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Everyday Calculation

5/7/77

Miriam suffered a queasy stomach today, so she didn’t join us at our evening meal. She lay on the loveseat near our dining area. The speakers for our radio are directly behind the loveseat, thus more enforcing Miriam’s attention than ours.

During a radio commercial we others chose to ignore, Miriam burst out in disbelief, “That would be 60 dollars.” When I asked what her reference was, she explained that if the four of us attended a certain fixed-price dinner (one we had no interest in) the total cost would be 60 dollars. “How did you figure that out?” I asked. “Did you learn how to multiply already?”

Miriam coupled a disclaimer of any knowledge about multiplication with one of her ‘dumb-Daddy’ looks and explained that each meal cost 15 dollars and she knew that 15 plus 15 were 30 (which, as she added in parentheses, accounted for 2) and another 15 and 15 make another 30. The two 30’s making 60 dollars gave her a conclusion and accounted for the four meals she knew we would want.