How Often Does a 38-Year-Old Go Out?

Gennady Shmukler: ‘Here’s a short wonderful ‘conundrum’:

  • Take the number of times you go out a week.
  • Double it.
  • Add 5.
  • Multiply by 50.
  • If your birthday this year has passed, add 1753.
  • If not, add 1752.
  • Subtract from this result your year of birth (1953, 1964, etc.).
  • You should end up with a 3-digit number.
  • The 1st digit is the number of times you go out a week!
  • The last 2 digits is your age!!!!!

(NOTE: This year – 2003 – is the only year when it will work.)”

John Seiffer: “Don missed the point when he said he was ‘not very sympathetic with the idea that every tweak to the tax system has to give more to the poor. They’re already getting a lot.’ Aside from any moral or humanistic view, Don’s life will be better if the poor are helped. If he would visit cities and villages where there are many poor, he will find them less pleasant that ones with a greater standard of living. He will find services he enjoys – from roads, to banking, to courts, to cultural and business activities much more enjoyable (not to mention available) in places where more people have health care and education. He’ll find less stench and less crime. Less possibility of personal harm, disease, accident or kidnapping. I would say to Don that if he gives up some of what he has in order to help the poor his life will be better for it. He doesn’t have to feel the poor ‘deserve’ it.”

Caleb Canning: “My favorite use for Google is to find the source and context of great quotes. Try ‘the night we stormed Valhalla,’ ‘black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,’ ‘Palmers long to seek the stranger strands’ and ‘Pray that the road is long.’ Fun stuff!”

☞ And, hey – lest Google gain a total monopoly, check out Teoma, which some like even better.

Donna Bell: “I’m glad you wrote about BOREF today. I have it set up on my home page and almost fell over yesterday when I saw it at $9 per share! You, however, have me to thank for the price increase since I did not buy any. I have a great track record for sending a stock spiraling downward as soon as I make a purchase.”

☞ Me, too! That’s probably what kept it down the past 4 years. But my buying was so long ago, maybe the effect is wearing off. It traded yesterday at 11.