Roger O Green

My two cents: the demise of the penny

Market 32/Price Chopper will double the pennies’ value on November 16

The demise of the penny piqued my interest. Coincidentally or not, Bennett Kleinman at Word Smarts posted, on the very day that the penny ceased to be minted in the US, Why do we ‘give our two cents’? “A dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to, but giving your two cents can still go a long way. Let’s look at the potential origins of this monetary idiom.”

“The truth is, there’s no clear origin story, but there are a number of possible examples. One relates to the Bible, specifically the Widow’s Offering, a parable that appears in the Books of Mark and Luke. In the story, a poor widow places two small coins into an offering box, which Jesus finds to be more meaningful than any of the vast sums donated by wealthier folks…

“The phrase also may come from the Twopenny Post, an early 19th-century British mail service. In 1801, Parliament passed a law increasing the cost of letter delivery from a single pence to two pence. So, if you wanted to send a letter expressing your thoughts to someone, you’d have to pony up two pence — or give your two cents.”

Nostalgia

The Boston Globe (paywall likely) noted: “First produced in 1793, pennies have been a living link to an earlier era in American history — the one in which one cent meant something — and so their end provoked a certain amount of numismatic nostalgia.”

That’s true for me. When I was a kid, I used to collect pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars. I knew about the mints in Philadelphia (P) (generally unmarked in the day) from Denver (D), and even San Francisco (S). To this day, if I see a wheat penny (1909-1958), I throw it into my Mickey Mouse bank that I’ve had for decades.

And surely, I bought penny candies from Ellis’ store on Mygatt Street in Binghamton, NY, in the 1960s, especially red licorice.

Globe: “In recent years, though, the story of the penny’s persistence has never really been about pennies. It’s been about government dysfunction: how America continued to make a zombie coin that nobody wanted or needed anymore, and which cost taxpayers more than it was worth…. Even as other countries made the rational choice to discontinue their low-value coins as inflation ate away their worth, the United States continued spending four cents to make one-cent coins, up until [November 12].”

What’s the plan?

The problem, unsurprisingly, is that there was no plan for what comes next. The regime “did not lay any of the groundwork needed for banks and retail businesses to handle the transition in an orderly way… Only now, with penny shortages reported across the country, is the Treasury Department “considering issuing guidance to help businesses navigate the transition, including how to round cash transactions and handle payments without one-cent coins, according to people familiar with the plans.”

Politico: ” Trade groups representing retailers, grocers, restaurants, and gas stations are urging Congress to pass legislation establishing a national standard for rounding cash transactions to the nearest nickel. Without such a policy, businesses are worried about potential class-action lawsuits under state consumer protection laws that could argue rounding shortchanges customers. Industry groups say a federal standard would create consistency and protect businesses from legal risk.”

People, and they are legion, who say that “nobody” uses cash anymore haven’t seen the eyes of retailers light up when offered cash, a function of how much they have to pay to accept credit cards, something I recall from my retail days. That’s why many of them offer discounts for greenbacks.

USA Today reported on November 13(!): “Already, some convenience stores, supermarkets and retailers, including Kroger and Home Depot, have had locations dealing with penny shortages.”

Double your money!

WTEN: Market 32 and Price Chopper are offering customers a chance to double the value of their spare change on November 16. That Sunday, grocery stores will host a Double Exchange Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., where anyone can bring in their spare pennies and trade them in for double their value.

“When shoppers come in with a minimum of 50 cents and a maximum of $100 in pennies, an employee will count the change and match it with a gift card reward on the spot worth twice the amount the person came in with.”

Syracuse.com adds: “Double Exchange Day will take place at all 129 Price Chopper and Market 32 locations… The stores are located in six states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

“A representative confirmed that the deal will not be available at Tops Friendly Markets, despite Tops and Price Chopper merging in 2021 to become Northeast Grocery, Inc.”

November rambling: voter turnout

Thanksgiving pie

A Finnish study found that voters had a lower risk for all-cause death over 21 years of follow-up compared with non-voters. (Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health)

Voter Turnout Highest in Half Century as Mamdani Phenomenon Galvanizes Electorate; More than 2 million New York voters cast ballots, the most in a mayoral race since 1969.

Why do the French eat healthier? The government helps.

Nancy Pelosi Plans to Retire in 2027 After 39 Years in Congress

What would a Republican healthcare plan look like

NTSB agents arrive in Louisville, KY, to investigate what caused the engine to fall off the UPS cargo plane and the left wing to catch fire

Charity Scandals of 2025

YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations

Police Chases and Felony Murder: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Amazon Ring’s upcoming facial recognition tool could violate the privacy rights of millions of people and result in Amazon breaking state biometric privacy laws.

Dick Cheney is dead

How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral (MIT Technology Review)

The Casinoification of America: Gambling Is Killing Sports and Consuming the Country

This year’s anti-DST rant

The Man Who Held His Breath for 24 Minutes (not recommended)

10 Cities With the World’s Oldest Subway Systems

Crocs– Josh Johnson (thru 10:21)

Now I Know: Basketball’s Digital Problem and The Time Travel Trap and Prison Food You’ll Want to Eat and How the Civil War Decided What Pie You Eat on Thanksgiving

Metamucilini

His actions have raised a chilling question: Are We Losing Our Democracy?

