Subject:  Re Replies to TGIF.......... (fwd)
Date:     Sun, 5 Apr 1998 095156 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------

Hi everybody:

We received a number of good responses to our TGIF puzzle.  Everyboy
had the right answer, of course.  I liked this one the best because,
as a former student of semantics, I consider that this answer captures
that point. i.e.,  It was not so much a math puzzle as a semantics 
puzzle......  And, one might add, not really very different from the 
kind of "spin doctor" semantics we see in some of the presentations
of EMF study results ... or of the recent White House "spin" about the
President's "bimbo" difficulties......

Truth" can be elusive when you start to put it into words......

Cheerio....

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org..............http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html
................................It is better to light a single candle ...
than to curse the darkness...............................................

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 03 Apr 1998 12:42:40 -0500
From: "John D. Evans" 
To: "Roy L. Beavers" 
Subject: Re: TGIF..........

At 08:21 AM 03/04/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi everybody:
>
>Restoring an earlier "tradition".....  I find the following "fun"
>to play with.....  Thanks Larry.....  (BTW, Larry, a friend and former
>shipmate, writes books about math subjects, like "compound interest,"
>etc.....)

Dear Guru and Larry,

Your problem is NOT mathematical; it is an error in how the story is
communicated.  The three hotels guests paid a total of $30.00.  The Bellboy
paid each back $1.00, so they paid a total of $27.00.  The Bellboy kept
$2.00, which brings us back to $25.00, the actual cost of the room.

When I was teaching Communications, I related the story many times to my
students.

Cheers,

John
**************************************************
* John D. Evans, PhD
* Retired Professor/Counsellor
* E-mail: jdevans@sympatico.ca
* 8 Monroe Court
* Wellington, ON  K0K 3L0    Canada
* Phone: 613-399-5089
*
* There is no security on this earth; there
*  is only opportunity...........(Helen Keller)
***************************************************



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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html