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Talking Wedding Rings With Bears QB Jordan Palmer

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I was recently contacted by the folks behind the Qalo ring, which is pitched as a soft, flexible wedding band “for the active lifestyle.” I was curious about their product, because I’m fascinated by athletes who wear their wedding bands on the field, court, or ice (I wrote an ESPN column on that topic three years ago).

After some email back-and-forths with the Qalo folks, they agreed to set me up for an interview with Bears backup quarterback Jordan Palmer, who wears the Qalo on the field, as you can see in the photo at right. They also took out an ad on the site, with a 15% discount for Uni Watch readers. (If you don’t see it at the top of the page, just refresh your browser window once or twice — it should be there 50% of the time.) None of this was a quid pro quo. It was just a good working relationship that came together easily.

Jordan Palmer turned out to be a really good interview — smart guy, articulate guy. Here’s how our conversation went:

Uni Watch: So you’re married, obviously.

Jordan Palmer: Yes, for three years now.

UW: Once you got married and started wearing a wedding ring, did you talk with your wife about whether you’d wear your ring on the field?

JP: No, I didn’t. I got a tungsten ring — I got it for $39. My in-laws were in the jewelry business, and they said, “Don’t spend $400 on that.” My brother, Carson, had lost four or five weddings rings — you misplace them, you take them off for work every day, you have a ton of stuff in your locker, and you’re like, “Shoot, where is it? I guess I’ll find it tomorrow.” And then you never do. And he told me, “Dude, just buy three of ’em.” So that’s what I did, actually — I got three wedding rings, for 39 bucks apiece. Tungsten. So there wasn’t much sentimental value there.

I surf every day when I’m home, and I lost all three rings surfing. After I lost the third one, it was right around then that I was introduced to Qalo, so it was good timing. I wear the gunmetal-silver one, and it looks just like my own ring, but now I don’t have to take it off. And that’s great, because I was taking it off for football, I was taking it off to go surfing, I was taking it off for when I do some coaching with kids — now I don’t have to worry about that.

UW: So before you discovered the Qalo, you weren’t wearing your tungsten ring on the field?

JP: No. I was always worried about jamming a finger or something like that, because apparently they can’t cut a tungsten ring off of you.

UW: And how did you come across the Qalo?

JP: A buddy of mine told me about it. He was making fun of me for losing my rings, and he said, “Hey, check this out.” He had friends who wore it — a surfer, a guy in the military, and a guy in construction — and they all liked it. It really resonated with me right away.

UW: I had figured you normally wore your real wedding ring when you weren’t playing football, and then you swapped it out for the Qalo when you went on the field. But if I’m understanding you properly, you actually wear the Qalo 24/7 — is that right?

JP: Yes, that’s right. I don’t own a regular ring anymore. I don’t intend on getting another one.

UW: So the Qalo is your wedding ring now.

JP: Yes.

UW: Are you superstitious or sentimental about a particular Qalo ring, or even a certain color?

JP: No, I like swapping them out, changing them up.

UW: And what does your wife think about all this?

JP: She likes it, she thinks it’s really cool. It’s different, you know? How many guys do you know who talk about their rings? Guys don’t normally do that. But my ring is an absolute conversation piece, and I like that, because I end up talking about my marriage and my wife — I love it. It’s a good conversation to have, talking about the person I love the most.

UW: Is your wife an athlete too?

JP: She was — she was a soccer player, and now she’s a Pilates teacher, and she wears the Qalo when teaching and working out.

UW: But not 24/7 like you.

JP: No. She has a little sentimental value in the real ring. But for a guy, unless you melt down your granddad’s ring, there are very few guys who feel sentimental about their wedding rings. If were getting married now, knowing what I know now, I’d just use a Qalo at the wedding ceremony and have her put that on my hand. Like I said, it’s cool and I end up talking more about my wife and my marriage that way.

UW: There are some players who do wear their real rings on the field, and I always imagine what would happen if their hand gets stepped on or something like that. Like the metal edge of the ring could cut into their finger. But the Qalo is flexible, so you don’t have that problem.

JP: Yeah. And it’s so easy to break or jam a finger. In any given NFL game, I’d bet there are at least five players who are injuring their hand in some manner.

UW: So with that in mind, have you been telling your teammates about the Qalo?

JP: Yeah, Brandon Marshall wears it every day now, Matt Forté, all these guys.

UW: Do you have any teammates — or have you previously had teammates — who wore their regular metal rings on the field?

JP: Yeah, some kickers.

UW: What about players from opposing teams? Have any of them noticed your ring and asked you about it?

JP: Yeah. A few weeks ago we were playing Detroit, and Matt Stafford asked me about it. And one of my former teammates, Andy Dalton, he wears the Qalo. They actually made a big deal about it in Hard Knocks.

UW: It’s funny that you mention Stafford and Dalton, because they’re both quarterbacks, same as you. I know of at least two other NFL quarterbacks who wear their real wedding rings on the field: Ben Roethlisberger, who puts tape over his, and Ryan Fitzpatrick, who leaves his right out in the open. Have you ever discussed this with either of them?

