Canada minted its final penny the other day and embarked on a program to gradually round up and melt down the 82 million kg of coppery coins in circulation. As a public school-educated American, kilograms, mammograms and all the other metric mysteries are Greek to me, although it does sound like a lot. But I’m not here today to complain about the metric system. I’m here to complain about being upstaged by our neighbors to the north, which is hard to swallow. America, not Canada, is supposed to be the trendsetter when it comes to important societal changes. There are only two arenas where Canada should reign superior to the good ol’ red, white and blue: smooth beer and hockey brawls. OK, Canadians are quite dominating when it comes to curling, too. But 86ing the penny? That should have been our move/Doug Clark, SR. More here.

Question: Should the U.S. do away with the penny, too?