I drove to a local phlebotomy clinic the other morning expecting the inevitable. I don’t know about you, but to me, the word phlebotomist conjures up some mad doctor in a horror movie. Anyway, getting back to the subject, parking spots are rare as hen’s teeth at that particular lab. Rare is a good thing for the most part, yet not in this case. I ended up having to parallel park on Mesquite Avenue because of a lack of available spaces.
Inside the facility parking lot, it was a “clusterfest” beyond all expectation. Folks slowly backing up within a confined area, with others casually wheeling in at the same time made for a haphazard situation. I’m surprised a body shop isn’t located onsite.
Rare takes on other meanings as well. My father loved his steaks and burgers rare. If red wasn’t showing in the center, it was overcooked. I’m surprised he never picked up Salmonella or E coli bacteria along the way. Dad claimed that rare was the way cowboys ate their meat. Perhaps that’s one reason cowboys are now a rare species.
Where coins, stamps, and books are concerned, rare generally means expensive and hard to come by. Only so many of a particular date / series were struck or printed, making them desirable to collect.
The rarest coin I own is a 1909 S VDB Lincoln penny. There were 484,000 minted with an estimated 50,000 survivors. The average population of Lake Havasu City is approximately 58,000 for a comparison. There seems to be no definite number for rare status.
Personally, I’ve encountered rare with paper money. Here lately, it’s rare that I retain possession of a hundred-dollar-bill for more than a day. The gas station eithers snags it or a grocery store.
A book written by Leonardo da Vinci, “The Code of Leicester” is regarded as extremely rare. That’s because there’s only one copy of that manuscript in the world. Billionaire, Bill Gates, paid thirty-four million dollars for the privilege of calling, “Dibs” on it.
First edition copies of “Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, were printed 24,000 times. They too are considered extremely rare. Go figure?
The other day, an out of state relative asked how my book sales were going. I generally don’t discuss financial with anyone besides my spouse, CPA, and financial advisor. Realizing this fellow seriously wanted to know, I gave him a spontaneous reply,
“If sales remain the same, they’re destined for rarity!”
He evidently interpreted such to mean good, and thankfully never inquired more. I chuckled under my breath, realizing that I’d gotten away with telling the man absolutely nothing. Semantics have a way of coming to my aid when needed. What’s amazing to me, is that I was able to think so fast. You can definitely chalk that up as rare.
For Lake Havasu City rarity, besides a lack of parking spaces at that medical facility, spotting a Mudshark in our lake supposedly only happens once in a blue moon. A neighbor told me that Mudsharks are rarer than rare. I believe they do exist because there’s a beer named after them. That alone speaks volumes about authenticity!
I like to write junk... 