How Stupid Do You Think I Am, Anyways???

I guess I should preface this whole thing by saying that the title is a rhetorical question, so for the sake of my rather delicate ego, please don't answer. I'm pretty sure that I've already ranted about chain emails a time or two, so I'm sorry to revisit this topic again, but I swear to Gitche Manitou it's only cause people keep sending me retarded emails. Just this morning, I got this little gem in my inbox:

Try this....

This is really freaky

MIND GAME

2% or 98%

This strange.... Can you figure it out?

are you the 2% or the 98% of the population?

Follow the instructions! No peeking ahead!!!

Do the following exercise, guaranteed to raise an eyebrow...

There's no trick or surprise. Just follow the instructions, and answer the questions one at a time and as quickly as you can. Again as quickly as you can but don't advance until you've done each of them... really.

Now scroll down, but not too fast you might miss something.

Think of a number from 1 to 10

Multiply that number by 9.

If the number is a 2 digit number then add the 2 digits together.

Subtract 5.

Determine what letter of the alphabet corresponds with the number you ended up with.

Think of a country that starts with that letter.

Remember the last letter of that country's name.

Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter.

Remember the last letter of that animal's name.

Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter.

Are you thinking of an Kangaroo in Denmark eating an orange?

I told you this was FREAKY! If not you're among the 2% of the population whose minds are different enough to think of something else. 98% of people will answer with Kangaroos in Denmark when given this exercise. Keep this message going, this one is actually worth sending on to others. Forward it to people you know to find out if they are usual or unusual.

So here's the thing. No matter what number you pick to begin with, you're always gonna end up with 9.

1x9=9

2x9=18; 1+8=9

3x9=27; 2+7=9

4x9=36; 3+6=9

etc.

etc.

So no matter what your original number, once you've done the math and subtracted the seemingly random 5 you end up with 4. Which of course leaves you with the letter D. And so far as I know, there are currently only 5 countries in the world that start with the letter D. What's the first that comes to your mind? Denmark, you say??? What a surprise!!! (And I say bonus points to you if you know the other 4 countries)

So here's what I have to say to whoever it is who devised this little "mind game":

Can I figure it out? Why yes, I do believe I did.

Am I the 2% or the 98%? Based on a world population of 6.6 billion my calculator tells me I am 1.51515152 x 10(to the power of) -10% of the population.

Am I usual or unusual? Well, the few friends I have think I'm pretty weird.

What really cheeses me off is that this is set up to be really clever and to make people feel stupid or ordinary or not special when they do think of kangaroos in Denmark eating oranges. And let's face it, none of us wants to feel as if we are only just ordinary.

Which, no doubt is the reason why the person who sent this to me somehow ended up thinking of yaks eating kiwis in Hungary. Which would suggest that they either have deplorable math skills, or they randomly picked a country other than Denmark after doing the quiz and coming up with the Danish, orange eating roo, all just so they wouldn't fall in the dreaded category of being "usual".

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