If you have $5

Give it to our local religious organization, or your local chapter of the ACLU, and go to Politics and Prose on Tuesday for an appearance by Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, whose new book The God Delusions again places him firmly within the center of the debate on the utility and rationale of religion. Nick Hornby once described a book by Frencis Wheen as giving the “dizzying sensation that you, the author and maybe Richard Dawkins are the only remotely sane people in the entire world,” so come join some elite company.

If you have $10

Go get some culture, and check out “C’est Chic: Newest Films From France.” A series being held at the AFI Silver Theatre (two blocks from the Silver Spring Metro) and La Maison Francaise (4101 Reservoir Road N.W.), the series has been running since Oct. 12, and finishes up on Oct. 28. Leave your berets at home, though, as the diversity of these films will show those raised on freedom fries that there’s more to Gaul than crying mimes.

If you have $20

Mosey on over to Black Cat, and discover that music got made around Seattle before Nirvana broke. Thursday down at U Street, catch a set by Northwest scene vets the Melvins, in support of their new record “A Senile Animal.” The show is only $13, so with the extra cash, buy a beer (or perhaps an icy cold Yoo-Hoo, if you’re under 21), and raise it to Kurt Cobain, perhaps the most prominent fan of this Washington group.