Natrona Heights on April 20, 2013 was a hoot. As usual, my thanks goes out to the hosts, and to all the dealers for their dealings with my kids. And this time, a special thank you to Ron Barth for providing, unintentionally, the "deal of the weekend!"

Ian has been happily accumulating insulators for the last couple of shows that we've been going to, spending his own hard earned cash on these little pieces of glass. He has a rather limited budget, so he understandably pursues the good deals. Well, when he came to a table with a sign that said "Buy two insulators, get one free", he knew he'd found a place to spend some money. He carefuly picked out two one dollar insulators he wanted, then picked a five dollar insulator he wanted for free. Then he picked out two more one dollar pieces, and another five dollar piece to get for free. He pulled out his $4 to pay for his choices, and Ron looked at the insulators and said $12. Ron was confused at Ian holding out the $4, Ian was confused at Ron asking for $12. Ron explained that the buy two get one free applied to insulators of the same price -- you can't get two $1 insulators and then a $5 one for free! "Oh," Ian says, "That changes everything!" But then he picks up the sign and says, "But the sign says, buy two get one free -- it doesn't say anything about the price." Some helpful individual who was observing the negotiation chimed in on Ian's behalf and agreed that the sign didn't say anything about the prices. Ron, with an observation about how Ian should be a lawyer, gave in and let Ian have his insulators for the bargain basement price of $4.

In Ian's words, explaining it to my wife after we got home:

"There was this two for one table and the sign didn't say buy two the same price get one the same price free so I got mixed up with that. so me and the guy had this conversation and some other people joined in with me and said the sign didn't say the same price and the guy who was selling the insulators said screw it, I'll take your four dollars."

My wife: "So, how many did you get for $4?"

Ian: "A bunch!"

The smile on Ian's face as he relates this story (and he's related it a number of times to a bunch of different folks) is something to behold. Thank you, Ron!

Here's the smile that goes with the deal -- [id=371684423 ]