September 20, 2005: A Day Older, a Dollar Shorter Day
Twelve tickets
Q. If a ticket costs $6, what would be the cost of 12 tickets?

A. If the tickets are $6 each, then ten tickets would be 60, two more tickets would be 12, and that would make $72. Honey, hand me my sunglasses. Look at it this way: If you could see 72 sunsets from here, or if you bought 72 35¢ postcards and each one showed a different sunset over this same stretch of beach, some of them would be apricot, some would be lavender, some would be saffron, and some would be the color of that crayon you used to call "skin color." Or the color of that guy who just sauntered past in dark blue trunks. So "would be" is a relative term. Sweetie, come help Denise with her math.

J.A. Lee