Klarinet Archive - Posting 000399.txt from 2001/02

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] My two cents
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 17:57:50 -0500

On Sun, 11 Feb 2001 16:36:47 -0600, charette@-----.org said:

> > I often see here the phrase: 'Just my two cents'.
> >
> > What I *think* this means, is: "This is my contribution. It may not
> > be much, and it may even be wrong; but it's real -- I've thought
> > about it, and I'd defend its reality."
> >
> > However, how it's often used is: "This is what I think. It may be
> > only my opinion, but, hey, my opinion here is as good as anyone
> > else's."
> >
> > I think this is a mistaken use of the phrase.
> >
> > [Am I wrong?]

> "Opinion" may be a better usage.

> > "put in one's two cents' worth"
> >
> > This expression meaning "to contribute one's opinion" dates from the
> > late nineteenth century. Bo Bradham suggested that it came from "the
> > days of $.02 postage. To 'put one's two cents' worth in' referred to
> > the cost of a letter to the editor, the president, or whomever was
> > deserving". According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the
> > first-class postal rate was 2 cents an ounce between 1883 and 1932
> > (with the exception of a brief period during World War I). This OED
> > citation confirms that two-cent stamps were once common: "1902 ELIZ.
> > L. BANKS Newspaper Girl xiv, Dinah got a letter through the American
> > mail. She had fivepence to pay on it, because only a common two-cent
> > stamp had been stuck on it."

That's very interesting. Thank you, Mark.

> > On the other hand, "two-cent" was an American expression for "of
> > little value" (similar to British "twopenny-halfpenny"), so the
> > phrase may simply have indicated the writer's modesty about the
> > value of his contribution.

That's what it's hitherto meant to me, though I understand it may not
have meant that to everybody.

I have to say that I think the second meaning is much more useful.

Because people's opinions are of very little value.

People's arguments, however, are much more interesting. And a
'two-cents fact', or proto-argument, can completely change our view of a
situation in a way that a two-cent *opinion* can't.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN artist: http://www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Macho Law forbids me from admitting I'm wrong.

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