JP: I haven’t. I played with Ryan my rookie year, and he’s a really good friend of mine, and I’ve known Ben for years. I told the Qalo guys that we need to convert them.

———

Based on the interviews I did with Roethlisberger and Fitzpatrick three years ago, I have a feeling they won’t be trading in their wedding rings for Qalos anytime soon. Still, I can see how the Qalo makes sense for an athlete. The company sent me some samples, one of which I wore for a few days — plenty comfortable, although not as materially satisfying as a metal ring. (Also: Tucker and Caitlin officially endorse the Qalo as a first-rate cat toy, although the same can be said for almost anything that falls on the floor at my house.)

Big thanks to Jordan and the Qalo crew for setting this up — interesting stuff.

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50 Years, 50 Cents: Unless you’ve been under a very large rock, you’re probably aware that today is the 50th anniversary of Jack Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. One of the lesser-noted ramifications of JFK’s murder was that Congress rushed to place his likeness on the 50-cent piece (replacing Benjamin Franklin, who had been on the half-dollar since 1948). Within two months of the shooting, the U.S. Mint was producing JFK half-dollars — the fastest turnaround ever from a person’s death to his commemoration on an American coin.

Fifty years later, almost nobody uses the JFK half-dollar. In fact, almost nobody has ever used the JFK half-dollar. By any functional measure, it has been a spectacular failure — a pity, since it’s also our most beautiful coin.

Why has the JFK coin been such a flop? I explored that question, and got some really interesting answers, in a 1997 piece I wrote for Spin magazine, of all places. It’s not available online, but I’ve reproduced it here. I think you’ll find it interesting.

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’Skins Watch: A school district in California has decided to stop calling its teams the Apaches (from Brian Thrall). … Another high school team called the Indians has been taunted by a “Trail of Tears” banner. You see, Native American team names bring out the best in everyone! … Yesterday I linked to a 1994 article that listed three newspapers that were boycotting the ’Skins name at that time, and I wondered what those three papers’ current policies were. I could have asked those papers myself, but I was too fucking lazy that sounded like a better job for media watchdog Jim Romenesko, so I forwarded the 1994 link to him and invited him to follow up. Here’s his report.

Baseball News: Although the Mets are planning to wear their new GI Joe jerseys only on “Military Mondays,” that isn’t stopping them from trotting out the new jerseys for other promotional occasions. Please make it stop already. … Ebbets Field Flannels just acquired a knitting machine, which means they should be offering wool stirrups soon (from Rand Martin). … Lorde’s hit song “Royals” was apparently inspired by George Brett’s jersey (from Scott Novosel).

NFL News: Saints TE Jimmy Graham dunked the football after scoring a TD last night and made the goalposts crooked. Well done! (Big thanks, Phil.) … Man, I miss mud games. That’s from the 1965 NFL Championship Game. ”¦ I’m not sure why anyone would want to look at a year-by-year comparison of Tom Brady’s and Peyton Manning’s hairstyles, but here it is anyway (from Samuel Selker). … Pearl Jam used Chargers-themed T-shirts and tickets for last night’s show in San Diego (welcome back, Jimbo Huening). … Cardinals will be blood-clotting this Sunday. This team looks awful now matter what they wear, so why not? … Funny to see two different Broncos collar styles in the same TV shot. “I think I’d prefer an all orange collar instead of either one of these messes,” says Mike Mongada. Agreed. ”¦ Target has partnered with a bunch of NFL players to create a new line of T-shirts, some of which are pretty good (from Willard Kovacs).

College Football News: Here’s UNC’s costume for tomorrow. … David Hamenrecently had a chance to walk around Kent State’s football stadium. “On the north wall, they celebrate their bowl games, and I found this logo of an old-school football player running out of a fridge for the 1954 Refrigerator Bowl.” Awesome! … Here are the top five “gear walls” in college football (thanks, Phil). … Eastern Washington is going GI Joevember this weekend. … Here’s what Missouri will be wearing tomorrow. … “A local car dealership here in central Indiana is using the Old Oaken Bucket game for some advertising,” says Derek Linn. Unfortunately, they have the ‘P’ on the Purdue helmet backwards. I think it exemplifies how Purdue’s football season has gone this year [audible sigh].” … Rutgers and UCF wore identical templates without much contrast last night.

Hockey News: The Sabres have released the schedule for their third jersey, which will be worn for the first time this Sunday. … There’s lots of new Stadium Series merch, and it may provide clues regarding what the jerseys will look like (from Alan Kreit). … New Winterfest jersey for the Toledo Walleye (thanks, Phil). … W. Daley notes that Kings goalie Ben Scrivens has separate masks for home and away.

Soccer News: Here’s an explainer on how FIFA rules have affected the World Cup kits, although it doesn’t seem to address how France isn’t wearing a mono-color kit (from Danny Wittels).

NBA News: Good article on the NBA’s move toward sleeved jerseys. The interesting thing here is that everyone quoted in the piece is surprisingly straightforward about the sleeved jerseys being nothing more than a retailing/merchandising move (from Chris Weber).

