don't really like > much of the strong bleu/blue type cheeses anyway,
so I guess I'm not

missing much. (G)

It's easily the ugliest-smelling of the B. linens
cheeses.

I had to read about it; we were in AZ at the time. It may

have been > ML> the > year Steve was in Korea.

It was before Y2K ... 1999, most likely.

CONTINUED IN NEXT MESSAGE <<

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28


... If you think you are confused now, wait until I explain it!

--- PPoint 3.01
* Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)

Hi Michael,

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS MESSAGE <<

OK, we were in AZ but just couldn't make it up that far north.

Right.

Work, kid at home, etc--committments we couldn't always work around to
get away when a picnic was planned. It's a bit easier now that we're
retired.

Deep chocolate pudding
categories: California, New York, dessert
servings: 6

1 qt milk
1/3 c cocoa
1/2 c sugar
1 ds salt
1/4 c cornstarch
1 2/3 c bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/4 c unsalted butter, melted
2 Tb vanilla
whipped cream
1 Tb chopped hazelnuts
6 sprigs mint

Looks good with the dark chocolate and mint.

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28


... ... Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans-J. Lennon

--- PPoint 3.01
* Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)