$27 or Two Seventy, One or the Other

A Little Westside Jonny story, just to demonstrate that we're all peas in a pod when it comes to matters of money, power, and sex . . . .

We were on a somewhat stressful trip together to the Middle East that began in Istanbul, Turkey.  As opposed to Istanbul, Montana, of course.  We were on our first day after a long trip. We were jet-lagged and culture-shocked.  Our first little outing was to descend below street level to visit some ancient Roman baths, which did end up being pretty cool.

LWSJ paid the entrance fee and we entered the site.  Turkey is one of those countries where inflation has left the money with denominations in the hundreds of thousands and even millions, permitting the casual traveler to quickly enter the ranks of the very wealthy.  Suddenly, he started to suspect that we had been overcharged.  He began a rant: "That guy screwed us.  He charged us twenty-seven dollars to get in here" and other complaints on an epic scale."  Being easily influenced I felt my dander rise and I, too, began to get upset.  

After a minute or two we figured out that the guy had collected two dollars and seventy cents. We were off by a factor of ten.  We were eager to be outraged and tired enough to be susceptible to paranoia.

I can hear Kenner laughing and laughing.