(image source)

Low in sodium and both Saturated Fat and Cholesterol, the sweet potato is abundantly healthy. Sweet potatoes are rich in Vitamins B6, Vitamin-A and Vitamin-C and a source of Manganese, and are a source of dietary fibre as well.

Distantly related to the common potato, the orange fleshed variety of potato called “sweet potato” and somewhat incorrectly sometimes also called a “yam” are grown in various parts of North America. The United States Department of Agriculture (”USDA”) allows North American-grown sweet potatoes to be marketed as “yams” so long as they are also labeled as “sweet potato.” Yams (the African and Asian-grown variety) do not grow as well in most agricultural North American climates because the growing season there is not quite long enough. True yams require a longer growing season that North America has. So if you see signage in the grocer’s store for “Yams, product of America” they are really Sweet Potatoes. Conversely, “Yams, product of Africa” means that they are imported, and are true yams.

Sweet potatoes have more vitamins and minerals than imported yams so consider this when buying vegetables. Besides, one should buy produce locally whenever possible which reduces transportation costs and the pollution associated with global transporting.

Carrots for Better Night Vision?

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Long associated with better eyesight and improved night vision, the beta-carotene they provide can help restore the poor vision that acute lack of Vitamin-A causes, and it really does improve night vision to a normal degree. But it does not provide super see-in-the-dark abilities.

There is a contention that eating large quantities of carrots causes one to acquire true night vision, which is not exactly true but this contention was utilized in the war effort. During World War II, British gunners were shooting down German aeroplanes in the dark and a Royal Air Force propaganda story was purposely released about the RAF’s consumption of large amounts of carrots being behind this success.

It was in fact the emerging technologies of radar and the use of visible red light in cockpit instrumentation (red light does not cause constriction of the retina as much as normal white light) that had much to do with this success with nighttime air combat and missions. This news release is said to have reinforced old folklore tales in Germans about carrots and the alleged improved vision, and may have for a time diverted attentions away from the possibility of new technologies being used against the German forces.

This propaganda news campaign although not completely factual as was released did have a beneficial effect upon the Britons too; it encouraged them to cultivate and consume carrots in an effort to better endure the regular blackouts which occurred due to power outages and of course, during air raids when lights were intentionally turned off.

Spinach

(image source)

The edible flowering plant that is native to central and southwestern Asia and almost universally disliked by children is an interesting candidate for this list. This dark green leafy plant can be eaten raw, chopped, or boiled and in a variety of other ways. It has many health benefits but some caveats as well.

A rich source of iron, a serving of boiled spinach has about 150% more iron than a weight-comparable hamburger patty. But against spinach is the fact that the bio-availability of the iron it contains is much less than optimal. The type of iron spinach contains is called ‘non-heme‘ iron, which the body cannot absorb efficiently.  Meat on the other hand contains the ‘heme‘-type of iron, which is readily absorbable by digestion. Consuming spinach with other vegetables high in vitamin-C makes better use of the iron it does contain.

Spinach is also a plentiful source of calcium but again with the deleteriousness of other compounds in spinach (oxalates, mainly) the calcium becomes bound in a water-insoluble solution and is actually swept unused from the body via elimination. For comparison, broccoli is also high in calcium and some 50% of its calcium is absorbable whereas closer to 5% of the calcium in spinach is bio-available for metabolizing. For correcting iron deficiency in the diet, eat meat not spinach.

Over all, spinach is still healthy and worthy of inclusion in the diet but often overstated are the virtues this dark green vegetable offers. From children’s cartoons “Popeye the Sailor” is shown in times of need for bursts of physical strength and endurance to obtain it from consuming a can of spinach. Presumably it is the iron in spinach responsible for his increased stamina. This depiction is possibly based upon a simple clerical error dating back to the 1930s when a German scientist by the name of E. von Wolf, Dr. whom was studying the benefits of spinach had inadvertently misplaced a decimal point in his calculations of the amount of iron present. This made an apparent ten-fold overstating of the actual value.