Why He Can Do No Wrong

$230 Million: The Biggest, Most Blatantly Corrupt Political Thievery in U.S. History

His many lies on 60 Minutes; Jon Stewart takes him on

Could a Third Term Happen?

Violent innocence

Banquet of Greed: Ballroom Donors Feast on Federal Funds and Favors

A Two-Headed Coin That Always Comes Up FOTUS

Border czar admits ICE sees all immigrants as criminals

Listeria outbreak surfaces after CDC cuts key program

MUSIC

Big Phony Schmuck! – Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Losing My Mind – Imelda Staunton from Follies

My Cologne – Howl Owl Howl

I’ve Just Seen A Face (Take 3) – The Beatles (Anthology 4)

Lawyers, Guns, and Money – Warren Zevon

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life – Monty Python with orchestra

Water Music by George Frideric Handel on original instruments

The Rainbow Connection -Kermit the Frog with the Lincoln Center choir

The Isle of the Dead, Op.29 by Rachmaninoff, plus some spooky/moody/scary movie music

Danse Macabre, Op. 40 by Saint-Saëns – Leopold Stokowski

Superman March by John Williams, performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Goodnight Moon by Eric Whitacre

Riders on the Storm – The Doors

The Passenger – Iggy Pop

Short-Term Memory Loss Blues – Ray Jessel

Bohemian Rhapsody – Pentatonix

With A Little Help From My Friends – Joe Cocker

Building the Barn by Maurice Jarre, from the movie Witness

September – EW&F; Leonid & friends

Girls Just Want to Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper

Old Friends – Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez from Merrily We Roll Along

Where I Wanna Be – Jasmine Amy Rogers from BOOP! The Musical

Bad Company – Bad Company

One Short Day – Voctave from the musical Wicked

Beyond The Sea -Jonathan Groff and the Broadway company of Just In Time from the musical based on the career of Bobby Darin

The Twist – Chubber Checker

Sidestep – Charles Durning from the 1982 movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Omaha, Nebraska – Groucho Marx

The Lively Ones – Vic Damone

More music

J. Eric Smith’s Genre Delve: Americana and Prog

Slapstick Slops – the Slop Sisters, for Kelly, as is The James Bond Theme – Harvard Undergraduate Drummers playing on boonwhackers

Lord Vinheteiro plays familiar tunes whose names we don’t know while he stares accusingly at us.

So Rare & Flippin’ – The Haircuts (CAESAR’S HOUR, Apr 25 1955)

Coverville 1555: The Ellie Greenwich Cover Story, 1556: The David Ball Tribute and Soft Cell Cover Story, and 1557: The America Cover Story II

The Doobie Brothers: Tiny Desk Concert (NPR), Nov 5, 2025

Paul McCartney on the lost years after the Beatles

Grateful Dead singer Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay dies at 78; I saw her perform in the late 1970s

Is it ever acceptable for musicians to collectively refuse to perform a piece of music?

Movie review: Grand Hotel (1932)

Garbo, Crawford and TWO Barrymores

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to the Spectrum Theatre in Albany to see the film Grand Hotel. I didn’t review it then because I was struggling for a narrative.

It came across, at least early on, as stagey and melodramatic. From Wikipedia: “Alfred Rushford Greason of Variety, comparing the film to the stage production, wrote, “[it] may not entirely please the theatregoers who were fascinated by its deft stage direction and restrained acting, but it will attract and hold the wider public to which it is now addressed.”

Once the story started revealing itself, it became more interesting. Doctor Otternschlag (Lewis Stone), a permanent resident of the Grand Hotel in Berlin, observes, “People coming, going. Nothing ever happens.” He is proven wrong on the latter point.

Felix von Gaigern (John Barrymore) has the title of baron, but the assets from his position are spent. He survives as a gambler and sometimes a thief. Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) has a fatal condition and decides to enjoy his remaining days at the luxurious hotel.

General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery) seems to be a decent industrialist trying to close an important deal. He hires aspiring actress Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) as his stenographer.

Russian ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) is no longer packing theaters, causing her despair.

Most of these folk interact. As we get to know them, we find that the thief has a conscience and that the industrialist is not as nice as he initially seems.

Kael says

The Times of London wrote: “Even all this brilliance of acting and even the remarkable ingenuity of the production cannot disguise the simple artifice of the whole construction, which seems all the more obvious in a plotless story designed to show a section of life.” I wouldn’t say plotless. It was more that the strands began to overlap.

The late, great Pauline Kael (1919-2001) wrote in the New Yorker: “There is every reason to reject Grand Hotel as an elaborate chunk of artifice… But if you want to see what screen glamour used to be, and what, originally, ‘stars’ were, this is perhaps the best example of all time.”

