Andy Rooney on CBS News is one of my favorite commentators.  He points out the trivial inconsistencies in our lives that we seldom if ever notice.  Things like point-nine cents on whatever a gallon of gasoline costs.  One of my favorite “curmudges” is his story about how he put exactly one gallon of gasoline into his car’s tank, and then tried to pay the $2.29⁹ that it was advertised for. 

Of course it was unfair to the young fellow behind the counter because he didn’t determine the silly rule.  And of course the poor fellow couldn’t comply because he had no one-tenths of a cent in change.  Andy said he sympathized with the young man behind the counter because he was at a loss as to what to do with this old curmudgeon.  But his objective was simply to point out an obvious silliness in our society that we all have come to accept even though we know it’s a lie.

There are many such idiocies that we accept uncritically each day.  Of course those of us that are gOLDen enough to remember when gasoline was 19⁹ cents per gallon (and came with S&H Green Stamps or a cut glass goblet) understand that at one time the petroleum jobbers and the station owners made their profit in fractions of a cent.  And that is where it came from.  Nine-tenths of a cent was significant relative to nineteen cents.  It has virtually no meaning relative to two-dollars and twenty-nine cents, but we have simply never lopped it off.

Of course there is a small psychological reason also, but it adds up to millions of dollars a day on the gasoline pumped in the U.S. economy.  That $2.29⁹ price for a gallon of gas is automagically set in most people’s mind as $2.29 when in fact you are going to pay the extra one-tenth of a cent and get the gallon for $2.30.  My wife for example will say that “Gas is $2.29 at that station over there”, and I will say “point nine”.  I can’t help myself, but I always pay for it even though she knows in her heart that I am right!

No big deal you say, and you are right.  A cent or two extra every time you fill your gas tank is not going to make much of a difference to you.  But do you like being taken for a Munchkin every time you fill your tank? 

It happens to us a lot every day here in Munchkin land, as you will notice if you care to pay attention.

PS.  Have you ever stopped to consider the etymology of the terms when you call someone a squirt or a jerk?  Think about it.  Think sexual. 

There are a ton of words and phrases we use daily here in Munchkin Land that we have not the faintest clue as to their original meaning.  Great grist for a curmudgeon’s mill.