June 11, 2008

20+4x2-10=?

I bought some packs at a place out on Geary the other day and as I scanned their backs on the bus ride home I got to thinking: what is the purpose, exactly, of the Canadian Skill Question?

Have there really been instances of Topps denying a collector north of the border a card because they failed a math test? Seriously, am I missing something here? Is there something the Topps braintrust knows about Canadian mathematics that the rest of don't?

And it's not like this is a new phenomenon; this type of ridiculous question has been on the backs of packs for years. What I want to know is, who was the guy at Topps who decided that a question like that needed to be on the pack (as if to weed out the intellectually inferior)?

Stuff such as this boggles the mind...


And speaking of odd things, have you ever wondered what the 'M.' stands for in 'M. Night Shyamalan'? Personally, I hope it stands for 'Mortimer.' Gets you thinking, though, doesn't it? Kind of makes me wish professional athletes would adopt this practice:

G. Herman Ruth.
B. Joe Robidioux.
L. Steven Jeltz.

I'm telling you, we're on to something here.

3 comments:

SJ said...

I just looked up M. Night to see what M. meant. I forget what it was. I also googled the skill question, it is a cover for the Canadian sweepstakes law taking out the gambling aspect or something. -Scott

--David said...

Check this out for the answer to your question:
http://contests.about.com/od/sweepstakes101/f/caskillquestion.htm

Anonymous said...

Canadian math skills question - http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/01/72511


M. Night Shyamalan = Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan