My Reusable Shopping Bag Purse Addiction

I share Ephron's delight in the joyful simplicity of finding a functional bag that's just the right size, that's light, relatively low maintenace, cheap and just plain practical.

"You Could Flee the Cossacks With Your Bag"
In Nora Ephron's hilarious essay "I Hate My Purse" she laments purses being too small or so massive that it accumulates the "debris of a lifetime." She goes on to say the two bag solution doesn't work for her either. She pokes fun at America's obsession with expensive purses recounting a shopping expedition to Paris with a friend who wanted an attractive but impractical Hermes "Kelly" bag like Grace Kelly.

The Best Bag Ever
Finally Ephron goes back to New York and obtains the best bag she's ever owned - a New York City MetroCard bag "it's yellow (taxicab yellow, to be exact) and blue (the most horrible blue of all, royal blue) so it matches nothing at all and therefore, on a deep level, matches everything. It's made of plastic and is therefore completely waterproof."

"A Bag Equally Unattractive All Seasons"
It cost next to nothing and I will never have to replace it because it seems to be completely indestructible. What's more, never having been in style, it can never go out of style.

Where to Buy Nora Ephron's Metrocard Bag
"Mostly I go everywhere with my MetroCard bag. And wherever I go, people say to me, I love that bag. Where did you get that bag? And I tell them I bought it at the Transit Museum in Grand Central Station, and that all proceeds from it go towards making the New York City subway system even better than it is already. For all I know, they've all gone off and bought one. Or else they haven't. It doesn't matter. I'm very happy."

Nora Ephron's MetroCard Tote Bag
Size 15" x 11" x 4"
Price $26.00

"Soft vinyl bag with shoulder length handles. Smartly styled after the design of the MetroCard. Big enough to carry all the essentials for a day on the town."

New York Metrocard Bag From the New York Transit Museum Store