Romantic love: The most pernicious hoax ever perpetrated on Western Civilization. But fun.
American democracy: How Americans can still believe in that after W. was wrongly appointed “president” by the Supreme Court escapes me. I mean, even the Ukrainians were joking about it.
Cash Money: It’s just paper and metal. Or 1’s and 0’s when it’s electronic. Sometimes you’re working so hard to get some you forget this part. This whole “Euro” thing has been a reminder of its illusoriness. In general, European money is far prettier than American money (although, around the world, a buck is a buck is a buck). American money: all green and the same size. European money: different sized-bills and different colors for different denominations. Some of it, in countries such as Greece or Italy, gets kind of frayed- and faded-looking. Other countries, though, such as Germany, Holland or Ireland, for example, they have pretty bills. Austria, so-so. Other countries I’m not that familiar with in general.
They all have various historical personalities or buildings, etc., on them. Now, the Euro introduces a new dimension of illusion. {Note: I think this is true, but I’m not 100% sure so don’t quote me.} You’ve got, what, 10 or 12 countries currently participating, and you can’t have that many different bills. Each country gets to design one side of its coins (which are, however, legal tender in all other participating countries). So you get, like, harps on Irish coins, Mozart on an Austrian coin, etc. The bills, though, they’re all the same in all countries. And to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings by leaving anyone out, no real objects are pictured on the bills. They all have pictures of European-looking architectural objects, like bridges, arches, buildings, etc. But none of them are real.
There was even a brief crisis several months back when someone claimed to recognize the bridge on one of the bills.
They were all designed by an Austrian graphic designer, by the way, who did a great job in my opinion. Very pretty money. Nice colors, nice shiny bits to make them harder to counterfeit. And you can bet the counterfeiters have their presses working overtime right now. Now would be the best time to pass anything a little odd.
A radio prankster proved that this morning in Vienna. He (terrible person) went out onto the streets and asked people if the bill in his hand was a genuine 20-Euro bill. Of course, 9 out of 10 told him to go piss up a rope, but for the morons, this was their 15 minutes of fame. Enough people were sure it was real.
It was a French 20-Franc bill.