Albany, NY -- My First Friday at Albany's First Friday
I took a brief stroll down Lark Street tonight to check out Albany's monthly First Friday celebration. Believe it or not, it was actually a good time. Essentially, the idea behind First Friday is that several stores, restaurants, and galleries stay open late and display art or have musical acts on the first Friday evening of every month. Every place I visited had a crowd, especially the Albany Institute of History and Art (which also had Ommegang beer and a table from Mezzo... mmm...)
It'll be fun to see what kind of turnout this event gets when it's not snowing and cold out.
Nite, all!
Rhinecliff, NY -- Pennies From Heaven?
I meant to post this a few days ago, but heck, I'm lazy.
Nearly anyone who knows me well knows that I keep several soda bottles full of pennies in my closet. I haven't gotten rid of any pennies (dammit, why do I keep typing "pennis?") since I was five years old. Well,
that might now pay off, to the effect of 400% interest:
Coin Shortage Could Turn Pennies into Nickels
A potential shortage of coins in the United States could mean all those pennies in your piggy bank could be worth five times their current value soon, says an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Sharply rising prices of metals such as copper and nickel have meant the face value of pennies and nickels are worth less than the material that they are made of, increasing the risk that speculators could melt the coins and sell them for a profit.
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The best solution, Velde said, would be to "rebase" the penny by making it worth five cents rather than one cent. Doing so would increase the amount of five-cent coins in circulation and do away with the almost worthless one cent coin.
