How to Make Decisions
Issue 20

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How to make Decisions… and Muffins

Tips on making muffins.

1. If your muffins are large and oddly shaped, your oven is too quick (hot).

2. If your muffins are too small and/or hard your oven might be too slow (cold).

3. Sift the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ingredients together well. Combine the wet and the dry with as little stirring as possible.

4. If there isn’t enough batter to fill every muffin tin in the tray, put a little water in the bottom of the empties. It saves the pan from some wear and tear.

Last Week
Farmer Brown has cows and chickens. Farmer Brown is also a jerk.

“None of my animals are amputees.”

There are numerous ways to solve this problem. Try to think of two.

Some methods of solving

Method 1. Algebra.
Let x = the number of chickens.
Let y = the number of cows.

We know:
x + y = 47
AND
2x + 4y = 144

1a. From here we could solve for x in terms of y (that is x = 47-y)
plug it into 2x + 4y = 144 (making it 94-2y + 4y = 144)
solve for y (2y = 144-94 thus y = 25)
if y is 25, then x is 22
25 cows and 22 chickens.

OR

1b. Double our first equation (2x + 2y = 94)
Subtract 2x + 4y = 144 from this new equation. (leaving 2y = 50)
Simplify (y = 25)
and once again we can see
if y is 25, then x is 22
25 cows and 22 chickens.

Method 2: Pictures.

Draw 47 circles representing the animal heads.
Put two lines on each circle representing the two leg minimum.
Count how many legs there are.
Compare that with the number of legs needed.
Add legs two at a time until there are 144.
The circles with 2 legs represent chicken.
The ones with 4 represent cows.

Method 3: Trial and error

Charting the possibilities might be thebest bet to this route.

Method 4: Punching the Farmer

This way might be foolish as farmers can be pretty badass.

Random Quote of the Week
Once again from Joe Bob

You guys hear the one about the bartender who’s washing glasses when an old Irish guy comes limping into the bar? The Irishman hoists his bad leg over the bartstool, pulls himself up, and in a lot of pain, asks for a sip of Irish whiskey.

He looks down the bar and says, “Is that Jesus down there?” The bartender nods, so the Irishman tells him to give Jesus an Irish whiskey, too. The next guy to come into the bar is an old Eyetalian guy with a hunched back, who shuffles up to the barstool and asks for a glass of Chianti. He also looks down the bar and asks if that’s Jesus sittin at the end of the bar. The bartender nods, and the Eyetalian says to give him a glass of Chianti, too. The third guy to arrive is a redneck, who swaggers in and hollers, “Barkeep, set me up a cold one! Hey, is that God’s Boy down there?” The barkeep nods, so the redneck tells him to give Jesus a cold one, too. As Jesus gets up to leave, he walks over to the Irishman and touches him and says, “For your kindness, you are healed!” The Irishman feels the strength come back to his leg, and he gets up and dances a jig out the door. Jesus touches the Eyetalian and says, “For your kindness, you are healed!” The Eyetalian feels his back straighten, and he raises his hands above his head and does a flip out the door. Jesus walks toward the redneck, and the redneck jumps back and yells, “Don’t touch me! I’m on disability!”

Puzzle
A man and a boy who are walking together step out with their right feet first. The boy walks 3 paces while the boy walks 2.

When will they both put their left feet forward together?

Explain.

Last 5 posts by ML Kennedy

• How to Make Decisions (72) - June 19th, 2007
• How to Make Decisions (71) - June 12th, 2007
• How To Make Decisions (70) - June 5th, 2007
• How to Make Decisions (69) - May 29th, 2007
• How to Make Decisions (68) - May 21st, 2007