A Dime a Dozen

“A dime a dozen” is a wonderful turn of phrase.

The alliteration makes it fun to say, and when I grew up, everyone knew exactly what a dime was. If you could buy a dozen of something for a dime, those things cost less than a penny each.

Even back in the cold, dark days before the internet, pennies weren’t worth a whole lot. In other words, the meaning hasn’t changed very much over the last five decades or so.

What has changed, however, is what’s cheap. Today, let’s talk about a few things that were a dime a dozen in the past but aren’t today, and then let’s invert this and point out a few things that are a dime a dozen today (but weren’t in the past).

Things that are now cheap, but didn’t used to be:

• Sharing information (email/texts are now free). I remember being terrified of sending an accidental text message from my first cell phone. Unlike today, text messages weren’t free to send or receive. Remember using a calling card to make a long-distance phone call? International calls cost …