Penny for Your Thoughts

Here's a conversation that almost happened.

"Women never ask you what you're thinking when you have a good answer."

"OK. What are you thinking."

"I'm thinking that we should make coins in the shape of moebius strips, so they only have one side. I got the idea from that Neil Gaiman line about there being no such thing as a one-sided coin, and it hit me that it doesn't have to be so. They'd look pretty cool, too, little silver moebius strips with denominations on them. Buying a newspaper would be like playing jacks."

"It would be a little hard at Super Bowl time."

"There's another plus. It would force us to be more decisive as a nation. No more coin flips to make decisions. Of course, it might make us less tolerant as a nation, too. No nice metaphor for there being another side to an issue. I think maybe Fundamentalists already have one-sided coins. They're decisive and always believe they're right."

"So does the ACLU."

"True enough. Maybe you need a one-sider to get into politics at all.

"I wonder if I could get a hold of one. Where do you think they get them changed? Do people put them in the collection plates on Sunday, or renew their memberships with them? There could be a whole underground economy based on one-sided coins. Does the IRS know? Does George W. Bush have 144 million one-sided quarters in a vault somewhere? That would explain why he doesn't want Federal matching funds, but not his chronic indecision. I still think the Fundamentalists are a more likely source.

"Hmmmm. Maybe I should write Pat Robertson. What do you think?"

"I think I'll stop asking you what you're thinking about."