(Inspired by dd’s homework: “Mom, you can relate to this math problem…”)

My answer — you wanna math problem I can relate to??

If there are 12 dishes in the sink, and it’s my night to wash, how many extra pieces did everyone suddenly “discover” around the house if it now takes me 25 minutes to finish my chore?

Unfortunately the answer to this problem is unpredictably infinite, so there is no real number except to say that when the cupboard is completely bare you know you have reached the limit as n->infinity.

(her actual problem related to matting a 5×7 picture where the mat was twice as wide at the top & bottom than it is on the sides.? My answer: nobody mats a picture that way because it looks stupid.? Not even math book writers.? What are they teaching kids these days, anyway?!?)