Ken's blog

Señor Antonio Tomás Bustamante del Torre Quemada, the new manager of the bull ring of the city of Salamanananca, felt an inspiration to renovate the bull ring with new colors.

One sixth of the perimeter on the opposite side of the gate where the bulls entered the bull ring was to be painted blood red.

One twenty secondth of the perimeter around the gate where the bulls entered the bull ring was to be painted hell black.

The remaining perimeter, amounting to 52 meters, was to be painted a bright, glaring yellow.

Señor Antonio Tomás Bustamante del Torre Quemada wanted to excite the bulls with bright colors, thus ensuring action-filled bullfights that would impress the public, and the new Cardinal Sixtus.

A special barbeque would be held for dignitaries after bull fights.

What is the diameter of the bull ring of Salamanananca? And what is the cross sum of the number of ways the name of the city can be permuted?

Sister Mellifluous of the Order of the Shining Light at the Beneficence Mission in Bengalore was unhappy.

That day many beggars had appeared with outstretched arms, and she had only been able to give them seven rupees each. To be fair, she always gave the same amount to each beggar.

At the end of the day, Sister Mellifluous had 24 rupees left in her alms fund.

Sister Mellifluous worked out that with 32 rupees more in her alms fund she could have given each beggar nine rupees instead of just seven rupees.

So Sister Mellifluous of the Order of the Shining Light decided to write a letter to Bishop Franciscus Cornucopius, who was always very generous, requesting 32 more rupees for the alms fund.

Then Sister Mellifluous with great satisfaction rode 10 miles on her donkey Bonifacius to deliver the letter to the Bengalore post office.

How many beggars came that day to the Beneficence Mission in Bengalore, and how much would Sister Mellifluous have needed in her alms fund to give them nine rupees each?

One foggy winter night, two Portuguese brigs sailed quietly into the port of London laden with barrels of a popular wine from Oporto.

The owner of the Hog’s Head Tavern, Duncan McPherson, had sent his spy Seabert to the quay to discover the price and duty on barrels of this special wine.

Duncan McPherson had hatched a plan to buy most of the wine stock and make a profit by undercutting his competitor Paddy O’Leary, owner of the more popular Wild Stag Inn – famous for its carousing.

Peering through the dusty window of the customs cabin at a log book illuminated by a flickering lamp, Seabert could barely see that 90 barrels had been offloaded from the Sereia and 60 barrels from the Douro.

Between the fingers of customs officer Wilberforce, in the duty column, Seabert observed that the brig Sereia had paid a total duty of 7 barrels plus 80 shillings.

Just as customs officer Wilberforce was closing the ledger, Seabert spotted on another line that the brig Douro had paid a total duty of 5 barrels, and had received 80 shillings in change.

That was all the information Seabert could scribble hurriedly on a wrinkled sheet paper before the customs officer blew out the lamplight and prepared to leave. Seabert slithered quietly into the darkness before officer Wilberforce left the customs cabin.

Seabert hoped the information would be sufficient for Duncan McPherson of the Hog’s Head Tavern to uncover the information needed, otherwise he wouldn’t get paid as McPherson was intolerant of failure.

What would you say was the price per barrel of this popular wine? And the duty per barrel?

On a starry night with a new moon, Ali climbed over the wall to the Sultan’s garden with a sack to steal some figs he planned to sell at the Kasbah market.

Ali nimbly climbed the fig trees one by one, filling the sack hurriedly so he would not be discovered. In the end, the sack turned out to be too heavy and bulky to climb back over the wall again, so Ali decided to take his chances and bluff his way by the guards out to the gate.

After some threats and lengthy haggling, the first guard, Abdullah, agreed to let Ali pass, but wanted half of the figs plus two for his monkey.

The second guard, Mustafa, put a knife to Ali’s throat, but then agreed to let Ali pass if he could have half of the figs plus two for his parrot.

The third guard, Mohammed, turned out to be a cousin, but he also wanted half of the figs plus two for his donkey.

The gatekeeper, Mafeesh, kept the gate locked until Ali agreed to give him half of the figs and one for his camel.

Ali was then left with only one fig, so he shrugged, ate the fig and walked away.

How many figs would you say were in the sack when it was full? And how many were given away on the way out?

The liquor merchant Alfonse J. Dregscooper – owner of the Paradise Liquor Emporium – among his large and varied assortments of booze, stocked a set of six barrels with respective capacities of 24, 39, 45, 51, 57 and 93 liters. The barrels were filled with either wine or beer.

Buying for a party he was going to hold after a championship football game, Harry Brathwaithe spent 168 dollars on beer and the same amount on wine, paying twice as much for wine as for beer.

After the purchase, Alfonse J. Dregscooper was left with one full barrel out of this set.

What was the value in dollars of the beer or wine in this remaining barrel?