Hossanah

A third grader at Columbus Manor Elementary in Oak Lawn, just west of Chicago, had a math exam on Wednesday, testing their nines. It was appropriate since Maggie Ciara had just turned nine a few days earlier.  And one of the questions was all nines.  But it was the young girl's answer to it that stood out.

It helps to be from Chicago, and a fan of the Chicago Black Hawks.  Marian Hossa is one of the stars of the hockey team, and one of the girl's favorite players.  And his number is, not suprsingly, 81.  The teacher, Christine Mech, it turns out, is also a big fan of the Black Hawks and knew what was going on, but wanted to hear the explanation.  When she got it, Maggie (who had all her other answers right) got her A+. 

"I just thought it would be funny to do," she told Justin Breen of DNAinfo Chicago.  How big a hockey fan is Maggie?  For her recent ninth birthday last month, she went to a Black Hawks game.  She also just wrote a letter to the club hoping it would bring them luck in the current Stanley Cup playoffs.  Her mother posted a photo of the exam, which caught the attention of the team, who even put it on their official Facebook page.

Teacher Mech said that "Maggie is a very clever little girl.  I love the way Maggie has a sense of humor."  However, the girl insists that she is a "very serious" student most of the time and that's she's never done something "silly" like this before with an exam.

That lead to my favorite part of the story, though, which put everything in its proper perspective.  It came when reporter Breen mentioned to her that she might have to do it again when she gets the question of what's "8x11," since her favorite player of all is Patrick Kane, who wears number 88.  Her reply was:  "We haven't learned our 11s