College Hoops News: “I went to the Purdue/E.Illinois game Wednesday night,” says Matt Wade. “During the player introductions, one of the refs called Purdue starter Kendall Stephens over and told him to remove his arm sleeve because it was half-white, half-black. So Stephens started the game with no sleeve, then after he checked out, returned with a solid-white one. An EIU player had a black sleeve on.” Hmmm, wasn’t aware of a rule requiring solid-colored sleeves, but there you go. … Nevada will wear turquoise for today’s game (thanks, Phil).

Grab Bag: This is awesome — a uni-centric Superman comic book cover! (Great find by Shannon Shark.) … As a longtime fan of the tomboy aesthetic, I love this gallery of women wearing men’s clothing way before that was socially acceptable (thanks, Kirsten). … My man Hamilton Nolan has taken a break from his usual obsessions to weigh in on the contentious topic of sportsjackets paired with jeans. … The fashion world is apparently awash in logos again (from Samuel Selker). … “Major League Lacrosse has just announced a sudden shift, terminating the Hamilton Nationals from Canada and moving the players to a newly formed team, the Florida Launch,” says John Sheehan. … New cycling kit for team Omega Pharma-Quickstep. “Like previous kit, the new one features riders’ Twitter handles on the back of the jerseys,” says Sean Clancy. … Good article on beer can design (from Josh Wren). … Here’s a weird design-related story: The city of Vancouver has banned doorknobs. No, really!

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What Paul did last night Wednesday night: On Wednesday evening I went to Manhattan and attended a party to celebrate the new issue of Victory Journal, the very cool publication put out by our friends at No Mas. Had a beer, gave a hug to No Mas honcho Chris Isenberg, yakked with a few other people, etc. Your basic promotional shindig.

On the way home, I was feeling a bit peckish (there was no food at the party), so I stopped at a pizza joint for a slice. It cost $2.50, so I gave the guy three bucks and got back two quarters — one of which, I realized the next morning, was minted in 1943, when quarters were still made of silver:

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It had been a while since I’d gotten a silver quarter, so I went to this site and learned that the quarter’s “melt value,” based on the current price of silver, is $3.58 — more than enough to buy another slice of pizza (maybe with pepperoni this time!).

Conclusion: As long as I keep getting pre-1965 quarters in my change, I’ve created a pizza perpetual-motion machine.

(And yes, it’s odd that I talked about half-dollars and quarters on the same day, but life is full of coincidences.)

 
  
 
Comments (139)

    The half-dollar link is misformatted.

    I always thought that particular coin was too big to be handy, though being old I have used them.

    Gregg, blame Fed-sponsored inflation. After the catastrophic inflation of the 1970s (followed by the slower but still insidious inflation of today), consumer prices are six to eight times what they were in the early ’60s. I’d gladly carry and spend a coin that big if it were worth three or four dollars.

    Or look at it this way: the minimum wage was $1.25 in JFK’s time; it’s now $7.25. That big coin bought 20 minutes of unskilled labor then; you’d use a coin worth that much labor even if it were that big, wouldn’t you?

    Incidentally, Japan has a 500-yen coin, which is about $5.00, and after people were defrauding vending machines with slugs of a similar size, they started producing them out of an ultra-light alloy. It probably weighs the same as a US quarter, despite being as wide as one of the Sacagawea dollar coins. link

    You would use a more valuable big coin and I might, but what about folks who wear skinny jeans?

    Or look at it this way: the minimum wage was $1.25 in JFK’s time; it’s now $7.25

    Not to mention that politicians refuse to let the minimum wage keep up with inflation – you’d need $9.54 to have the purchasing power of that $1.25 from 1963.

    The JFK half-dollar is an attractive coin. But it’s not our best designed. That would be the current penny, with its restored shield on the back. We shouldn’t have pennies, but if we’re going to have them, the penny’s design can’t be improved. Excellent likeness for the scale on the obverse, bold and simple shield on the reverse, small and light in the hand in keeping with its minuscule value, and differently colored from the other coins that are actually worth something.

    Even on pure aesthetics, the JFK half-dollar comes in second to the old Eisenhower dollars. Now that was an attractive coin whose physical presence matched its value.

    I agree with you on the beauty of the current penny but the shield reverse isn’t restored, it’s new–unless you’re harking back to something like the old 2-cent piece with its shield obverse (if I recall correctly). The wheat sheaves were on the original Lincoln cent reverse–and were also great.

    You’re right – I think I was sort of merging a vague notion of the shield that preceded the bison on the nickel with the old and completely awesome wheat sheaves.

    The JFK coin is nice but I’ve always had a love for the Buffalo nickel and the Winged Liberty Head dime.

    The buffalo nickel is a beauty but the raised design, higher than the rim, doomed it to wear out quickly. If there was ever a design that deserved to be protected by a high rim, that was surely it.

    In my opinion, the most beautiful US coin of all time is the $20 St. Gaudens double eagle (especially the reverse) followed by the Liberty Walking half dollar, the Peace dollar, and the Morgan dollar. Classics all.

