Yesterday night one of my family friends from back home replied to My New Car with a suggestion for, well, my new car. She told me of an ancient Italian tradition for blessing a new car with good luck - throwing change into the backseat and saying a little thing. This sounded cool to me, so I tried to trace the tradition's lineage on the internet. I figured that it might even stretch back to the Pre-Roman Estruscans, but alas, I could only find a record of it to the 1910s. Interesting.

Regardless, I figure that the country that brought us the Alfa Romero, the Ferrari, the Lamborghini and the Maserati knows a few things about cars. So I decided to try this blessing.

But why stop at everyday, ordinary change? Instead of a pocketful of random cash, I rounded up some lucky coins. A whole palmful, really.

I grabbed:

a Susan B. Anthony Dollar
a Sacajawea Dollar
a Kennedy Half Dollar
a bunch of Bicentennial Quarters
a bunch of Wheat Pennies
a Canadian Two Dollar
a New Hampshire highway token


and

a guitar pick "signed" by the band Weezer (Mikey Welsh era)

The whole ceremony was presided over by a two inch doll of Yoda. He'll permanently reside and hold services in my new car (sorry Laurie for stealing this idea from you, but hey, didn't you steal it from Scott or someone?)

This being my first new car, I'm up for any crazy ideas like this. Got one? E-mail me! I'll try it!

- Josh Edwards