Ralph Nader Celebrates Election With All His Friends

The Inquirer noted this last-minute Ralph Nader press conference at Independence Mall yesterday. What a hot ticket! The media may have gotten worse in the past eight years, but in 2000 a bunch of people probably would have showed up for this thing! So that’s, um, something.

Look, this thing’s already over. I’m pretty sure Obama already has enough votes to win Pennsylvania and polls haven’t even opened yet. Why not thank Ralph Nader for getting you seatbelts by giving him… oh, hell, I’m just kidding. If you see Ralph Nader, just give him a hug. I assume he needs it.

New Penny Designer Is Abraham Lincoln Reincarnated

Are you in to coin collecting yet? No? Well, the U.S. Mint is going to try again: In 2009, there will be four new designs on the back of pennies.

As you can see from the two examples in the photo, they’re lavishly detailed; one of them features a 50-foot tall Lincoln that kinda looks like a young Ralph Nader! (I think I’m the only one who thinks it looks like him.) The other has Lincoln as a young railsplitter, reading a book (Infinite Jest, most likely). But, as the Inquirer’s Peter Mucha explains, that particular penny was designed in Philadelphia!

As a teen, Charles Vickers, a sculptor/engraver for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, had to split firewood using a wedge and a wood-headed hammer called a maul.

So, a few years ago, when the mint assigned him to submit one of four new designs for the penny, an image immediately came to the Jenkintown gentleman’s mind: Lincoln’s reading a book while taking a break from splitting logs with a double-banded maul.

I’m pretty sure this guy actually is Abraham Lincoln. I have to imagine there’s a way to get from president to mint engraver in two or three reincarnations. FYI: Pennies now cost more than a penny to mint; our nation’s only hope for fiscal solvency now is the collected wealth of coin collectors buying mint condition pennies at premium prices.

New penny designed partly in Philadelphia [Inquirer]