25

The number of times five can be subtracted from twenty five is
theoretically infinite, but honestly, I can't imagine how anyone could
do it.

The number of times you can subtract 5 from 25 is equal to the number
of 25s you have to start with. If you only have the one 25, you can
only subtract 5 once, because after that you don't have 25, but only
20.

So if you only have the single 25, you can only subtract 5 the one
time. However, I have subtracted 5 from twenty-five many, many times.

When I was a freshman in college, I got my first ATM card. I was sick
and tired of writing checks for everything, and I was excited by how
much more quickly I could purchase DVDs and CDs on line.

It was really quite convenient that all of the ATM machines on campus
belonged to my banking institution, the Washington State Employees
Credit Union, and that they delivered money in denominations as small
as five dollars.

Every couple of days, I would go to one of the machines and I would
withdraw 25 dollars from the money left to me by my grandparents so
that I could pay for college. I would take 5 dollars and buy a pack
of cigarettes, some mints, and a highly cafinated soda. I would then
have 20 dollars left for food, or text books, or fancy fountain pens
with which to take notes on American Social History and draft long
winded and pretentious essays based on those very notes.

As I said, I did this fairly often. And I had plenty of 25s to start
with. As the the bright college days flew by, the accounts full of
fresh new 25s eroded away.

So, slowly I ran out of 25s from which to subtract 5. The economy
turned. I couldn't find anyone willing to replace the accounts full
of 25s and 100s and 15s etc. that I had spent my college career
emptying.

In the dark year following my graduation, I sought ways to subtract as
little as possible from zero. The debt I managed to accrue in that
unfortunate time is another math problem entirely, and would therefore
be better addressed in seperate trivia questions in future
newsletters.