Further damaging the reputation of spinach but in more recent years were the E. Coli outbreaks back in 2006 followed by the Salmonella outbreaks in 2007. Both incidences were in the United States and being zoonotic pathogens were ultimately traced to fecal residue of either domestic and feral animals seen in the vicinities of the production fields. Probably the contamination was vectored through irrigation water and also directly from the animals trespassing through the agricultural field. Typically, commercial vegetable produce for human consumption is fenced and patrolled to keep both domestic and wild animals out partly for this very reason.

The three types of spinach are Savoy (dark, curly and convoluted leafs and harder to wash clean), Flat/smooth leaf (smaller, flatter leaves and thus easier to clean) and Semi-Savoy which is of course, intermediate between the first two varieties. Washing fresh spinach leaves prior to use is always advised and deemed of benefit but this does not entirely remove the risk. Spinach is a very important vegetable to include in your healthy diet despite all these factors. Just know and be aware of both the benefits, myths and the risks.

After dropping from the sky in Glasgow and spending a night behind a door secured by a cupboard, my grandmother and I finally arrived at our cousins’ farm near Inverness. Grandmother and Nan immediately settled down for a good hobnob between contemporaries and shared views about short-comings of mutual relatives.

During that conversation, my grandmother found that the Scots loved their frogs as much as the French, and proposed innocently that I could certainly join them in gathering the frogs. She surmised that making me pull out the legs from life frogs would affect me enough to put me off eating frog legs for life.

The next early morning, my cousin James promised to take me along on Saturday when he would go out to get some frogs. I spent the rest of the week getting used to farm life, joining in herding the sheep into the detergent bath, learning how to pinch eggs from the hens’ nests, helping to feed the pigs, and learning to milk the cows.

Saturday at dawn, I left with James for the fields to go look for frogs. We found plenty, and our baskets filled fast with their legs. From James I picked up how to hold the frogs while pulling both their hind legs out at the same time. Like him, I would throw the rest of the frog over my shoulder, where about 20 storks followed us near enough to catch the flying frogs even before they touched the ground.

We got back to the farmhouse still early in the morning and handed over two full baskets to Nan to prepare them for lunch. My grandmother took me aside to ask how my morning had been. I was still excited about i and started to tell her in detail what we had done. She suffered through it with a straight face and finally asked: “Don’t you think it is cruel to tear out legs from an animal that is still alive?” “But grandma, the storks eat them immediately after we throw the frogs to them.” I stopped and wrinkled my row in fierce concentration. “Do you think it is stealing from the storks that we take the legs first?” My grandmother gave up at that point.

I was 12 when we went on another visit to our French cousins. After the maids had removed the plates that had contained the frog legs, Cousin Marie said to grandmother “It is awful, nowadays we have to buy them in the supermarket.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “We are not allowed to collect them ourselves anymore, it is considered inhumane. They have to be raised artificially on frog farms and the legs have to be harvested humanely and industrially.” And she blew through her nose in disapproval. “And how do the storks get the frogs?” I wanted to know. “They don’t, the frogs are thrown away.” “What a waste,” I exclaimed and never touched frog legs again.

You will need:

Beeswax or another type of wax

Wicking

A tall dipping container

A tall container of cold water

Washers or bolt nuts

Double boiler (or two pans)

Newspaper

Scissors or sharp knife

To begin, cover the area with newspapers as this is one of the messiest forms of candlemaking. Decide how long you want your candles. You will be dipping two at a time, so measure a piece of wicking twice your desired length, then add two inches. Cut the wicking. Tie the washers, bolt nuts or a similar small object to the wick. These will be used to weigh down the wicking and keep it straight during the dipping process.

Beeswax makes the best taper candles, as it adheres to its own layers very well, however, any wax can be used to produce decent result. Heat the wax in a double boiler, or if you don’t have one, make one by placing the wax in a pan that sits on top of a second pan filled with water. Heat the wax until it is melted. It is very flamable, so if it begins to smoke, remove it from the burner immediately.

