the toll of inflation

[Geoff Nathan]

Larry wrote:

Yes, and yes. Whence the variant "That and 15 cents will buy you a
(subway) token". Was there a time, if I'm not totally off-base, when
the bus fare was maybe 12 cents while the subway tokens were 15?

Interestingly enough nobody has mentioned a class of variants that I myself use (but can't investigate at the moment) which are even more dismissive (or resigned), namely the addition of negation:

That and two bucks won't (even) buy you a cup of coffee.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org