Ken's blog

Mr. Jones and Mr. Barnsworth went to purchase some bottles of wine for their employer, Acme Wine Depot.

They went to Dufour Wineries Inc., as they had heard boasts of a fine selection of French wines there.

Mr. Jones and Mr. Barnsworth decided to select only two wine types, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Bordeaux region in France.

They bought 90 bottles in total of these two types of wine.

While purchasing the wine at the Dufour Wineries Inc., Mr. Dufour invited them to sample several other wines for “future reference.”

After a bountiful sampling session with French cheese, all served by a jolie serveuse, Mr. Jones and Mr. Barnsworth managed to return home by taxi, but lost the invoice on the way.

Next day, fearful of reproach and penalties from the accountant at the Acme Wine Depot, they tried to reconstruct the purchase from a fuzzy memory.

Mr. Jones managed to remember that he had bought half as many Merlot and a third as many Cabernet Sauvignon as Mr. Barnsworth, for a total sum of 360 dollars. He also remembered that three bottles of Merlot cost as much as two bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Before going to work that day, they proceeded with the painful process of working out how much Mr. Barnsworth had bought, and the full cost of their purchase.

Can you help them work out these figures?