You don’t want the wax to be too hot for this project or the dipped layers will be too thin to adhere. As soon as the wax is melted completely, remove it from the heat. Pour it into the tall dipping container; the container should be several inches taller than your wicking.

Holding the wick in the center, dip both ends into the wax, almost to the top; just beware your fingers don’t touch the wax. Wait until the wick hardens. Dip the wicking into the hot wax once again, then quickly dip it into the container of cold water. This will immediately harden the wax. When you pull the wicks from the water, run your hand down them to remove excess water, which could cause bubbles in the finished candles. Continue alternating dips in the wax and the cold water, removing excess water each time. Keep your dipping hand steady as possible to ensure straight candles. Keep dipping until the candles reach your desired thickness. Usually about 25 dunks makes a good candle.

Using a sharp knife or a pair of scissors, cut the now wax-covered weights off the bottom of the candles. Once more, dip the candles into the wax, then the water to give them a smooth finish. Drape the candles over a stick or a dowel and leave them to completely harden for a few days. At that point, you can cut the wick in the center. The candles can be made into a lovely gift by bundling several together and tying them with ribbon or raffia.

In 1882 the artist Paul Gaugin resigned his position as a Paris Stockbroker. He had been very successful at it and was a very prosperous man. He wanted to be a full time painter.  So, he split away from his family and spent the rest of his life travelling the world and making his dream come true.

First of all he went to Brittany and then on to Martinique and Panama, then to Arles in the south eastern part of France, where he stayed with Vincent Van Gogh.  He was looking for what he called the ‘natural life’. He also made two trips to the South Pacific which really fired his imagination and he used Polynesians and the islands for some of his finest paintings.

Unfortunately his canvases did not sell during his life time and his money soon ran out. On New Year’s Eve 1897, starving, penniless and ill, Gaugin went into the Tahiti jungle and swallowed a large dose of arsenic. However, his suicide attempt failed and after a short sleep, Gaugin managed to drag himself back to the coast.

He stayed in the South Seas and was constantly in trouble with the civil and religious authorities because of his somewhat bohemian lifestyle and his siding with the natives on cultural and religious matters. During his last years he was always ill and poor and on his death in the Marquesas Islands in 1903, the island’s bishop declared that ‘the only noteworthy event here has been the sudden death of a contemptible individual, a reputed artist but an enemy of God and everything that is decent!’

In 1980 one of Gaugin’s oil paintings, ‘The Guitar Player’ painted in Tahiti in 1892, was sold at Sotheby’s in London for £380,000.

I wrote an articlea few months back detailing which cards, in my opinion, were the best to use with the Timeshifted enchantment-from-Hell.  However, the most recent expansion to have been released at the time was Alara Reborn, and so I didn’t include some cards that I would have had I written the article, say, after Zendikar had been released.  This coupled with the fact that I discover new cards from all over time and space every single day makes for a pretty long list of other cards that I feel would work wonders with Pandemonium.  I can’t very well keep quiet about them, now can I?  Nope!  So, I’ve created the Pandemonium Strategy Minute to share my crazy ideas with the world.  Today’s guest: Norin the Wary!

This is a card that I actually neglected to mention in my original article; I was reminded of him by one of my friends and fellow writers and made a note about it in the comment section.  Now, I have finally decided to give him the spotlight he deserves.

The thing about Norin is that he seems to have been designed with Pandemonium in mind; sure, there are other “enter the battlefield” effects that he could work with, but honestly, with Pandemonium he’s essentially a free Shockevery turn (including those of your opponents, unless they decide to purposefully lock themselves out of the game just to avoid him).  He’s also almost completely unkillable; the only way to get him is to target him with an activated ability of a card that’s already on the table, and if it’s a creature ability you just need to get rid of said creature before your opponent can use it.  A Pandemonium deck design that includes Norin should be able to maximize creature output with cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, but the great thing is that even if you aren’t able to get a creature into play on your turn, you can just attack with Norin and still get use out of his ability (since it triggers when he attacks, too).  Your deck can get away with using just one of him; two copies is alright if you want to increase the chance that you’ll draw him, but since he’s basically worthless without a Pandemonium in play, I’d rather be drawing more useful creatures more often than Norin.  I almost always keep an opening hand that includes both Norin and Pandemonium, however; as long as you’ve got a stable mana base early in the game, there aren’t too many better hands to keep.  A Norin blinking in and out can pretty much disable one or more of your opponents’ early-game creature strategies.  I would seriously consider using him as a one-of in most, if not all, Pandemonium deck archetypes.  He’s far too worth it to pass up.

