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Monday, February 25, 2008

Lucky Charms

Lucky Charms has always been one of my favorite breakfast cereals. When I was younger, I created a little game, or a pattern that I would try to follow as I ate. The game has a few small rules, and is partially a game of chance:
  1. Every spoonful must have at least one marshmallow in it. It's just not Lucky Charms if you aren't eating marshmallows in every bite. Plus, they put in plenty of marshmallows, so this shouldn't be a problem.
  2. Every spoonful should have as many of those little grain pieces (you know, the stuff in Lucky Charms that isn't marshmallowy goodness) as possible. The goal is to end up with a bowl with just milk and 'mallows. At the end.
  3. Once all the little grain pieces are gone, the number of marshmallows left should be divisible by three. If it is, you win at breakfast! The easiest way to count this is to eat spoonfuls with three at a time until there are none left, or until there aren't enough left to form a complete 3-piece spoonful.
There are always difficulties, like what to do when one of the marshmallows (especially those brittle horseshoes) breaks in half? Do you count that as a whole marshmallow? I'm not interested in adding fractions in my head while I eat breakfast, to I tend to round down and treat the whole issue with integer arithmetic. I don't play this little game every time I eat Lucky Charms, but it always amazes me how something so small as cereal brings back these little memories from my childhood.

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