Ah, the specific details are so bland that I’d be embarrassed to drag it out much longer; like I’d said, you guys pretty much have the key aspect.
It was our junior-high team against another junior high’s team in an academic trivia competition: you get two points for a correct answer, or lose one for an incorrect one — and, either way, it then moves on to the next question: folks aren’t given a shot at correctly answering the question after you get it wrong; their reward is that you lost a point, not that they get to earn points by saying “false” now that they’ve been flatly told it’s not “true,” or whatever.
Anyway, we were up by four points, and there were three questions left, and I realized something that I should have realized a heck of a lot earlier: that, in a situation like this, they win if they get all three right, and we win if we get all three right, and we win if we get all three wrong.
As this dawned on me, the questioner asked what is the tense of the verb in the following sentence, and I didn’t wait to hear it, because: why bother trying to improve my odds of getting it right? We win if I get all three wrong!
And so I buzzed in, fully expecting to get it wrong, only to find out that, huh, turns out it was Future Perfect, like I’d just said! Well, shucks: now we’re up by six, and there are only two questions left! And so it doesn’t matter what happens next! And so I’ll just shut the hell up!
A few weeks ago, I placed an order with a certain company. They delivered a piece of furniture, which I threw away. Yesterday I received an identical piece of furniture from the same company, and I threw that one away too. Both times I was satisfied with my purchase, and I will probably order from them again. Why?
Are you an investor or owner of the company, and they give you free or reduced-rate items from time to time?
Would a normal (no offense!) customer use the item for a longer period of time, say for several months/years?
Is the method of disposal relevant? For example, burning it in a fire, giving it away, burying it in the backyard (like a casket for a deceased pet), putting it out in the trash?
If yes, was it something intended for people to sit on it? Was it something intended for people to put things on? Was it something intended for storing something?
Did you gain some benefit from the thing being in your trash?
You received that whateveritwas thing and kept it.
The item you threw away was shipped along with the thing you wanted.
Was the item you threw away sent as a promotional item? (Like, for example, “Order a set of our Skizzix solar-powered steak knives by midnight tonight, and we’ll throw in a FREE tote bag!” Except this bonus item would be a piece of disposable furniture? I mean, that doesn’t seem likely, but I’m trying to work with what I got here.)
Was the item you threw away included as an accessory for the “main item” you ordered, but you just didn’t need it?
Since this thing was designed to be disposable, did you use it and then dispose of it? Or does it matter?