Bonus Creature!

I’m featuring Saltskitter as an added bonus in this article, because it’s a similar card to Norin the Wary.  It’s definitly more expensive, but it’s worth it for the extra power and toughness.  This card only blinks when creatures come into play, making it an even more important combo with Kiki-Jiki than Norin is, but its 4 toughness should be able to ward off most direct damage spells and effects, and he also functions as a good blocker.  If you decide you want to use white in your Pandemonium deck, give this card ample consideration.

Bonus Decklist!

Of course, I have my own Pandemonium deck, the current incarnation of which pretty much just kicks ass.  It’s a bit mana-intensive, but I’ve included enough helpful cards in that regard that it runs relatively smoothly most of the time.  It’s changed quite a bit since I first made it; I don’t see it undergoing too many major changes in the future unless some crazy balls-to-the-wall card comes out of which I might feel the need to insert more than one copy.  Here’s the list as it stands right now:

9 Forest

10 Mountain

2 Swamp

2 Savage Lands

1 Norin the Wary

3 Llanowar Elves

3 Sakura-Tribe Elder

2 Mogg War Marshal

2 Penumbra Bobcat

3 Flametongue Kavu

2 Mycoloth

2 Deus of Calamity

1 Shivan Wurm

3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

1 Rampaging Baloths

2 Dragon Broodmother

3 Broodmate Dragon

2 Kodama’s Reach

4 Pandemonium

3 Heat Shimmer

As always, feel free to comment!  Let me know of any ideas you can come up with for Pandemonium, or how the decklist may be improved (I’m always open to criticism).  See you next time on the Pandemonium Strategy Minute!

The tallest chimney in the world is the one at the Ekibastuz power station in Kazakhstan. It reaches 1377 feet, or 420 metres and tapers from 144 feet (47 metres) at its base, up to 47 feet, or 14 metres at the top. This is the world’s largest coal-fired plant which came into operation in 1991.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Second in the list of the world’s tallest chimneys is the one at the International Nickel Company, Cooper Hill, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The Inco superstack at the Inco copper cliff smelter is 1250 feet (381 metres) tall.

Next is Homer City Generating Station Unit 3, at Minersville, Pennsylvania, USA. This is a coal-burning power station owned by Edison International and the largest of its chimneys reaches a height of 1216 feet (371 metres).

Kennecott Copper Corporation, Magna, Utah, USA, is part of the Rio Tinto group. It operates the largest open mining copper mines in the world and was formed in 1898. The name Kennecott was first used in 1936. The tallest chimney reaches 1215 feet (370 metres).

The Mitchell Power Plant at Moundsville, West Virginia, USA comes in as the fifth tallest chimney stack in the world. This power plant was built in 1971 and at that time the smokestack was the highest in the world but that claim to fame has now been superceded and although it is 1206 feet (368 feet) high, it is now the fifth tallest in the world.

Image via Wikipedia

At number six comes the Zasavje power station at Trbovlje, Slovenia which was built in 1974. It reaches 1181 feet (360 metres) and close behind in the list is the Endesa Termic at La Coruna, Spain which reaches a height of 1169 feet (356 metres) and is the second tallest chimney in Europe.

Number eight is at the Syrdaya Power Plant in Uzbekistan. The chimney at unit five is 1148 feet (350 metres) tall. It was built in 1975 and has four other chimneys almost as tall.

Next is the Turuel Power Plant in Spain. This is a lignite fired power plant a series of chimneys. The tallest of which is 1125 feet (343 feet). It has three ovens and 350 megawatt capacity.