Notice the word “artifice” in both quotes. Yes, the acting seemed, at times, overly affected. Then I remembered that this movie was released in the early days of film with audible dialogue.

So I was glad I saw it. It has Garbo’s “I want to be alone” quote. Two brothers in the legendary Barrymore family are represented; Drew Barrymore is John’s granddaughter.

My veteran ancestors

Three great-great-grandfathers fought in the Civil War

I decided to catalogue my veteran ancestors. I’ve mentioned some, but not all, and I’ve likely missed several.

A few years ago, I noted a piece from the Equal Justice Initiative: “Military service sparked dreams of racial equality for generations of African Americans.” It was seen as ‘proof’ of their worthiness to be included in the American dream… No one was more at risk of experiencing violence and targeted racial terror than black veterans who had proven their valor and courage as soldiers during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Because of their military service, black veterans were seen as a particular threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination.”

Civil War

James Archer, my mother (Trudy Williams Green)’s mother (Gertrude Yates Williams)’s mother (Lillian Bell Archer)’s father. Served in the 26th New York Colored Regiment. I’ve known about him for decades, as he was buried in Binghamton, NY, near my grandmother’s house.

William Bell, my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother (Harriet Bell Archer)’s brother. Served in the 26th New York Colored Regiment with James Archer.

Henry Bell, my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s brother. Served in the Massachusetts 54th Colored Regiment. In the 1865 New York State Census, although they were all at war, William, Henry, and James were listed as living together in Binghamton, NY, with William and Henry’s recently widowed father, Edward Bell, their sisters Harriet Archer (married to James) and Francelia Bell, two of James and Harriet’s sons, Morgan and James, and William’s son, Martin.

Daniel Williams, my mother’s father (Clarence Williams)’s father (Charles Williams)’s father. Served in Company F of the 43rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment. I discovered him trying (and failing) to find my Irish ancestors.

Samuel Patterson, my father (Leslie Green)’s mother (Agatha Walker Green)’s mother (Mary Eugenia Patterson Walker)’s father. Served in the 5th Regiment, Massachusetts Calvary (Colored). I have three great-great-grandfathers who fought in that great Civil War, “testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

World War I

McKinley Green, my father’s stepfather. Served from October 1917 to February 1919 in the 368th Infantry. Stationed in Argonne and elsewhere. Discharged from Fort Mead, MD. McKinley and his wife/my grandmother Agatha, lived upstairs from my birth family at 5 Gaines Street in Binghamton.

World War II

Edward Yates, my mother’s mother’s brother. Served as “Branch Immaterial – Warrant Officers, USA.” Since my mother’s grandmother, Lillian Archer, reportedly “drove off” my mother’s father, Clarence Williams, Ed was my mother’s primary male role model. I remember seeing his photo at my grandmother’s house; the family was so proud.

Leslie Green, my father. “At the end of February 2010, I gave a presentation for the Underground Railroad conference about Black Soldiers in Post-WWII Germany,” which I wrote about here.

I’m pleased all the men here escaped the wars alive.

*Preserving a Legacy: Caring for Your Ancestor’s Military Uniform

Justice starts at jury

Jury starts with YOU

A poster on several CDTA buses in my area reads, “Justice starts with JURY. Jury starts with YOU.” I pondered the idea of volunteering for jury duty, which, I suppose, is weird.

A jury summons came in the mail for the October 6 session. My number was 428. When I checked in the previous weekend, they only took folks to 391, but I had to call that Monday night. Nope, I’m off the hook for another six years. Yay, I guess.

Still, I feel vaguely like I OUGHT to serve on a jury at least once. I wrote about my experience in 2007, when I had to show up but just watched, and my only voir dire in 2014. I feel that, since I’ve lived in Albany County since 1979, always been a registered voter, in the phone book when that was a thing, and a homeowner since 2000, it’s weird how infrequently I’ve been summoned.

I’m not saying that this is the issue in my county, but I am reminded of a John Oliver segment from 2020. He examined “an unjust cog in America’s criminal justice system: the unrepresentative makeup of trial juries. Serving on a ‘jury of your peers’ is an ‘essential civic duty…, one enshrined in the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. But in practice, ‘peers’ are not chosen from a fair cross-section of society. People of color, and particularly black Americans, are chronically underrepresented in jury pools, which can have serious and devastating consequences for verdicts.”

Ah, videos!

NYjuror.gov has videos like The Jury: The Conscience of the Community. “Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson has spoken of jury service as a cornerstone of our democracy and has underscored the importance of jury service in attaining the goal of our Founders to provide juries of we, the people. Taken together, our series of 16 new Public Service Announcements… carries the judge’s vision further by featuring individuals from diverse walks of life sharing their perspectives on the importance of the right to a trial by jury in rendering verdicts that are fair and consistent with the law. The New York State Unified Court System hopes you enjoy them.” Excitingish.

And jurors are paid $72 a day!

I’m contemplating it for 2026. It seems like something I should do, like voting at every opportunity. Hmm…