    I remember using Kennedys also, though for that matter I also remember using Eisenhower “silver” dollars–though nowhere near as often since they were far too big. The Kennedy coin is beautiful but in my opinion, obverse and reverse, still not as beautiful as the Franklin it replaced. I’m still sorry Ben’s coin didn’t get its 25 years (the customary minimum run for a coin).

    There was a burger place in Ann Arbor, Blimpy Burger, which used to give change using half dollars and two-dollar bills. Always felt really cool to have those in your pocket.

    Strip clubs also love putting $2 bills into circulation at their clubs to increase tips for their employees.

    How fitting that the same city that gave us the hideous Traffic cone hockey jerseys and Green Men bans doorknobs. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

    although it doesn’t seem to address how France isn’t wearing a mono-color kit

    It states that FIFA does not insist on monochrome kits, but that Adidas is adhering “closely” to the guidelines. Which puts it on the respective teams. Adidas’s lead US designer has said that Germany is wearing white shorts with their primary kit because they wanted the visual emphasis to be on the three-tone red chevron. Similarly, if Spain really wanted their classic red shirts and blue shorts (as opposed to an all-red strip to emphasize their Furia Roja nickname), they would be wearing them.

    My guess is that for Russia 2018, the overall trend will be to go “old school.”

    Also, the “predominantly” language that everyone is pointing to hasn’t changed since the last World Cup.

    And FIFA’s *preference* for mono-color has always been there – remember France vs Italy playing all-white vs all-blue in the 2006 Final or, hell, go back to 1986 when England wore their change shorts against Argentina in all blue.

    Unlike in the US where we see intersection of sports and pop culture in uniform stunts, i wonder if any british futbol teams will have some doctor who related gimmicky since its the shows 50th anniversary this weekend.

    My name is Jim, and I admit, I looked at the link comparing QB hair styles. I couldn’t not do it.

    Then I looked at it again, and I’ve got to say … Manning has looked like he’d be bald next year for the past 13 years (at least), and without any obvious use of plugs, has somehow kept a very consistent (very high) hairline!

    A couple grammar notes. About halfway through the interview, “UW: And what does your wife thing about all this?” should be think. Also, in the college football ticker, give should be five.

    As a football referee for 20 years, the JFK half dollar was my standard coin toss coin. Perfect weight and size, tossed easily, plus easy for everyone to see. Found one in 1987 when I started and kept it until I retired.

    I agree that a half dollar would be a better coin to use. Especially in the NFL when they try to show the coin flip on tv. Quarters are just too small. Of course, the Super Bowl uses the commemorative coin, which I imagine might be about the size of a half dollar.

    No way – those Super Bowl coins are like freakin’ manhole covers. I love when some old lady has to perform the coin toss and has to deal with those unwieldy coins.

    Far as I can tell, the Super Bowl coins are 1.5″ in diameter. That’s the same size as the old Eisenhower dollars, but larger than the Kennedy half-dollar’s 1.2″ diameter.

    “I don’t think any female has ever actually flipped the SB coin.”

    Didn’t Vince Lombardi’s wife do that for the Oakland-Philadelphia matchup?

    I have one – from the last one played here in Arizona. But it’s encased in plastic, so I can’t get a true feel for its weight.

    Marie Lombardi did flip the coin for Super Bowl XV.

    The mechanics manuals for lacrosse in the US specify that the coin used for coin tosses should be at least the size of a half dollar, so actual half-dollar coins are commonly used.

    Funny this article came up now. I just lost my wedding ring on Sunday after I took it off for a league Football game. I wish I left it on now. I’m more broken up about it than my wife. But I was looking into these rings before, and I guess now the issue has been forced for me.

    RE: the player-design tees @ Target. I wonder if ESPN is aware about Patrick Willis’ Superman-inspired chest emblem. Looks a lot like their SportScience logo to me:
    link
    link

    Those Target T’s are horrible! One step away from the non-NFL licensed football stuff of the 70’s. No team logos, etc.

    Yuck.

    Some are ok – the Rodgers one gets away with no Packer logos by putting him in silhouette. I also rather like the Bears one – don’t need letters across the sweater vest to get the point.

    But yeah, some are link.

    anytime i have attended a Syracuse Orange game inside the Carrier Dome, the cash transactions always end out giving out 50 pieces as change. ive collected quite a few through the years.

    I haven’t seen many 50 cent pieces. But I’ve certainly seen more than any of those dollar coins that have been minted. Especially the gold ones that they have tried to put in circulation in the last decade. What happened to those? I’d say that the Kennedy half dollar was a lot more successful than those.

    It’s been a while since I’ve been to the UK, but I remember use 1-pound coins there. Since then, I’ve favored using a dollar coin here in the US. But Americans just don’t like change, I guess, and they don’t circulate well.

    The bar I used to work in regularly uses the gold dollar coins for the cigarette vending machine that didn’t have a dollar bill acceptor. (Smoking in bars is a discussion for another day.) The bartenders kept a small stash of them and people would “get change” to buy cigarettes, $6 or $7 per, if I remember correctly.

    Ironic you mention the gold dollar coins, Jason, if you are in DC. The only time I can remember ever seeing them was when I visited Washington and was paying to use the metro. It gave me change in those coins. I think I still have some of those in the console of my car. It’s like, I know they are usable, but for some reason I don’t want to use them. I can’t really explain that.