At number ten is the Plomin Power Plant in Croatia which reaches a height of 1115 feet (340 metres). This coal fired power station is coal fired and has two boilers which can generate 330 megawatts of electricity, which is 13% of Croatia’s requirements.

Tarot originated around the year 1440 in Italy. The original cards were hand- painted and used in the courts of the nobility. They were a rare and exclusive passtime of the rich, and nothing more than a game.

There are many legends about the origins of these cards and they have been linked to India, the Jewish Kabbala, Egypt, or even ancient China. Historically there is no evidence for these stories.

Around the year 1500 these cards became known as tarocchi in order to differentiate them from ordinary trumps, or what we know as playing cards. The French form of this word is ‘Tarot’.

Folklore says that the gypsies, specifically Romanies, brought Tarot to Europe. This idea was actually started by writers from the mid 19th Century. Gypsies only started using tarot cards during the twentieth century. Prior to this they told fortunes by reading palms and interpreting ordinary playing cards.

Ordinary playing cards came to Europe from Muslim Spain around 50 years before Tarot cards arrived. These cards had four suits with kings and pages and the Tarot added The Fool and the Queens to this. These cards were originally used to play a game similar to bridge.

Around 1781 occult writers like Comte de Mellet started to mention Tarot as a divinatory tool. Interest in the cards as a system grew rapidly and they became an integral part of occult philosophy. They do infact tell a story which goes from the ‘Fool’ to enlightenment.

In the 21st century these cards are still used for prediction and interpretation of events and situations. There are some who consider the whole idea of prediction to be ridiculous and others who fear the power of the Tarot and it’s advocates. They have been called ‘tools of the devil’ and are said by some to be banned by the Christian churches. This is not true. The ban imposed by the church was solely on the ‘Pope’ and ‘Popess’ cards of the old decks. These were replaced by more acceptable images.

The cards themselves hold no power as they are merely cards which originated as part of a game. The real power comes from the reader’s ability to interpret the cards and relate them to situations. Those individuals who have a gift for this could do equally well using baseball cards!

In the hands of a sensitive, receptive reader, Tarot cards can work. They operate like a very basic map of a person’s mind and seem to work as a tool that facilitates access to whatever is really going on inside. It’s a little like looking at a rather distorted mirror. Images come and go and are far from clear. A little imagination can soon fill the gaps and make perfect sense.

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung studied the symbols within the Tarot and came up with the idea of universal symbols that can be used to map the human mind. He developed the idea that the unconscious mind of an individual is made up of the personal unconscious and a collective unconscious. This, he reasoned, partly explained the success of symbollic systems like the Tarot.

Most of us enjoy a good hot chilli from time to time and I’ve got to confess that I do occasionally succumb to the odd Vegetarian Spicy pizza from our local takeaway with loads of onion, mushrooms, olives, sliced tomatoes and jalapenos on it, particularly after a hard day’s graft tapping away at the keyboard listening to the dronings of some of my real estate clients extolling the virtues of some wonderful property with 20 bedrooms and two zillion acres of land which I know I could never afford.  Little did I realise that my need for this hot and spicy pizza could be down to the fact that chillies lift the spirit!

Research has shown that one of the prime chemicals in the peppers, capsaicin, clings to the receptors in the mouth and throat that detect heat.  This in turn send messages to the brain that the food we are eating is hot and the brain immediately says ”ouch, that’s hot mate”.  Endorphins, natural painkillers, are then released into the body which take away the Ouch Factor and this gives us a sense of pleasure.

As well as possibly helping to lift your mood, it’s also been discovered that hot chilli sauces eaten with meals slightly raise the rate at which calories are burnt for a couple of hours after eating so they’re good if you’re on a diet and it’s thought that they also stimulate digestion and relieve wind.

Why is it that one minute we’re being advised that some food or other is “good for you” so you go out, stockpile that food and before the first morsel has hardly had time to hit the side of your bowels, some other so-called “expert” comes forward and tells us that we should swiftly despatch it from the pantry to the bin as it’s lethal!  Such is the case with the poor, harmless looking Brazil nut!

