My $0.02

I have to admit, I've been plagued by thoughts of the cent symbol for a while. Where is it? There must be a keystroke for it, so why can't I find it? But I haven't been bothered enough to actually Google it, especially out in the land of slow internets where the simplest Google search can take a frustrating 10 minutes.

But I have wondered...where IS it? I assume that it's not part of the keyboard because it's not really used any more. What costs less than $1? Okay, downloads from iTunes maybe...oops, not any more. So I guess that means we don't need the cent symbol.

But I need it! I like to say to friends, in e-mail or chat, "that's just my two cents, take it or leave it." But it's e-mail or chat--I don't want to write the word CENTS. And I CERTAINLY don't want to write "$0.02"! What is that?

So I Googled it, and I found it. You'll be happy to know that you can get the cent symbol on a Mac simply by typing option-4 (which happens to be where the dollar sign is, so it is easy to remember). I have no idea how to get it on a PC--probably Alt + some combination of 7-10 numbers typed on the number pad.

A quick scan of the search results confirmed that the cent symbol fell out of favor because it's such a small and meaningless unit of currency. Although, with the economy the way it is at the moment, I think every penny counts.

That's just my 2¢.