The Inevitable Salvation Army Christmas Gold Post

Story. Optimistic, romantic Bob thinks this is a cool story and wonderful tradition, but pessimistic, cynical Bob wonders if, perhaps, the Salvation Army is buying goodwill and free publicity for the price of a gold coin...

Ah, well. It's Christmas, not a time for cynicism. Merry Christmas to you all.

Meanwhile, Here In Charlotte, NC...

...or, more precisely, Indian Trail, NC (just a short trip down the road from me), a gold coin was dropped into a Salvation Army kettle at Wal-Mart.

Seems to happen every year, somewhere in the USA.

It's Probably From Stephen King Or Warren Buffett

The annual appearance of a gold coin in a Salvation Army donation kettle has occurred.

These things happen every year, just like clockwork. Sometimes I suspect the Salvation Army of doing it just for the media coverage.

Or, maybe it's Stephen King, or Warren Buffett, or one of those other leftists who feels he has too much money and wants some of it taken away. $1700 isn't very charitable, though, when you consider how much wealth these people have.

The Coin Has Arrived

In an ritual repeated every year at Christmas, someone has dropped a gold coin into a Salvation Army Kettle.

Indeed, so likely is a news story to be written in such cases, that it would not surprise me to hear that Salvation Army employees are the ones dropping the coins so as to guarantee free publicity in newspapers all around the US.

Rather a cynical take on what might be a genuine charitable impulse, but I'm a rather cynical sort of guy.