It had come to the attention of the “first experts” that Brazil nuts had certain minerals in them that boosted the immune system and may protect against cancer.  Now our “second experts” have said that this mineral may push up bad cholesterol levels and raise the risk of heart disease!

These second experts from Warwick University (UK) found from their research that selenium which is found in Brazil nuts as well as grain, fish and meat, increased cholesterol levels.  They carried out tests which showed that the highest levels of selenium were found in those people who regularly took dietary supplements containing the mineral so it followed that if you over indulged on Brazil nuts and other foods that are rich in this mineral you’re at greater risk of heart disease.

The University took a cross-section of 1,042 people aged between 19 and 64 between 2000 and 2001 and, according to the researchers, of those people with selenium concentrations higher than 1.20 μmoles (micromoles) per litre of blood, levels of cholesterol were up by about 8%, and levels of a “bad” cholesterol associated with heart disease were raised by 10%. 

I would suggest that we take the research with a pinch of salt at the moment and I, for one, won’t be throwing my Christmas stash of nuts in the bin or scattering them onto the bird table!!  Oh, hang on; we’re not allowed to take a pinch of salt are we?  It’s bad for the health!!

Now please spare a thought for those who suffer from lachanophobia!  Never heard of it?  Neither had I until the other day.  It’s a fear of vegetables so my Vegetarian Spicy pizza definitely wouldn’t go down well with sufferers!

A 22 year old student from Portsmouth (UK) was frightened of vegetables when she was a child and this has continued into her adult life.  The poor girl has panic attacks not only when she finds the odd pea or carrot straying onto her plate, but also when she’s just walking past the greengrocery on display in a supermarket. 

She eats meat and cereals and can manage a potato and an occasional apple but nerry a pea or sprout passes her lips!!  And as for touching them – that’s definitely out!

Apparently lachanophobia affects a few thousand people in the UK and one of the best ways to curb the fear is to undergo “psychological re-programming” (sounds like something out of Dr Who!).

Anxiety UK, a phobia charity, has indicated that around 13% of British people suffer from some sort of phobia and most of them are treatable, usually by medication or self-help groups but they suggest that if anyone feels they’ve got a phobia they should, in the first instance, visit their GP for a proper diagnosis … Not quite sure what you’re supposed to do if, like 75% or more of us across the world, have a fear of the doctor’s surgery!!!

And finally, an amusing story of the Italian bakers who thought they could beat the credit crunch! 

Michelangelo Alesso and Alessandro Mancino had a nice little bakery in Turin but, due to the recession, they found their income dwindling as more and more customers abandoned them for cheaper, more run of the mill bread, so being extremely resourceful they decided to add a secret ingredient to their recipe and, once again found the customers flocking in to purchase.

Unfortunately this increase in trade was short-lived!  Police became extremely suspicious when queues for the bakery began blocking the footpaths.  Further investigation revealed that this secret ingredient was cocaine.  Apparently the bakers had turned to drug dealing in order to pay the bills!  Maybe they should have put some nice hot chillies into their mix instead!!

Over the years that I have been nonchalantly saving my pennies I tried to not let other coins get intermingled with the contents of this jar. Still, it happens and there were a few dimes and a nickel or two in here. Certainly less than a dollar so I will just eschew any errant final figure as to final total dollar value. The ability of pennies to shift around and occupy the actual volume is far greater probability than the skewed value a dollar’s worth of ’silver’ might cause.

The Penny Jug, The Mystery of What is it Worth?

(image by author)

I wish that I had weighed this now. It would have given a better descriptor of contents and a more accurate result of how much is actually in this jug. I always imagined a booth at the Fair with a ‘guess how many pennies are in this jar and win a prize’ scenario. Of course, the weight of the jar would not be revealed at such an event and the jar, whatever volume it was, would not be completely filled either. Just on general principle.

