Sandy Wood
Brain Game: Bradymania #1
by Sandy Wood - November 3, 2008 - 6:30 AM

THE ANSWER:

FIVE PERCENT. At 85 cents a letter, the 63 letters in the engraving would total $53.55. When subtracted from the bill total of $56.23, the leftover amount, $2.68, figures out to a 5 percent tax on the engraving charge.

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Comments (9)

  1. Yes, this song will be stuck in my head all day, but it is my own fault for clicking the link. Still . . . I blame mental_floss.

    posted by nutmeag on 11-3-2008 at 9:00 am

  2. It’s a 5% rounded up!

    posted by Koketika on 11-3-2008 at 10:01 am

  3. Yes, Koketika… the 75/100ths of a cent is rounded up. But government ALWAYS seem to round taxes up!

    posted by Sandy on 11-3-2008 at 10:26 am

  4. 5% tax. The hard part was counting the letters!

    posted by Gibbs on 11-3-2008 at 10:57 am

  5. Two more important questions than what tax rate the kids had to pay are how did they afford the costumes if they didn’t have enough to cover the engraving and did they win? Maybe I’m just too reality based as an adult–these sorts of things never bothered me when I was watching the show live.

    posted by Meg Hunter on 11-3-2008 at 11:45 am

  6. The accountant on her lunch break loved this question!

    posted by ag on 11-3-2008 at 12:06 pm

  7. Meg,

    The show provided the costumes. And no, they did not win. They came in second to Patty’s Prancing Poodles. Mom and Dad ended up paying for the platter for them. They won a plaque engraved with their names, of which Cindy bitterly complained,”How much do *you* charge per letter?”

    posted by loripop on 11-3-2008 at 12:16 pm

  8. @Meg

    Wow, you saw the show live?! Cool! Everyone vote tomorrow; my recaptcha is Expected Tax.

    posted by Johnny Cat on 11-3-2008 at 9:24 pm

  9. Loripop–Wow. I meant those as rhetorical (actually even kind of snarky) questions and didn’t expect an answer! I’m impressed.

    Johnny Cat–I should have been more precise. What I really meant was “when I saw the original airings of the shows.”

    posted by Meg on 11-4-2008 at 3:47 pm

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