Why a $22 mug is better than a $100,000 watch

Matthew Arnold Stern
2 min readOct 2, 2024
My $22 mug with buttons.
  • My $22 mug actually exists.
  • My $22 mug holds coffee, which is a vital part of an author’s energy policy.
  • My $22 mug is union-made. It doesn’t come from a plant in Wyoming that also makes honey that supposedly cures erectile dysfunction.
  • The money I spent on the $22 mug helps fund an election campaign. It doesn’t go to pay legal fees for multiple criminal trials.
  • My $22 mug knows who won the 2020 Presidential Election.
  • My $22 mug knows what actually happened on January 6.
  • My $22 mug knows why Mike Pence isn’t running for VP.
  • My $22 mug minds its own damn business.
  • When my $22 mug is empty, it doesn’t blame it on “illegal aliens.”
  • To buy my $22 mug, I didn’t have to buy digital trading cards that gave me the opportunity to buy the mug if I also bought NFTs of the mug.
  • My $400 Apple Watch does everything the $100,000 watch would do, plus it tracks my exercise and heart rate, notifies me about incoming messages, and shows live scoring for my favorite sports teams. (Go Dodgers!) What it doesn’t do is launder money from foreign entities.
  • I only bought one $22 mug. I didn’t buy dozens of them so I could sit alone under…

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Matthew Arnold Stern
Matthew Arnold Stern

Written by Matthew Arnold Stern

A novelist and award-winning public speaker and technical writer. My novels Amiga and The Remainders are available now.

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