No way was I going to mule this heavy jar to the store as-is. I wanted to take it down in smaller increments. To that end, I used another smaller jar to transfer some portion into. Those automatic coin-machines are pretty neat; you drop your coins onto a perforated rack and press the “START” button, and you begin to sweep your coins into the maw of the machine. The perforated tray allows anything non-coin to drop safely out. Things like clothes lint, little wads of paper, paper clips (often, small dishes from office desk contains both paper clips and pennies.) The detritus-collector tray always shows what was dropped through and it looks pretty disgusting. I saw a very small copper coin that made it through the perforated tray; it was foreign. Maybe Polish, it was about half the diameter of a dime. It belongs to whomever cleans the machine now.

The machine will stall if it gobbles anything non-coin and this can cause the accurate counting of your coins to terminate. You may lose your money. Try to deposit the cleanest load of coins that you can.

Loading-up on Pennies

(image by author)

I decided to take more than just the small jar, so a plastic meal container joins the effort. As it is, this is a bit less than half the total volume of the gallon jug and still almost inconvenient to transport. But the effort will be rewarded. I needed some additional cash at the time for my son’s upcoming birthday presents and this would do quite nicely. I was surprised at how much was in this jar in total.

What you see in the smaller jar and the plastic container together was counted by the machine and it came to $22.42 (after the small fee that the machine extracts for the service.) Not too bad. This machine separates coins by value (size, thickness, weight, etc.) and tallies the total. It ejects a register receipt when you press the “finished” button. This is redeemable that day only towards grocery purchases or for cash payout at the Service Desk.

It may vary by store, city or other, but this particular location mandates that the receipt given be redeemed the same day. It cannot be saved for a future date. I suppose that this eliminates or reduces the chance of fraud or alternation of the printout.

As my Son would say, More Pennies!

Several days later I re-loaded the small jar and plastic container for the final run and with just a few handfuls remaining, bagged them in resealable freezer bags and took them all to be redeemed. This time the payout was $30.81.

How Much is a Gallon Jug of Pennies Worth?

This particular gallon jug of pennies came to a total of $53.23 but the actual amount might be different between the same size jug. Remember, depending upon how the pennies lay in the jug, the amount of other coins also present and counted, exactly how filled the jug is and of course in this particular case, the debited service fee that the coin-counting machine exacts your amount can and probably would vary.

If you have a jar or jug of pennies, what are you hoarding them for? Redeem them for money that you can more conveniently use. If the jug of pennies is a safeguard for the future still you can redeem them and deposit the money into a bank account. Stuff the folding money under your mattress. Either way, it will still be more accessible and convenient to use when you need it.

This is really a very good card, almost deceptively so.  Haste on a blue creature is virtually unheard of, but Future Sight did a lot of wacky things, and this was certainly one of them; the fact that you can snag a card the turn the Fetch comes into play makes it very worthwile as a utility card in many different types of decks.  I’ve always loved draw-discard abilities (as they appear at a discount; simply drawing a card tends to be more costly); the Looters of the Merfolk and Cephalid persuasions have always been pet cards of mine.  The ability to retool your hand every turn is one that can be taken advantage of in a myriad of situations.  Compared to Merfolk Looter, I feel that this card is better; true, you’re essentially using the Fetch’s ability on the same turn that you would be able to use the Looter’s, but I love the surprise element that haste grants, as well as the extra point of toughness.  With the haste tacked on, your opponent(s) won’t have a turn to decide they’d like to get rid of the creature before you start using it, not to mention the fact that this shouldn’t be a very high-priority target early in the game.  The fact that it has defender (and no power to begin with) should help to divert other players’ attention to other, more pertinent threats, allowing you to slowly but surely begin to gain card advantage.

This card works very well with cards that have the Madness ability, as well as with cards with abilities that trigger when you draw cards (such as Lorescale Coatl and Hoofprints of the Stag).  Also, should you be running a deck with Archmage Ascension (I wouldn’t reccommend it), Bonded Fetch can be one of your better options for getting the enchantment up and running as quickly as possible, and afterwards will allow you to tutor up an extra card each turn.

I hope you enjoyed this article; Bonded Fetch is a great utility card, and you should be able to find a lot of places for it to go.  Until next time!