    I used to get dollar coins from the vending machines we used to have at work all the time, whenever I’d put a fiver into the dollar slot. Unfortunately, when the building managment changed vending companies, the machines were replaced with ones that don’t give out dollars.

    I live in DC and while purchasing fare for relatives in town I received dollar coins back as change. I then used the coins in the same damn machine that just spit them out to me and they only accepted 7 of 10. In a rush and having enough fare to get me to Nats Park and back I opted to just buy “exit fare” when I returned to my destination later that night. Instead I found out that even though I had enough fare to travel a decent way on the Metro the turnstile at Nats Park requires an even higher amount for reasons unknown and I was unable to enter and had to wait in a long line with all the other poor sons of bitches who had to purchase more fare.

    I will never use a dollar coin ever again and if I had my choice I would never use DC’s long-wait closed stations on the weekends, expensive metro ever again either.

    The NYC subways and the NY-NJ PATH trains used to give htem out regularly, but last time I rode them I got dollar bills in change. That’s too bad; I really liked the dollar coins.

    (And more from Japan: you can put the equivalent of a $100 bill into a vending machine tobuy a $1.50 train ticket, and get your change in regular bills and coins. Not all the machines take large bills, but a lot do.)

    I attend a ton of athletic events at Michigan State and Notre Dame and when I buy concession stand items and get 50 cents in change in return, I always get a half dollar. My daughter, who’s eight, loves them.

    Notre Dame always gives them as change at the concession stands in the stadium. I always suspected it was because JFK was Catholic. I didn’t realize MSU and Syracuse did this too.

    Coincidentally, I’m a referee and I always do the coin toss with a JFK half-dollar from ND Stadium.

    I always assumed the Qalo was a protective cover that prevented a wedding ring from slipping off. Never knew that it was a substitute. I found it striking how cavalier JP was regarding the loss of his rings (even with the low cost). I would be pretty shook up if I lost my wedding ring and find it odd that anyone would want to wear a substitute.

    I wonder if Roethlisberger puts tape over his wedding ring when he goes out to nightclubs. It’s not there if you can’t see it, right?

    A man’s wedding ring is largely worthless and largely ceremonial, so it doesn’t really matter what it’s made of or how many times you lose it, IMHO.

    They’re so cheap (ever try to sell one?) they’re disposable.

    Hey Paul – I was on a trip through NY this week, and based on your prior mentions here, went to Fette Sau on Wednesday night – very, very good. We went across the street to the Knitting Factory, and hung out in the bar and watched a screening of the Kathleen Hanna Riot Grrl documentary – also very, very good.

    Thanks for the recommendation, both for the food and the neighborhood!

    ed

    I enjoyed the Kennedy half-dollar piece. They were the go-to for the tooth fairy when I was a kid. I think I’ll continue the tradition.

    I also used to keep a JFK or a dollar coin around for using as part of a tip, but I rarely have the opportunity to do that anymore and everything’s plastic anyway.

    I once worked at an office which had a vending machine that wouldn’t accept silver quarters; I built a nice little collection by swapping silver for “clad” ones. Also, I’ve been “treasure hunting” with a metal detector since the mid 80s (NERD!), and silver quarters and dimes almost always pop out of the ground looking like they did on the day they were lost, with little or no tarnishing.

    LOVED today’s article. I have a titanium ring, which is not as cheap as Palmer’s but is also not able to be cut. So, I have to take it off anytime I want to do anything where I might jam a finger, like sports. I’m always terrified that I will lose it while I’m playing basketball or whatever.

    I have a titanium ring as well (cost about $130) and looked into this issue before I picked it out. Apparently titanium isn’t a problem, no harder to cut than stainless. Apparently tungsten can’t be cut, it has to be cracked.

    link

    The biggest problem with titanium is that it can’t be resized if you gain or lose weight.

    The one-color sleeve rule has been in effect in basketball for a few years now. In addition to only being one color, I’ve been told by basketball refs (I’m a coach) that they must be a team color and that everyone wearing a sleeve on the team must wear the same color. This is similar to the rule regarding undershirts under jerseys. Both rules seem to be enforced differently by different refs….some are lenient and some are strict on enforcement.

    When I was young, the Tooth Fairy brought me Kennedy 50-cent pieces for teeth left under my pillow. Eventually the Tooth Fairy upped the ante and I got some Eisenhower dollar coins. I loved these coins and actually saved them, a tough thing to do as a kid! Many years later, when my own kids lost their teeth, I used the same coins. They were too young to understand the significance at the time (plus, telling them would sorta ruin the idea that the Tooth Fairy was leaving them) but it was fun and rewarding for me.

    Like me, they have saved the coins (and spent the five dollar notes that were also left!).

    Man, when I was a kid the Tooth Fairy only brought me a dime!

    Then there’s the Ren & Stimpy episode where the Tooth Fairy is out of money and just leaves a ball of lint….

