Pennies and Checks

Two stories that I found on Numlock News that have enough in common to stick together.

America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny (September 3 Numlock News)
The idea of getting rid of the penny pops up in these types stories every once in a while. Thankfully this one has fun facts!

• Most minted pennies are made to eventually be change, then we get the pennies as change and never use them.
• There are 240 billion pennies somewhere, who knows where. Each person on average has $7.23 in pennies.
• If people actually used these pennies it would be a nightmare, that’s too many pennies for banks or the government to manage.
• $100 in pennies weights 55lbs.
• Pennies are minted in Philadelphia and Denver.
• In the 1970s, pennies were mostly copper. GE started putting holes in them and using them as washers in appliances since they were cheaper than buying washers. The Secret Service had to shut that down.

It’s never been more confusing to pay for something (September 12 Numlock News)
Not sure about the title here as I haven’t had an issue figuring out how to pay for something, but it certainly is an issue for places going cashless or no longer accepting checks. There is a lot in the story about how people tend to pay for things. You guessed it, they have some facts!

• In 2000, Americans averaged writing 60 checks per year, now it’s 9. -I guess that seems like a lot but do the checks my bank prints and mails for me count as checks I wrote?
• In October 2023 the average was 1.23 checks and 7.3 cash transactions for the month. -The math doesn’t quite add up for the year in the last fact, but close enough.
• 40% of people carry cash.

Watchin’ Guts

Jomboy isn’t just baseball videos. This is my new favorite series (it started last year but I started this summer). They just watch GUTS, drafting their player for the episode and rooting for them. There are all sorts of scoring rules to make it a competition throughout the season. Below is probably the first episode, I started with season 5 and season 7 just started. I always watched GUTS as a kid but the added commentary from the guys along with their bad luck and getting upset with these kids takes it to another level.

Link to the playlist with all the episodes.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? TV Show

Everyone watched this show, right? It was on PBS so even the didn’t have cable kids should have been onboard. I was also obsessed with the computer game and all its variations. This video covers the story of the game show but starts from the original games.

I had this one saved for a bit and then this week a new game was announced. This time you play as Carmen Sandiego. It looks like it is based on the newer Netflix show. The trailer shows that you are following clues and puzzles to catch thieves but Carmen is the world’s greatest thief. Is she capturing other thieves to stay on top. I’m a little confused by the plot here.

I couldn’t pick my tile between the two classic TV theme songs I was working from.