It’s only 50 cents The stage is set and its man against machine. You whip out your change and feed the gluttonous machine expecting something in return. It swallows your money and laughs a mechanical laugh as you push button after button in attempt to retrieve your product. Eventually you surrender with the only comfort being it was only 50 cents. You mutter to yourself inconsolably and walk away feeling cheated. Have you ever had that happen? Have you ever just watched helplessly as that bag of chips twirls on a shiny spiral wire headed toward its destination at the bottom only to stop short and hang on the upper lip of the machine? How does one win in a no win situation such as this? Do you take the time to hunt a pen and fill out one of those mysterious little slips that have (refund) stamped across the top? I say mysterious because you take the time to fill them out; drop them in the little refund box and wait for something that never happens. What happens if it’s not a mechanized machine? What happens if its spring loaded like the news paper racks that sits out in front of restaurants? You know, you have seen them just sitting there silently; taunting you with their flashy headlines behind the glass. That is when you say to yourself, “I’ve got to get me one of those papers”. So here you go and pull out 50 cents and feed the machines little slot. You gently pull the handle to retrieve your paper and nothing happens. It’s still locked and it’s silently laughing at you. You then might say, “Its only 50 cents” and then walk away dejected. But what happens if you go back a week later to that same location and you see the same paper rack taunting you again with even more flashy headlines? You say to yourself, “hmmm, it won’t happen again”, but it does. Now it’s a whole dollar and still no paper. That’s a 1/3 of a gallon of gas; a Pepsi cola or a candy bar. Now this is getting serious, so what do you do? You don’t see any mystery slips lying about, you know, the ones that have refund stamped across the top. You are now out a dollar, so what do you do? You write a mysterious letter to the editor and watch it disappear also. Machines always win.