You own a street and a block of flats

I thought it was going to happen. Monday's The Price Is Right had a ``Pay The Rent'' round where I thought for sure the contestant had not just placed the prizes in the right order --- one contestant has done that before, recall --- but was also going to go through all four levels and take home the $100,000 prize. (The contestant was a drill sargent, and Drew Carey promised that despite his recent recovery from shoulder surgery he'd drop and give him twenty push-ups --- or try to --- if he won.)

Here was the setup. On the first level the contestant had put the bottle of hand soap, $2.29. On the second level he'd put a box of macaroni, $1.99, and a pack of Twinkies, called ``snack cakes'' because of boring license issues, $1.49, for a level price of $3.48. On the third level was the mozarella cheese, $2.99, and a jar of applesauce, $2.09, for a level total of $5.08. The remaining item was a box of Alka-Seltzer allergy tablets. It's medicine. Surely, unquestionably, that costs more than $5.08 and the contestant was on his way to $100,000 and Drew Carey on his way to push-ups, right?

The allergy tablets were $4.22.

So, there we are. As I see it there's just one solution again. That puts the mozarella on the first level ($2.99); the Twinkies and hand soap on the second ($3.78); the applesause and macaroni on the third ($4.08); and the allergy tablets on the fourth ($4.22).

This loosens up the range of item prices, which this season have been $10.00, $3.70, $3.90, $3.90, $6.14, $4.30, $4.30, $2.54, and now $2.73.

The range in level prices is relaxing a tiny bit too, with the range of levels this season now $4.00, $1.50, $1.30, $0.99, $2.00, $1.70, $1.70, $1.00, and now $1.23.

But what sane person didn't figure that was won?

Trivia: The people hired to maintain light beacons for United States Air Mail service after 1924 were paid through contracts with the United States Lighthouse Service. Source: Wondrous Contrivances: Technology At The Threshold, Merritt Ierley.

Currently Reading: A New Jersey Anthology, Editor Maxine N Lurie. Compilation of historical essays which defies the rules by not ending fifty years before publication. Instead it even covers stuff like the Newark Teachers Strike or the Mount Laurel decisions.

PS: The Best Thing About Polynomials: Tigger likes them. Also you don't have to know how to find the logarithm of 7, although I show you how, in two ways.