Strange Brew by John Deering for July 02, 2020

Please, no James Joyce word problems!

Is this out of the Old Man and the Sees candy? Sweet story!

Evidently today is the anniversary date that Hemmingway “blowed his brains out”.

Castanets? Why I am hearing Latin music in my head.

Gosh, I thought he was reading a trump math problem with all those bigly words.

Let’s see, 5, 3, 0, 5, 6, 6, 3, and 5.

One got away.

I was expecting Carlos Castaneda.

With the striped shirt and elevated teachers desk, I thought this was a courtroom at first.

Beware of the “Grades of Wrath” (yeah, I know. Steinbeck)

First cast: 32, subsequent casts: 0…..the fish got smart after the first one.

The Old Man would know the answer to this one.

This is what happens when you get an English major as a substitute math teacher.

Word problems do not belong in math!!

So did Deering go with one of the least wordy writers in the history of writers as some sort of secondary inside joke here???

With apologies to Ramanujan and Hardy, who could give you the formula for how many different ways to get the 32 fish….Here are the first few possibilities: (32 )(31 1 )(30 2 )(30 1 1 )(29 3 )(29 2 1 )(29 1 1 1 )(28 4 )(28 3 1 )(28 2 2 )(28 2 1 1 )(28 1 1 1 1 )(27 5 )…. and the last few(5 5 5 5 4 3 3 2 )(5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 )(5 5 5 4 4 4 4 1 )(5 5 5 4 4 4 3 2 )(5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 )(5 5 4 4 4 4 4 2 )(5 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 )(5 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 )(4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 )final restrictedcount = 3319So perhaps its a multiple choice question with 3319 choices.Geek out! P.S.: For another fish story check out the previously unpublished Hemingway“Pursuit as Happiness” in the June 8 New Yorker.