
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 16, 2006
/ 16 Adar, 5766
Cents and Sensibility
By
Lori Borgman
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When I came home Saturday afternoon, the kitchen table was blanketed with stacks and stacks of pennies perfectly
aligned in long, neat rows. The husband was pacing back and forth in front of them with his hands behind his back and his
reading glasses perched low on the bridge of his nose. It looked like Cornwallis inspecting a regiment of British Redcoats — or
in this case Copper Coats — before the Battle of Long Island.
The husband is only a semi-serious coin collector (semi-serious collectors save coins in cardboard Swiss Miss canisters, while
serious collectors save them in dignified 10-pound coffee cans). Still, he takes the business of awarding particular promotion
into the blue folders very seriously.
He was so engaged surveying the columns that he didn't notice I was in the room. I clicked my heels, gave a snappy salute and
said, "Problem with the rear guard, sir?"
"No," he said without looking up. "The problem is with 1982."
I racked my brain. "War on the Falklands?" I asked.
"Copper and zinc," he said.
He then turned toward me, balancing a penny on the tip of both index fingers as though I should know what this meant.
"A penny for my thoughts, one for each half of my brain?"
"No. Which one is zinc?"
As I would soon learn, before1982, pennies were 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. During 1982, mints switched the
composition around and the penny became 97.6 percent zinc and 2.4 percent copper, so a 1982 penny can be either mostly
copper or mostly zinc. And if you're confused, imagine how Abe Lincoln must feel.
"The copper penny weighs almost half a gram more and I'm trying to tell which 1982s are which. Here, see if you can tell
which one is heavier."
Since I have passed the Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke challenge, and the filtered and unfiltered water challenge with flying colors, I
was sure the zinc and copper penny challenge would be a snap.
I put the pennies on my fingertips and could tell immediately that, yes, without a doubt, they both felt exactly the same.
"No they don't," he said. "Concentrate. Close your eyes. The copper is on your left; can't you feel it is heavier?"
I tried again and failed again.
Determined that I note the difference, he retrieved the postal scale to illustrate the point, but the scale didn't weigh in small
enough increments to detect a difference.
Undaunted, he then constructed a scale by balancing an emery board across the tip of a bottle of lens-cleaning solution and
laying a penny on each end of the emery board.
"Look at that, can't you see it tilt toward the copper?"
All I could see was that the ratty emery board probably explained the ratty condition of my nails.
"Maybe I can see a little difference," I said. "The zinc is on the left!"
"No, the zinc is on the right!"
Though I failed to detect the weight difference, he was pleased I had attempted the feat, just as I was pleased sorting pennies
into piles of zinc and copper could bring a man an entire afternoon of entertainment.
All of which goes to prove it is not always necessary to enter into one another's areas of interest. There are times when it is
better to enjoy one another from afar. It's only common cents.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Lori Borgman is the author of , most recently, "Pass the Faith, Please" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) and I Was a Better Mother Before I Had Kids To comment, please click here. To visit her website click here.
ARCHIVES
© 2006, Lori Borgman
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|