DAILY DIRT: If you had a $5 bill in 1994, you were loaded

Daily Dirt for Friday, Dec. 6, 2024

Heads up for all Donna Mills lovers. Thought No. 3 is for you … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,133 of The Daily Dirt.

1. It’s 30 years ago and you have a $5 bill. What could you get?

Just read and weep:

• You could get FIVE gallons of gas and have some change left over.
• A movie ticket, which averaged $4.35, even for first-run films.
• You could buy an entire meal at McDonald’s. 
• A couple of gallons of milk.
• Three loaves of bread.
• How about four dozen eggs and enough change left to buy a candy bar.
• A pound of coffee was about $3.25. You could buy the Styrofoam cups with the change.
• You could get five pounds of hot dogs. Or four pounds and buns.
• If you were low on Coke or Pepsi at home, a $5 bill would allow you to purchase FIVE two-liter bottles.
• Two bottles of Hershey’s chocolate syrup.
• Five boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese.
• Five pounds of potatoes, with enough change to buy another candy bar.
• Five supreme tacos at Taco Bell, with enough change to probably buy TWO candy bars.
• You could buy 15 one-pound boxes of spaghetti.
• Or nearly 20 pounds of sugar.

A dollar today has about 47 percent of the purchasing power it did in 1994.

2. Did you know (Part 208)

• That only female mosquitoes bite humans.
• That a jellyfish’s mouth is also its anus. Must be a lot of jellyfish talkin’ crap.
• That Dunkin’ has two new iced coffee flavors: Winter White Razz and Merry Mint Bark. (Personally, if I’m going to Dunkin’ it’s for the doughnuts.)
• That Tostitos is now offering Jalapeño flavored chips. I’ll probably have to pass on those.
• That if the world was flat, cats would have pushed everything off by now.
• That Dan Hartman, who had the hit single “I can Dream About You,” gained original fame belting out “Free Ride” as the lead singer for the Edgar Winter Group

3. This week’s celebrity birthday spotlights include:

• MLB Hall of Fame baseball catcher Johnny Bench will be 77 on Saturday. Still hard to believe he was only a second-round draft pick by the Reds in 1965.
• NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird turns 68, also on Saturday. I still remember that 1979 NCAA title game vs. Magic Johnson, which remains the most-watched televised college basketball game of all time with 35.1 million viewers. 
• Singer Donny Osmond reaches 67 on Sunday. If you once watched “Donny and Marie Show” I don’t think we can be friends.
• Actress Susan Dey from “The Partridge Family” and “LA Law” will be 72 on Tuesday. She’s a native of Pekin, Ill. Who knew?!
• Actress Donna Mills turns 82 on Wednesday. Just seems like yesterday she was playing Abby Fairgate on “Knots Landing”.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — Why do we say “tuna fish” but not “chicken bird”?

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. You can tune a piano, but you can’t tune a fish.