A bookworm eats a straight way through a encyclopedia consisting of ten parts. Each part has 1000 pages. The bookworm starts on the front cover of the first part and ends on the back cover of the last part. From how many pages did the bookworm eat?

How many characters does the right answer to this question have?

In Greenwich Village, tic-tac-toe is played in an atypical way. At each turn a player marks as many squares as he wishes provided they are in the same vertical or horizontal row (they need not be adjacent). The winner is the one who marks the last square.

Which player has the advantage, and what strategy should he employ?