Gerard loans Larry $40,000. Larry promises to repay Gerard in 12 months. After 12 months, Larry still has not repaid Gerard. Gerard tells Larry’s wife, Linda, that Gerard will "hold off on suing your husband to get my money back for as long as I feel like it" if Linda will agree in writing to guarantee Larry’s obligation to repay the debt. Linda signs a note promising to guarantee Larry’s debt. What is Linda’s best defense to an action by Gerard to enforce the guarantee?

You are the manager of the packaging department in a cookie factory. (obviously, the packaging employees cannot eat the cookies that are transferred in during the period.) after your employees insert cookies into colorful packages (step 1) for display on store shelves, the packages of cookies are then boxed using cardboard cartons (step 2) for shipment to stores. each unit of product is represented by a carton of packaged cookies. the packaging department began the period with 1,000 units of cookies. during the period, 5,000 units of cookies were transferred in from the baking department and 5,500 units of cookies were transferred out to the finished goods department. the number of units of cookies in the ending inventory of the packaging department equals: