Write me a Letter

Barbara. It might be Agnes for all I know.”
    ”What did she want?”
    I smiled in a nonchalant fashion. ”What do all beautiful women want with me? She wants to meet me again sometime, that’s all.”
    Sara whistled.
    ”No shit?”
    ”No shit.”
    ”You gonna do it?”
    I patted the nerd’s head fondly. ”Are you jesting, child? I am strictly a one-woman man, as well you know, unlike some I could name. I’ve never even thought of another woman since I met Evonne Louise Shirley, the very idea revolts and upsets me. Yeech. I’m surprised at you, Sara, I really am. I know you’ve been through a troublesome phase, but that is no reason to suppose all men are fly-by-night cads and rotters. Oh, seeing as you’re closest, do us a favor, hand me down that cheap atlas you gave me, will you, there’s a place I want to look up.”

Appendix

    Answers

    I forget how he did the pyramid and the alternate heads and tails. Write to him care of the Round-Up Saloon, Lafayette, Ca.

    The lightweight bag. Weigh any three against any other three bags. If they are equal, the remaining trio must contain the light bag. Weigh any one bag from it against any other. If they are equal, the leftover bag is the light one. If they are not, the light bag is the light one. Similarly, in your first weighing, if one trio is lighter than the other, proceed as before, weighing any one bag from it against another.

    The traveling salesmen. One traveled east around the world, one west, thus one kept gaining days, the other losing them.

    The Rileys are not twins because they are what is left of triplets.

    The five matches: IIIII. The answer is not given here due to a wish to avoid vulgarity whenever possible.

    To pour a whole pint of beer into a half-pint mug, supposedly you fill the half-pint mug with sawdust first.

    Those lipstick traces. The lucky winner reasoned like this: Time has passed. Both other guys are still in the room. If either one of them saw two pink kisses, they’d know they had a red one. So if either of the two others have a pink one, the winner couldn’t have, otherwise there would be two pinks in view, and one of his rivals would claim victory. If there are no pinks in view, the winner reasons that he can’t be pink either because if either of his opponents spotted his pink kiss, from the reasoning above they could deduce they couldn’t have a pink kiss as well. So the winner knows he has a red one. Clear? I figured it out, or at least I think I did, on the drive the following day.

    That’s all folks.