Thursday morning I was left dumbstruck.
Above is an artist's rendering of my face and thought process when, while researching potential bonus questions for this week's trivia sesh, I stumbled upon the somewhat distressing fact that it costs the U.S. Mint 3.07 cents to make each penny.
Ready to add a Sisyphean insult to injury? It turns out that most pennies are given out as change and never spent. According to the New York Times:
… this creates an incessant demand for new pennies to replace them, so that cash transactions that necessitate pennies (i.e., any concluding with a sum whose final digit is 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 or 9) can be settled. Because these replacement pennies will themselves not be spent, they will need to be replaced with new pennies that will also not be spent, and so will have to be replaced with new pennies that will not be spent, which will have to be replaced by new pennies (that will not be spent, and so will have to be replaced). In other words, we keep minting pennies because no one uses the pennies we mint.
Pennies are, it turns out, worthless. Learning this upset me, until I remembered that trivia literally means information of little importance or value. I had to appreciate the irony.
I also have much appreciation for the 13 teams that showed up to compete Thursday night, putting up a valiant effort against the unstoppable Reel Winners. Special recognition goes to the folks from Heavy D, who were narrowly bested in a round one tie-breaker. And it wasn't the only tie-breaker of the night — shouts out to Westie's Bestie's and Mr. Butts for learning, along with your intrepid host, that platypuses don’t have nipples. They actually sweat milk. (Revisit image above.)
Finally, many congratulations to all of this week's winners:
Thursday's forecast calls for highs in the mid-80s and a 50% chance of learning something that'll leave you beside yourself. I hope you'll be there.
Do not forget to keep checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and right here at pgtrivia.com for bonus point opportunities, #didyouknow spectacularness and more.