How many flowers do I have if all are roses except two, all are tulips except two and all are daisies except two? The simplest method for solving is to fiddle around until inspiration strikes.

If you really insist, you can set up equations. Let N = total number of flowers, r = number of roses, t = number of tulips, and d = number of daisies. Then, the problem sorts itself out as follows. N = r + t + d
N = r + 2
N = t + 2
N = d + 2
Sum the last three equations and do the obvious substitution with the first. 3N = r + t + d + 6
3N = N + 6
2N = 6
N = 3

The answer is one rose, one tulip and one daisy.

How many 9s do you pass when you start at 1 and count up to 100? I get 20. When you count up to 1,000, I get 300. Suppose you counted to 10,000?

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What’s the reason some letters are above the line and others are below? The letters above the line are all made with straight line segments. The ones below have some curved parts.

What do “Fit humans” and “If ants hum?” have to do with this column? My son just downloaded an anagram program for our computer. When I wrote the beloved sentence, “Math is fun,” I got those two anagrams.

In a rural town, there lived a village idiot. He was renowned because whenever a tourist would approach and offer him the choice of a shiny 50 cent piece or a crumpled five dollar bill, he would always choose the coin. Why?

What do you suppose would happen if he chose the five dollar bill all the time? Nobody would offer him the choice anymore. Doing it his way, he got lots of 50 cent pieces. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t really an idiot.

What allows you to see through walls? A window, silly! You knew that. What were you thinking of, X-ray vision maybe?