VOTE:   THE  INSTRUMENT  AND  SYMBOL  OF  A  FREEMAN'S  POWER  TO  MAKE  A  FOOL  OF  HIMSELF  AND  A  WRECK  OF  HIS  COUNTRY  —  AMBROSE  P(B)IERCE

Correct answers came from  Margie Breckenridge,  Delmar Burkitt,  Barbara Casto,  Michael Coughlin,  Andrzej and Kris Derdzinski,  Jeff Gerken,  Steve Herrick,  John Jackson,  Bob Kaplan,  Alma Litten,  Julia Minturn,  Carla Nuenke,  Carole Perlman,  Dorothy Utendorf,  and  Sally Yocom.  That's 16;  probably a record.  It was good to hear from Barbara Casto, a first-time contributor. 

The second puzzle was an old Dudeney puzzle and the listed answer "slightly less than 3", actually 2.93 or as several of our members noted, 10 - 5 * square root of 2.  Lots of answers here as well:  Barbara,  Delmar,  Michael,  Andrzej,  Kris,  Jeff,  Steve,  Bob,  Carla,  Gerald Pyle,  and  Dorothy. 

Finally, the votes in the election were A=7, B=12, C=8, D=9, E=5, and F=9.  A, D and F were the same gender; B, C and E were the opposite gender.  This one had five people responding correctly:  Barbara,  Andrzej,  Jeff,  Bob,  and  Carla.  All in all, a great start for the millenium!
 
 

Z O G M V R Z O F R J A D,        Z O A H P J        X M O J N,        X J I F C H M V        L M J N        O M R        X J E M T J        G M N N H A H K J L.       

— V H E I F V L        A J F P J D       

There used to be 106 firms making mufflers for ostriches with stiff necks.  Now after a series of mergers, there is just one.  Stockbrokers stared bug-eyed as the mergers occurred like clock work, once a week, at noon on Fridays, just one fresh merger.  Each was between two firms, either or both of which might, of course, have been the off-spring of previous mergers.  The exact details of the saga would fascinate only a social historian obsessed with ostriches.  But one could also ask how long the process took, from first merger to last.

How long?  Or, if that can't be determined, how about finding an upper and lower limit?

In one Florida county recently the election was contested by the Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.  Each candidate did a complete canvass of all the electors and each believed on the eve of the election that, if all his supporters voted, he would poll a massive 79% of the electorate.

This fool's paradise is best explained by treating the electorate as eight groups.  Group A said Yes and Group B No to all three candidates.  Groups C, D, and E said Yes to just one candidate (different in each case).  Groups F, G, and H said Yes to a different pair of candidates.  Each group contained a different percentage of the electorate, none less than 3% and each being a whole number.

One voting day groups A and B did not vote at all;  C, D, and E voted as promised.  But F, G, and H voted for the one candidate they had refused, an oddity which suited the Democrats most and the Independents least.  There are 10,000 electors in the country.  What were the voting figures?