Story of the Day 11/14/2008

I was at Michael's. The arts and crafts store, not someone’s house.
I like Michael's, they carry decent paintbrushes at half price.
Unfortunately, they also carry beads- and I really don’t need to buy anymore- even though I have promised necklaces to a few people.
They also carry fake flowers.
I think the nicer term is “artificial”, but, let’s call a spade a spade- they are fake.
And I like them.
No pollen, no mold. Perfect.

And , even better when they are 80% off ,post holiday.

Well, not my post holiday, post Halloween, but , gee, I use those flowers for Thanksgiving décor, so I haven’t figured out why they are on clearance, but I am also not complaining.

I ran into someone I know from the Deaf School, she was also buying flowers.
It was a, ”Surprised to see you here!” moment.
Casually, she picked up a flower and said, “$6.99, I wonder how much that would be?”
And I replied, “$1.39.”
“How did you know that? Did you just figure that out?”
“Well, yes , it is really $1.40, but they always give you the penny off, because it makes it sound like a better deal. But with money, you always round up from the fraction.”
“How did you do that?”
And she asks me for a different one.
And I quickly answer.
Unfortunately, it takes me about 4 minutes to figure out how to explain how to do it.
“ It is 80% off, so it is 20% . And it is .2times 7, because $6.99 is really $7, except for the fraction of the penny that will round you up, except that they mark it down. And .2 times 7 is 1.40. Just remember to take off the penny.”“Oh, so that is how you do it!”
“Yes, except, you can see how good I am with numbers, but how inept I am with the language to explain anything.”

And this is all just a preamble to a different story.

My father , Matthew, was a math whiz.
I remember my Aunt Charlotte, his older sister, telling me how when he was 2 ½ , he would sit on the floor under the piano, when Grandpa had company over, and he would ask his son math problems.
“Matthew, what is 70 divided by 5?”
“What is 240 times 60?”
But the one they all loved to ask him was, “What is 100 divided by 3?”
Because my father would answer, “33 and 1/3 of 1.”
The problems got harder, as he aged, but that remained the all time favorite.
Because of the 1/3 of 1.