    Although, I usually fully endorse almost all of what Hamilton Nolan writes. In this particular case (sportcoats and jeans) I believe he maybe sartorially misinformed, at minimum.
    While I am in agreement that there is a dumbing down, if you will, of men’s dress; business casual, etc. and that is a problem, the photo in the article is of two men wearing (what appears to me) suit jackets with jeans and without their matching pants, obviously.
    Nolan is correct, in that this is 100% wrong . Suits are just that, a jacket and a pant made from the same material and worn together. Also, they are usually made from a small variety of fabrics such as worsted wools, silks, linens, or a combination of those and are within a small range of weights as well, 8-12 ounces , roughly but depending on the season and/or region.
    Nolan is lumping all tailored menswear into one and category and that is his mistake, imo. Sportcoats or odd jackets with jeans is universally acceptable, sartorially speaking, in that the jacket or sportcoat is more casual in fabric and pattern/design (tweed and donegal wools, cottons, blends, etc.). As well as in weight/texture of the fabric depending on seasons (usually in a heavier weight fabric for the fall/winter and lighter weights for spring/summer).

    Most style folks correctly emphasize the utility of a suitcoat as a standalone item. Young men are universally advised to buy two foundation items when they enter the workplace: A navy sportcoat and a suit, typically gray, precisely because it allows them to dress up to a full suit when needed and to alternate between two jackets with slacks in more workaday situations. Now, sure, weight, cut, and patterning count, but they count just as much for the sportcoat as for the suitcoat, and these days either type of coat is just as likely to work or not work with any given style of pants. It’s about the individual pieces, not the category to which they belong.

    As to jacket and jeans, there’s only one valid rule: You can dress up jeans with a jacket, or you can dress up jeans with a tie, but you can’t do both jacket and tie with jeans.

    Well, maybe two rules: Never wear a double-breasted jacket with jeans.

    On a slightly related note, I miss the three-piece: I’m old enough to remember when grown-ups looked awesome wearing them, but young enough never to have been able to wear them as an adult without looking affected. Same for hats.

    I dunno. Wouldn’t be caught dead wearing any sport coat with jeans. That’s what khakis are for, a casual pant that can be dressed up somewhat.

    I admit that for a time in my youth I wore sport coats with jeans in my youth, but in my defense we were all dressing like we wanted to be in the Hong Kong Cavaliers.

    Not to turn uni watch into the style forum…
    I agree khakis (or corduroy or flannel trouser) are definitely a better choice than jeans with a navy sportcoat but with an odd jacket (tweeds, houndstooths, etc.) jeans are a great alternative. Just make sure you don”t press your jeans : )

    I recently got married and have my dad’s ring as my wedding ring (he passed away when I was 11, so there’s a lit of sentimental value beyond even my commitment to my wife). After hearing about Qalo on this site, I checked it out and came away impressed. I wear my Qalo while running, playing soccer, or traveling, and I’ve gotta say, it’s a pretty good product. I’d recommend getting one if you’re interested, since they’re relatively inexpensive.

    I would like to see that fifty cent piece article revisited to address even higher vending machine prices and the current status of the SBA dollar. Curious to see the current numbers. Now… I actually use $2 bills regularly! The tellers at Dad’s bank would always save their $2 bills for him and he would leave them as tips. Something I do to this day in a small honor to him. It’s pretty easy for me to get them because we have a salvage yard in Houston that pays in $2 bills – and plenty find their way south down I-45 to Clear Lake.

    How interesting about using $2 bills for tips. I was at my local bar a few months ago and was completely flabbergasted when someone left a $6 tip – 3 $2 bills! It’s so rare to see one $2 bill, and here were 3 of them. I was really tempted to try to trade with the bartender, but figured it would be cooler for the bartender to get that tip.

    More proof that Paul critiques GI Joe and flag desecration uniforms because he’s a left-wing hippie anti-American socialist*: The American Conservative today link

    Good piece and worth a read.

    *Sarcasm!

    Here’s a link from that link. SF didn’t have enough folks in the seats before the game to pull it off. oops. (This is the type of thing that you better have figured out before hand if it’s going to work, otherwise…if you dress like a clown and lose…)

    link

    “The Sabres have released the schedule for their (third jersey) hideous clown outfits that would make a billy goat puke, which will be worn for the first time this Sunday”

    Fixed it for ya. I don’t know how to do a strike-through.

    Yeah, I’m probably going to skip watching the game, because I really don’t want to have to endure watching the Red Wings face off against those monstrocities.

    Today’s entry really was a treat between the ring story and the coin anecdote. Two subjects I can relate to.

    I lost my wedding ring on our honeymoon, so I didn’t really get a chance to get attached. Now I have a new one (gold) but take it off now and then. I only take it off in my house, so if I know I am doing something where I need to ditch the ring, it never leaves the house.

    I put it on a kangaroo, the same one Bruce Willis’ character uses in Pulp Fiction for his dad’s gold watch…you know…the gold watch his dad had up his ass that gave him dysentery and killed him. The same uncomfortable hunk of metal that Christopher Walken’s character then had to shove up his ass.Best flea market find ever!

    link

    Anyways, I might have to look into getting one of those Qalos since they are so reasonable, plus the discount.

