finding coins is fun

[elsajeni]

A friend of mine recently posted something about how cool it is to live in Europe, based on the fact that, just walking across her house gathering up loose change, she found coins from about 8 different countries. Determined to prove that I, too, am cool, I went through my coin jar. In addition to the standard mess of dimes, nickels, non-special quarters, and pennies, I found:
-- 2 buttons (not matching, and neither of them recognizable as belonging to any piece of clothing I own)
-- 2 arcade tokens
-- 2 Canadian pennies
-- 2 Sacagawea dollars
-- a bicentennial quarter (you know, with the drummer boy)
-- state quarters from Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia
-- a Polish penny (1 grosz)
-- a German nickel (5 pfennig)
-- an Italian 200-lira piece
-- a 50-cent piece (50 forint) that I think is Hungarian
-- a Cayman Islands nickel, featuring a very scary shrimp-like creature on the tails side.


In other news, I went to see Oliver (is that one of the ones that carries its exclamation point with it everywhere? If so, then I didn't see Oliver, I saw Oliver!) the other night. It was good. I mean, trust me, I could find plenty to complain about if I wanted to, such as:

1. Why did Bill Sykes have a dog? In the book, he abuses it. In the musical, he just sort of walks it around the stage a few times. Just leave the dog at home! (It was a cute doggy, though. *is a sucker for small furry animals*)
2. What was the point of setting up the cute small-child-love between Oliver and Bet (a random girl who for some reason was hanging around Nancy) with the song "I'd Do Anything" if it wasn't going to have any effect on the plot?
3. If Fagin ever tries to make a witty aside again, such as "Who do you think I am, Ken Lay?", he should be instantly shot. It is not funny. You are living in Victorian London. Ken Lay is not born yet. Ken Lay's grandfather is not born yet. Shut up and do your role the way it's written.
5. When given the chance, Oliver merrily skips out on all the people who have become his friends (the Dodger, Bet, all the other boys in Fagin's gang, and so forth). Apparently the moral of the story, as it stands in its musical version (this is not how the book ended, as I rather vaguely recall), is: "If you've fallen on hard times and have a chance to become wealthy, take it-- screw the people who helped you out when you had nothing." Somehow, I don't think that's what Dickens meant.
ETA: 6. What happened to number 4?????

But I liked it. Especially "You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two," which is an absolutely brilliant song, and the cute small-child-love in "I'd Do Anything" was good, too. And the Dodger is perfect perfect perfect, as he always is, in pretty much any version (movie, musical, other version of musical, whatever) not directly written by Dickens. But the best part was Bill Sykes. He was perfect. The first time he came onstage he was just a silent silhouette communicating with Fagin entirely by gestures (with evil background music, of course) and he scared the crap out of me, and then he sang "My Name" (which was also very evil) and he still scared the crap out of me, and I was still smitten. He was perfect. Perfect perfect perfect. Even perfecter than the Dodger.

In other other news, Dana and I are leaving for Tucson on Monday. This is a good thing. I need something to settle the wanderlust for a bit.

Comments

[dark-entity.livejournal.com]

Hey! I went through my coin jar and found a 1942 solid silver dime a few weeks ago!

[duckofrubber.livejournal.com]

How come you find all the nice little money from foreign places in your house? Wait! I found my old collection. Let's see.

Bank notes from the late 1800s
1943 pennies
American Revolution Bicentenial something or other.
Indian and Buffalo something or other
4th century ancient Rome (Supposedly)
Panama
Germany
Canada
England
Plenty of other old crap
I wonder how much of it is authentic...