Why we need to beef up math in the schools

I'm not even talking about my own numeral difficulties, which are real and varied, on account of having never actually learned the complete times tables since I switched schools just after we covered the 9s. Sigh . . . it ever plagues me, my ignorance of how 12 interacts with the other numbers. Not enough to get me to LEARN it, mind you.

Anyway. This is about a couple situations my coworkers recently found themselves in.

Coworker #1 attended a football game last night and was fortunate enough to sit in front of an obscenities-bellowing man. I'm sure you'll agree they make the best company. At one point the guy started yelling the following, over and over again:

"$&@% %$#@, you *%$#!!!! You can't just play two-thirds, you need to play the WHOLE HALF!!!"

Um . . . . because a half is . . . more . . . than two-thirds?

Coworker #2 then spoke of her experience in some big retail store where candy sticks were advertised as being 10 cents each OR 2 sticks for $.25. She asked the saleswoman about this and the woman seriously did not see what the problem was. She kept reassuring my coworker that it's cheapest to buy 2 sticks for 25 cents because that was a deal.

I weep for us. No wonder our economy is tanking.

Posted in: things that make me stare in disbelief