    As a Rutgers fan, that game was hard enough to watch last night. The fact that I could barely tell the teams apart by uniform color on tv made it worse.

    I notice there is no mention of safety in why Palmer wears a Qalo. Like if it got hung up in a facemask or something.

    Wedding rings (rings in general) and finger safety. Do NOT do a google image search for “ring avulsion” unless you’re ready to ralph.

    I cringed a little bit when Palmer said the rings can’t be cut off. True, while they can’t be cut off, tungsten is brittle, so basically you crack it off. Titanium, although hard, can be cut.

    About the half dollars: Dog Lane Cafe in Storrs, CT has all prices are a multiple of 25 cents (either an even dollar, ending in .25, ending in .50, or ending in .75) and they only give change in quarters, half dollars, and bills. (Prices listed include sales tax.) So I’ve gotten many half dollars there in change. I’ve never gotten a half dollar in change anywhere else, ever.

    There’s a coin-operated car wash I use that has a bill-changer that spits out dollar coins. But since I — and everyone else, I assume — then use them immediately to wash my car they never get into wider circulation.

    Today, the Community College of Philadelphia is opening a coin art exhibit showcasing the works of Gilroy Roberts, the man who designed the face side of the Kennedy half-dollar:

    link

    Philly-area Uni Watchers might want to check it out.

    Even if an effort is made to bring the Kennedy coin back into circulation by some grass-roots groundswell, will younger people even know what they are? I can picture leaving one as part of a tip and the waitress asking ‘what in the world is this?’

    I’ve had a server surprised by my leaving a couple of dollar coins as a tip (one Sue-B and one Presidential Series).

    Possible winner of the Internet today:

    link

    Baseball, vintage advertising, fountain pens, military boosterism (note the WWII “V for victory” packaging on some of the inks) and, most importantly, kittens.

    Re: JFK Half Dollar

    When I was a wee Juggernaut in the mid-80s, the youngest of three, this was about the time where home-delivered pizza became popular in our area. So on the day my parents would go out for the day and leave my brother in charge, we’d scrounge around for as much money as we could find and end up giving the pizza guy $14 in loose bills and change.

    On one of those occasions we found a bunch of JFK half dollars my dad was holding onto and used them to get some Dominos (the Noid was so convincing).

    Needless to say, we went back to eating PB&Js after that.

    Saints players Ben Watson and Kenny Vaccaro both suffered concussion related symptoms in the prior two weeks. Their first game back was in last night’s win against the Falcons and both had switched to a new helmet brand.

    Ben Watson switched from the Riddell Revo Speed, as seen here: link

    to a Xenith, as seen here:
    link

    Kenny Vaccaro switched from a Schutt Air XP, as seen here:
    link

    to a Rawlings, as seen here:
    link

    and here:link

    The link to Watson’s prior Revo Speed helmet didn’t work, hopefully this one does:

    link

    Side note: this doesn’t do much to bolster the NFL’s banning of helmet changes during the season with respect to alternate uniforms.

    On the 50 cent piece: Canada is in the same situation, we have a 50 cent piece but you NEVER get one in circulation. The only place I’ve ever seen one is at a carnival.

    I bring that up because our coin situation is different, we’ve replaced both the $1 and $2 bills with coins without any grief, so we’re obviously okay with a variety of coins. But we still don’t use the 50c.

    I remember getting a 50-cent piece in my change from a store in Ottawa and asking the cashier what it was. I then thought “Cool…” and stuck it in my pocket. I think I still have it.

    I do remember either the first or second day that the “two-nie” went into circulation, there was a report of somebody dropping one on the floor and the middle part popping out. Next thing you knew, people were whacking away on their two-nies with a hammer trying to get the middle out.

    As for the loonies, people complained at first (vending machine issues, too heavy in their pocket, etc.), but we’ve gotten over it.

    There was talk of a $5 coin at one point, IIRC, but that idea was quickly squashed.

    I think I got over it when I realized I didn’t have to deal with a fat stack of ones in my wallet anymore.

    Every time I visit the US, I end up paying for things with 20s and 5s and getting back ones. After a couple of days I’m carrying around an inch of ones.

    Just like I imagine Americans who visit Canada end up with a pound of loonies and toonies in their pockets.

    Canada demonstrates its superiority once again. We make foreigners leave with a fat stack of ones. Canada makes foreigners leaves with a pocket full of loonies.

    “After a couple of days I’m carrying around an inch of ones.”

    ~~~

    You do realize that you can use five of those ones in lieu of a $5 bill and twenty of those equals a Jackson, right?

    You could also just hit a strip club to eliminate a few of the singles…

    Always happy to see Chicago Bears content here. Last weeks Ravens-Bears game was a pretty good mud-fest.

    That’s a sticker not a ticket. Pearl Jam have had lightning bolts on all the fan club tickets for this tour, since it is the name of their album. I’d say the shirts/stickers are more team-inspired than team-themed. Back around 2009-2010 they produced t-shirts that were blatant ripoffs of team logo. Some of them were the historic logos instead of the current versions: link

    Indeed it is a sticker, not a ticket — typo in the ticker. Or maybe there was a typo in the email I sent last night.

