MBTA CharlieCod
![a MBTA sign showing a plush codfish captioned with 'New ways to pay your fare are here.'](charliecod.png)
With the new CharlieCod, you can show off your love of fish while paying your MBTA fares.
Tris and I came up with the idea of the CharlieCod after reading the Wikipedia article on the CharlieCard, which mentions the "Fare Cod" as a rejected idea for the name of the system.
I thought it'd be funny to make this joke a reality by sewing a CharlieCard into a plush codfish, so I bought one from a listing with this delightful image:
![a picture of a plush codfish captioned 'our cod' and a picture of a real codfish captioned 'real cod'](our_vs_real.jpg)
With the cod in hand, I cut it open with a seam ripper, slid a blank CharlieCard inside, and sewed it back together. The seam is barely visible in real life unless you're looking for it.
![cutting open a plush codfish with a seam ripper, exposing the stuffing within](assembly1.jpg)
![a MBTA CharlieCard inserted into a slit cut in a plush codfish](assembly2.jpg)
![a plush codfish with a rough seam on it](assembly3.jpg)
I tested it out on a ticket vending machine the next time I went to a MBTA station, and it worked!
![a plush codfish tapped on the reader of a MBTA ticket machine, showing a card with $0.00 on it](tvm.jpg)