Friday, May 9, 2008

Why I love Fridays . . .

I simply have to relay this series of e-mails. This is what we do on a Friday afternoon . . .

E-Mail 1 from JA to Me :
Can you solve this?
Only skilled people can open this file....... Once you succeed to openthis file, you will find names of the people who have managed to openthis...... Now it is your turn!
How to open attached file?
A man was travelling to Kasoa
At the bus stop, he met a man with 7 wife’s
Each wife has 12 sons and 12 daughters
Each daughter of the man*s wife’s had 4 sons and 7 daughters
Each son of the man*s wife’s had 7 sons and 4 daughters
Each grand daughter had 4 friends
How many people got to kasoa?
The number of people who got to kasoa is the password to open attached file. Once you have opened it, add Your name and challenge others

E-Mail 2 from Me to JA :
I actually calculated the number of people (it’s 5723 in total) and when that didn’t work I tried 1
The only problem I have is that it does not say anywhere that the other lot of people were NOT going to Kasoa. What the hell were all those people doing at the bus stop if they were not going to Kasoa? And where were they going? It’s like saying the answer is 0 because the man who was travelling to Kasoa changed his mind and got off at the stop before. The variables are not clear!
This was infuriating. It would have been better if the password was 5723 . . .
Good Grief I’m SUCH a nerd!

E-Mail 3 from MA to JA and Me :
He he that is a good point.
On the other hand, how many buses would be needed to transport 5723 people to Kasoa? It's not logical thatany servicewould supply that many buses at one time. With this in mind, I must disagree and say that 5723 would bethe worse possible answer.
I have to agree though that the question being: "How many people got to Kasoa?" is undeterminable as Kerryn suggests, since there is no evidence to substantiate that this man actually got there. All that is absolute is that a man was travelling to Kasoa. The answer IS based on an assumption. With this in mind I wouldsay the best possible answer would be to leavethe Password field blank since the answer is logically unknown.
Wearen't nerds, only forward thinking. ;~)

E-Mail 4 from JA to MA, MS and Me :
Did anybody even consider the bus drivers?

E-Mail 5 from Me to JA, MA and MS :
The logistics did also bother me, but the riddle did not state how many busses there were, nor how many people could fit on to a bus (have you seen those picture of the vehicles packed with layers and layers of people? Kosoa is in Kenya, so you never know.) This of course would have to bring in the question of how many busses were required, and as a result the number of bus drivers too.
However, when these thoughts went through my mind, the "Good Grief, I am such a FORWARD THINKER" thought was already going through my mind and I just had to say "enough already woman!"
I just love Fridays!

E-Mail 6 from MS to JA, MA and Me :
Why Kasoa?
Does anyone else get the feeling that this riddle is a slight on the people of Kenya? I mean overloaded buses, large families, under appreciated public servants (bus driver/s), and a riddle with no real answer???
Perhapsthe author has based the makings of his/her riddle on a bad experience and would at some stage be in desperate needof a hug.Personally I don't think one bad experience is grounds for such a bad riddle, if it were true that is...

E-Mail 7 from Me to MS, JA and MA :
ROTFLMAO
Micheal, I just want to personally thank you for making me laugh so hard that I had tears streaming down my face when my boss walked into my office.
He is still standing here looking at me funny.
And I have a stupid smile on my face.
So thanks.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hahahaha. Hillarious! Just one problem. I still don't know how many people actually got to Kasoa!

AngelConradie said...

i got that same bloody riddle today and had all the same arguments...!

Anonymous said...

This is modern twist on the old riddle about St. Ives.

As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives and every wife had seven sacks and every sack had seven cats and every cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks, wives...How many were going to St. Ives?

The answer, of course, is one. The riddle is a very old one (first published in 1730) and in those days to "meet" someone was commonly understood to mean to come across people traveling in the opposite direction.

Anonymous said...

Only ONE person was going to Kasoa, other people he met on bus stop might be waiting for bus to another place.

Cheers
Wicked Boy