A Bad Penny Always Turns Up

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant.

Hi, Martha.

Who’s this?

Hi.

This is Charity.

I’m calling from Indianapolis.

Hello, Charity.

Welcome to the program.

Hiya, Charity.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Well, recently I was at work and in the break room with a co-worker having a casual conversation.

And she left and then she came back and I said, oh, here you are again.

And she said, yes, I’m back like a bad penny.

And we both kind of looked at each other and laughed and thought, wonder what that means.

We had both heard it from relatives or just in the cultural vernacular, I guess.

And she made the comment, I don’t think any penny would be bad in my book.

And so anyway, I thought of you guys when that conversation was happening and thought,

my biggest concern is what kind of connotation it had.

It seemed like because of the word bad in there that maybe it meant like she was saying to me,

sorry, I’m back again.

Like, sorry, I keep coming back.

But I wasn’t sure if it had that connotation.

I love taking these old expressions and kind of breaking them down and saying,

all right, this is exactly what we know about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, great.

We’re talking really old expression, Charity.

It goes all the way back to the 15th century.

Really?

Oh, my goodness.

In English.

Did you find it in other languages?

Pennies?

No.

A bad peso?

Peso malo?

No, there’s an old proverb that goes back at least to the 15th century

that’s simply a bad penny always turns up or a bad penny always returns.

Wow, and it’s still, because that’s usually the form that it takes even today,

a bad penny turns up, right?

Yeah.

Very consistent over the years.

Yeah, and the idea is that a bad penny is a counterfeit coin.

And if it’s out there in circulation, sooner or later, you’re going to get stuck with that bad penny.

Because everybody’s passing it at everyone else, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Of course, these days, don’t you think a bad penny is kind of redundant?

I mean, what’s your point?

Most people would not stoop to pick up a penny.

Maybe not even a dime, right?

Or a quarter.

I would pick up a quarter.

Grant would pick up.

We’re in public radio.

Of course we’d pick up quarters and dimes and nickels.

And pennies.

I actually still pick up pennies, to be honest.

Do you really?

I do, too.

And what do you do with them?

Well, they end up in this giant jar in my living room,

and I keep looking at it wondering what I’m going to do with it.

So I don’t know what I do with them.

Yeah, cash that bad boy in.

It’s worth more than you think.

Or you could buy a coin sorter, you know, from Sharper Image for $99.

Those are fun.

Those are so much fun.

You will run the same batch of coins through numerous times just to watch it work.

But how much are you going to have to spend for that thing, right?

Exactly.

I don’t think I have enough pennies to buy it.

You know, the bad penny thing, I’ve actually had that happen.

I had a bent penny once.

I don’t know if somebody tried to put it on the railroad tracks or something.

Somebody, quote unquote, somebody tried to.

No, seriously, it was passed to me in my change in a store.

Okay.

And I’ve got a pocket full of change.

You know how when you’re on the road, you just seem to accumulate lots of change?

Yeah.

And because you’re not at home, you’re in a hotel, you can’t just throw it in the jar, you know, as Charity’s saying.

And so you’re sorting this change and you’re looking for the penny and it’s always there.

The bent penny doesn’t stack.

You’re always pulling the bent penny out of your pocket.

Like a bad penny, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, good point, good point.

But it wasn’t derogatory to say that somebody turns up like a bad penny.

Not really.

Well, it’s kind of jokey now, you know.

Okay, yeah.

Are you a Mad Men fan by any chance?

I’m not.

Okay, all right.

I was going to say in one of the recent episodes, one of Don Draper’s, you know, he’s a real Lothario.

This woman gets on the elevator.

He’s on the elevator with his wife, but they’re kind of standing far apart because he has a cold.

And this woman gets on the elevator and says, Dawn, my bad penny.

Nice.

You know, basically, we meet again, you bad penny.

Right, right.

That’s great.

So it’s still not just something that people say in break rooms.

It’s like a cultural thing.

Yeah.

It’s out there.

It has currency, so to speak.

Oh, ouch.

Oh, nice.

Charity, you get an award for making Grant make a pun.

That almost never happens.

Okay, great.

Usually my puns are so clever that nobody notices.

Oh, is that it?

Is that it?

The check is in the mail, Charity.

Okay, great.

I’ll be looking for it.

It’s for one cent.

Okay.

Right.

I was just thinking that.

Great.

Thank you very much for calling, Charity.

Glad to help.

Thanks so much.

Thanks a lot.

Bye-bye.

Boy, they have a lively break room at work, don’t they?

They do, and I bet she’s going to be back like a you-know-what.

Like a radio listener.

That’s right, a radio listener.

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