    One of the two. Whatever.

    theme
    noun
    2. a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art

    “I admit that for a time in my youth I wore sport coats with jeans in my youth, but in my defense we were all dressing like we wanted to be in the Hong Kong Cavaliers.”

    The Red Lectroids wore suits. And lord john worfin dressed like Mussolini. :)

    Same here. Almost got one a while back after seeing it on the site. Couldn’t pass up the coupon this time.

    By the way – Phil has graciously agreed to let me write the Grey Cup preview on Sunday. Its Saskatchewan vs. Hamilton, in Regina.

    Here’s a teaser:

    link

    Interesting read. I doubt at this point that the half-dollar coin will make a comeback, seeing that debit cards are ubiquitous. Heck, I’ve made purchases for less than $.50 with my debit card. (Usually a pack of gum, since not much else costs less than $1 these days.) In any case, vending machines are slowly starting to take debit cards. When I was in college the Coke machines at Youngstown State were taking debit cards, something I took advantage of many times. If I have seen them around since then it has to be at high-volume areas like rest areas along Interstate highways.

    With that said, I can’t remember the last time I got a Kennedy half-dollar in change, as with the $2 bill. On the rare occasions I do use cash, I’ve gotten dollar coins, Bicentennial quarters, wheat pennies, and even buffalo head nickels. You’d be surprised to see what remains in circulation.

    Ok, I loved today’s post! I rarely read through the comments, but today I cruised all the way through and even chimed in a couple times. Here are my two currency comments.

    I have 2 50 cent pieces. I keep one on my desk at home since it’s the uber-cool bi-centennial version. (different reverse design) The other is in my golf bag and I often use it to mark my golf ball on the green. Both coins were received as change when buying something from the store. I know I should recirculate them, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

    My mom used to work at a Lord & Taylor department store. One day, a customer paid for some items in quarters – silver quarters! A whole lot of them. Fortunately, my mom was friends with her manager who let her exchange those quarters for regular cash. I’d say she has about 20-25 of those quarters. I wonder if any of them have some major value..

    True story: My parents owned an interior decorating store (curtains, draperies, that kind of thing). One day in the 1970s, a woman was buying something and came up a dollar short. She dug around in her pocketbook and pulled out an old silver dollar. “I’ve been carrying this around for years,” she said, “but it probably isn’t worth anything. So here, there’s the extra dollar I owe you.”

    The coin was a 1797 flowing hair dollar, like this one (but from 1797, not 1795):
    link

    It’s in poor condition, not unlike the one in that photo link, so its value is in the hundreds, not thousands. But still pretty cool. It’s in our family’s safe deposit box.

    Check out beer from Southern Star Brewery in Houston. They make outstanding beer (especially Bombshell Blonde and Buried Hatchet Stout) that’s all sold in cans. Conventional wisdom is, of course, that beer should be in bottles, but there are definitely exceptions to the rule.

    link

    Au contraire! Fashion notwithstanding, beer actually keeps far better in cans than in bottles–total UV protection for one thing; for another, modern cans can be lined with materials hat have far better keeping properties than glass. Slowly but surely, high-end brewers are overcoming the low-end associations of cans and switching to them.

    Yep. Also, people who drink from bottles (that is, rather than pouring into a glass) don’t understand how beer bottling works.

    Similar thing going on in wine. Corks, and especially the more expensive, fancier looking firmer natural corks often used for higher-end wine, have an unacceptably high failure rate. The cheaper, spongier natural corks used in lower-end wine perform better, and artificial corks perform better still, and bottom-shelf screw-top seems to be the best closure of all. But at the moment, it’s tough to get Americans to pay more than $12 for a screw-top bottle of wine, so a lot of wineries are putting wine in bottles they know will ruin their product to satisfy uninformed consumer prejudice. Which is also what the preference for beer bottles amounts to at this point.

    It’s funny reading the old Slate article about JFK coins being outdated in a sense in 1997 and one of the examples is not being able to use them in a pay phone. Between that and memories of cigarette vending machines mentioned, it’s a sad day for coin operated machines. Hell even most vending machines now (particularly on college campuses) accept credit/debit and student cards.

    The melt price for the quarter may be $3.58, but 43’s sell for $5 or more, depending on if it is a D quarter or an S quarter. The values for the quarters are at the bottom. Paul, don’t sell yourself short on this, I work for a coin deal part time!

    My favorite coin: the 2 Euro coin. I wish we had something similar here. On a trip to Germany years ago, I found it incredibly useful. Love that thing.

    Kudos to Hamilton Nolan…spot on today!

    Also, I’ve been “collecting” silver quarters for the last several years, and it’s increasingly rare to find them in circulation. Congrats Paul!

    I had no idea about the anniversary of the assassination of the president.
    I live in Canada and it doesn’t matter to us, but I figured something was up with all the specials on television this past month.

    your quote:

    “I live in Canada and it doesn’t matter to us.”

    Quite an extraordinary thing to say, stating your country could care less about one of the worst moments in history.

    THAT’s ‘wow.’

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