the toll of inflation

[George Thompson]

Something put into mind recently that when young I and my friends would dismiss something -- as for instance, a degree with a major in English Literature -- by saying "that and a nickel will get you" something that cost a nickel -- I recall a newspaper, a glass of coke and a cup of coffee.  Even then -- about 1960 -- it was getting hard to think of something that in fact cost only a nickel, and before I had graduated with a major in English Literature we were obliged to say "that and a dime. . . ."

Somehow, saying "that and $1.50" will get you. . . ." lacks punch.  How do the young-uns today express this thought?

In any event, searching Proquest for That and a nickel/five cents/a dime/ten cents/a penny suggests that the thought is not as old as I would have supposed.
Victory in the Grapefruit Circuit usually doesn't mean much.  That and a nickel still will get you on the subway.  NYTimes, March 22, 1946, p. 30.  Arthur Daley's column.
[referring to a boxing championship]  That and a dime will get either of them in the subway. . . .  NYTimes, May 30, 1951, p. 31.  Also Arthur Daley's column.



George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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