So I was enjoying the fruits of a friend winning a $100 bar tab at 4PLAY, which is just awesome, and my wife and her fellow grad student were joining us as well. They were engaging in that tried and true bar activity of -wait for it- GRADING!

GRADING?!! Are you serious!? Well, I suppose there are many worse places and situations in which to finish up TA duties than in the newly dubbed “most storied bar in Ithaca.”

It’s just a far cry from dancing on the tables…perhaps once the grading is over?

Wlikins Micawber is the fictional character from Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield and namesake of the most storied bar in Ithaca.  His name became synonymous with one who lives in hopeful expectation due to the  common assertion that “something will turn up” and the observation:

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

In honor to the namesake of this establishment, the staff take this observation to heart every time a penny “turns up” on the floor of the bar.  The smallest currency that the bartenders can accept is a quarter.   So, in order to ensure that the happiness Micawber mentioned prevails, the staff tosses the pennies to the top of the bar back, where the change waits, and prevents Micawber’s notion of “misery”.

Share with us the story of what you do with the pennies you find lying around!

To add your story to our blog of stories, simply email it to micSTORY@micawberspub.com.