"Hello there, welcome to Meridell! My name's Alton. You'll find that our humble little homeland is a charming place with plenty to do and see. Why, just a moment ago, I was partaking in one of our favourite pastimes, potato counting. It's not all that difficult; you should give it a try sometime. Although, you might get more than you bargained for...

I remember, there was this one visitor who stopped in for some potato counting. He looked like he was new around here, and... let's just say, that sometimes in Meridell we like to have a little fun at the tourists' expense. Anyhow, he says to me, "How does this potato-counting game of yours work?" and I explained that I would empty my satchel of potatoes, then based on how fast he could count 'em up, he'd receive a prize.

"Oh," the tourist said, "that sounds easy enough. I think I'll give it a try." So I reached over for my satchel of Grade-A Meridell potatoes. "Whew, this one's kinda heavy!" I grunted, then set the sack of potatoes down before him. Reaching to turn the satchel over, I watched in delight as the potatoes began to cover the ground...

One potato, two potato, three potato, four...

The funny thing is, the potatoes just kept on coming; I'd never seen so many in all my life! As a look of horror swept over the tourist's face, I dutifully kept track of how long he was taking, counting the seconds in my head, "One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand...."

It took the poor guy most of the afternoon, but as the sun began to set, he finally finished counting all those potatoes. Exhausted, he turned to me and said, "Whew! Okay, I think that's it. I counted two-thousand, four hundred and seventy three potatoes... is that it?"

Scribbling down his final time (the tourist took 19,409 seconds, or five hours, twenty three minutes and twenty nine seconds to tally up the taters) I reached into the satchel and pulled out a small envelope which contained the number of potatoes in the bag. "Oh, I'm sorry," I said, barely holding back a chuckle, "but there were two-thousand, four hundred and seventy two potatoes in the sack." As the tourist stormed off in a huff, I wished him better luck next time....

When asked of his fondness for potatoes, Alton's eyes light up and a grin spreads across his face. "I'm sure you've never given the matter much thought," he begins, "but take it from me; there's an awful lot you can do with a potato. You can stuff it with sour cream and chives, mash it up with a little butter (okay, maybe a LOT of butter... hehe), or even chop up a few and make some potato salad. My personal favourite, though, is a piping hot bowl of potato and leek soup. Mmm, delicious!"