Where's George?

 Such is the randomness of life, that I recently returned to a pastime I had enjoyed many years ago.  More than a decade ago, probably.  That is the practice of maintaining an account on Where's George, a currency tracking web site.  The idea was to gain amusement by entering the serial number of bills of paper currency as they pass through your hands.  Then, if other web site members also log them in when they obtain them, the site would report that event to you, with info on the bill's location, time of travel, etc.  I participated in this for a few months many years ago, but never had a bill registered after I did.  It seemed like an interesting effort, but participation in it is apparently low.  Nonetheless, this morning I entered the numbers from some bills in my pocket.  Once I spend them, I will hope that they pass into the hands of another Where's George member, and I'll be notified of it.  We'll see.  Stay Tuned.

Speaking of anachronistic futility, National Letter Writing Month concluded yesterday.  After sending a daily letter throughout the month to family and friends, I received precisely two in reply.  So the age of written correspondence is clearly waning.  But in an odd way, I derive some encouragement from this sad ratio.  Being able to compose and send a written letter makes me exceedingly rare, and perhaps even special.  That's what I'm going with, anyway.  So too, this Where's George project.  It can be no surprise that most people won't take time out of their day to type in a serial number from a dollar bill to see where it might have come from.  But compounding that problem is the fact that fewer and fewer people even carry or use cash in their daily lives.  Less than 14% of people report using cash for most of their purchases these days.  And while a majority of Americans say they carry cash on a daily basis, this is closely linked to the person's age and younger Americans are much less likely to carry cash at all.  So I won't get my hopes up about scoring a hit on Where's George.  But I'll let you know if I do.