Can you guess how many bananas were in the box?
There was a shipwreck at sea and Doug, Steve, and Phil got washed ashore on a small, isolated island. They were exhausted and fell asleep on the beach. Doug woke up and saw a box of bananas had washed ashore. He ate 1/3 of bananas and went back to sleep. Steve woke up and also ate 1/3 of what was left of the bananas, and went back to sleep. Next, Phil woke up and assuming no one had eaten the bananas, ate only 1/3 of what was left. When he was finished, there were only 8 bananas left. Can you guess how many bananas were in the box?
Beethoven's Ninth
The symphony orchestra was performing Beethoven's Ninth.
In the piece, there's a long passage, about 20 minutes, during which the bass violinists have nothing to do.
Rather than sit around that whole time looking stupid, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one.
After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch and said, "Hey! We need to get back!"
"No need to panic," said a fellow bassist. "I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It'll take him a few minutes to get it untangled."
A few moments later they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places in the orchestra.
About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor seemed a bit edgy and said as much to her companion.
"Well, of course," said her companion. "Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."