The Writer's Life 3/7 - Fakery

An article at Yahoo News reports that motorists in North Carolina have been getting pranked by someone with a weird sense of humor, or someone determined to muck up the fine collections works. Drivers found what they didn't know were fake tickets for $100 on their cars, which, when scanned with a smart phone, pulled up the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley smash hit Never Gonna Give You Up. The practice has become known as "rickrolling."

It was a very interesting session of the floating book shop today on Bay Parkway. Monsey, a semi-regular customer, visited and bought The Medium Next Door: Adventures of a Real Life Ghost Whisperer by Maureen Hancock. She wanted to pay with a twenty but wouldn't take a ten dollar bill as part of the change. She'd recently been passed a counterfeit one by the clerk in the nearby elevated train station. When she tried to pay for groceries with it, she was given the bad news. She went back to the station to complain and the creep threatened to call the cops on her. In ill health and not at all confrontational, she retreated. She paid me in quarters. I suddenly realized that my first customer of the day had paid for a Russian detective novel with a ten. I found it curious that he hadn't bought more than one. Monsey pulled a marker from her pocket. She now carries it with her always to check every ten or twenty she gets. She told me that if the mark eventually disappears the bill is no good. Now hours later, I just checked and it is gone. I will have it double-checked on Thursday at Stop n Shop. Monsey was in good spirits otherwise, as she is taking a poetry writing class, and is looking into a water colors painting class. Good luck, my dear, and thank you, and also to the woman who purchased the Joan Collins potboiler Misfortune's Daughter, and to the folks who bought up the rest of my Russian inventory.

Here's a pic of the bill in question, whose design was introduced in 2005. I went to a website that instructs on what to look for in terms of authentication. Holding the bill up to a light, I saw half things that were cited. The best way to check is with ultraviolet light, but I don't have one handy. I guess when these are flushed out, the thieves will resort to knocking off fives:

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Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

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