EDUCATION  IS  THE  PATH  FROM  COCKY    IGNORANCE  TO  MISERABLE  UNCERTAINTY.    MARK  TWAIN 

Correct answers came from  Delmar Burkitt,  Andrzej Derdzinski,  John Jackson,  Alma Litten,  Julia Minturn,  Carla Nuenke,  Nancy Tappendorf,  Dennis Tomlinson,  and  Sally Yocom. 

Puzzle 2 was converted into some mysterious pretzel font on the way to the printer, but appeared in good form on the web site.  Sorry about that folks.  Still, several were able to make sense of it and deduce that the correct sequence of cards was J, A, Q, A, and 10.  Andrzej, Dennis, and Bob Kaplan submitted correct answers.

In puzzle #3 there was an omission; this one was my fault.  The statement "Bertha lost more than the girl who took Reduce" was missing.  So once again there is not a unique solution, as Andrzej pointed out (again) in his analysis of the puzzler.  I'm crediting Andrzej and Nancy for their efforts on this one.

Incidentally, Nancy is a new member transferring from Dayton Area Mensa and now living in Marysville.

A V M R F T F I        D P        D Q        K H        P G E L X Q P L D X G P        D P        Q X Q F        X O        K H        E G P D Q F P P.        W X V Q        E F L U F I       

N O Q I H E        J E K I Z        H A D N A I K Z        V O        X U Z        S O M Z        T A L M A Q G E X F.       

In the "odd" multiplication shown at the right, the digits have been replaced by letters and asterisks.  Different letters stand for different digits, but each letter always stands for the same digit whenever it occurs.  An asterisk can be any digit.  What is the product of the multiplication?