They are the only letters in the alphabet that are not found at the beginning of the name of a state in the United States of America. The rest of the letters in the alphabet, namely ACDFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVW, start the name of at least one state. Incidentally, eight different states each start with the letters M and N, tying them for the most states starting with a particular letter. The next highest is a three-way tie between A, I and W with four each.
King Ferdinand has no immediate living relatives and decides to hold a contest to find a worthy successor when he dies. He gives a seed to every contestant and explains that the person with the healthiest and most beautiful plant will win the throne.
When the final day of the contest arrives, the king finds hundreds of plants of all shapes and sizes. However, he ignores them and awards the throne to a girl holding a pot with only moist dirt.
King Ferdinand was a kind and trusting man and wanted to be sure he found an honest heir. He gave small pebbles to all the contestants, claiming they were seeds. Therefore, any contestant with a plant had switched their “seed” in order to win. Everyone but the girl had been dishonest.
Joe and Andrea want to copy three 60-minute cassette tapes. They have a 2-cassette recorder to copy the tapes, allowing them to copy two tapes at a time. Each side takes 30 minutes to be copied, so two tapes can be copied in an hour and the third will take another hour. Andrea bets Joe she can copy all three tapes in 90 minutes. Does she win the bet?
In the first 30 minutes Andrea copies the A sides of tape 1 and 2. In the second 30 minutes, she copies tape 1 side B and tape 3 side A (finishing Tape 1). In the last 30 minutes, she copies tape 2 side B and tape 3 side B.