Higher Currency?

After having ordered a latte at a Starbucks along the waterfront, I reached for my Starbucks card in my wallet and handed it to the young barista. He apologetically said, "I think you gave me the wrong card" and handed it back to me, smiling. I had unknowingly pulled out a card with the late Pope John Paul II's picture on it (recently obtained in Italy). Despite feeling a bit embarrassed, I proceeded to show it to the man behind me. He quickly added, "Now, that should have worked."

Marjorie Sarzana
Boston

Sour and Sweet

Valentine's Day, about 3 p.m. Stopped at a red light on Beacon Street in Newton, I was third in line, behind a panel truck. The light went green and in that predictable nanosecond, the truck driver ahead beeped. The driver of the first car emerged and, with some small, shiny, silvery thing in hand, approached the trucker in front of me. My heart raced. But it was merely a small bag of Hershey Kisses, which she proffered and he accepted. By the time she had returned to her car, the light was, of course, again red. When it turned green, nary a sound.

Mark N. Angney
Jamaica Plain

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