A Bet You Cannot Lose ...

[andy-hughes]

OK, bet someone any amount you want to take off them, that you can speak for sixty seconds without hesitation or repetition, and you will not use any word with the letter 'A' in it.

Fans of Jack Reacher will know this - anyone?

[ToraToraTora]

this was the premis of "just a minute" but never heard of the "letter A" variation

[fiction-factory]

Is this a counting thing? One to 99 and then start again?

[fiction-factory]

I suppose starting again wont be allowed so if I had time left I could go onto 0.1, 0.2,... 0.9..1.1, 1.2...

[Buenchico]

You probably need to be 'A Wanted Man' to answer this ;-)

There's some interesting discussion on the matter here though:
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-talk-for-a-full-minute-without-using-a-word-containing-the-letter-%E2%80%9CA%E2%80%9D

[Spicerack]

What about 8?

[fiction-factory]

I used to show a good 'spot what's unusual about this paragraph' slide where the letter E was never used. It started with something like " Can you spot what's unusual about this paragraph. Just look at it and think what is missing. If you don't spot it straight away start again and..."

[andy-hughes]

Buenchico - // You probably need to be 'A Wanted Man' to answer this ;-) //

Indeed you do Chris!!

[andy-hughes]

Spicerack - // What about 8? //

E-I-G-H-T - yes, what about it?

[jno]

Georges Perec wrote a book in French, La Disparition, without using the letter E. Remarkably, it was translated into English the same way, called "A Void".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Void

[THECORBYLOON]

'Gadsby is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright which does not include any words that contain the letter E such as “the”, the most common word in English.'

[Spicerack]

Fell into my cunning trap there, Andy. Lol.

[Canary42]

Surely twenty one is repetition ?

[THECORBYLOON]

I was about to post about the numbers one to nine being repeated.

[sanmac]

There are different variations on this "bet". FF at 2117 is on the right track of one of them; however, when he stopped at 99, he stopped WAY to soon.

[jno]

a little too soon, sanmac, though it might be advisable to stop at 99 in case you accidentally say "a hundred".

[sanmac]

Jno, You can just say "one hundred" or "hundred". Therefore, I guess you have the answer two:)

[Jackdaw33]

As Canary says, once you get to twenty then each multiple of 10 is repeated 9 times.

[sanmac]

JD, you're reading too much into this, or another way of saying it: There's less to it than meets the eye.

[jno]

you can, sanmac, but as I said, one slip of the tongue and your whole day's ruined...

[sanmac]

You're correct, jno, and being realistic if you made this bet in a bar, people's eyes would glaze over and politely, or not, tell you to FO.