What Food Has Just Four Letters

How many different four letter words can be formed (the words need not be meaningful) using the letters of the word MEDITERRANEAN such that the first letter is E and the last letter is R?

If I counted well, there are 8 different letters in the word. (If the number is different, the same reasoning applies).So let's write it like this: E _ _ R. If we put A T we have one word, if we put E M we have another and so on. The number of different words is equal to the number of different combinations for these two places. Of course, in this case the order is important. So we can choose from 8 different letters for the first place. Now let's look what can be in the second place, but let's just see the possibilities where letters are different from the one we put in the first place. We are left with 7 of them, so there are 8*7 different ways such that the first and second letter are different. Now we need to add cases when both letters are the same. Since we have letters A, N and E appearing twice as possible candidates we can have E EE R, E AA R, E NN R so that is three more ways. So, all in all, there are 8*7+3 ways to do that. In case I made a mistake when it comes to number of different letters there are here's more general solution.Let's say that n is the number of different letters, and that m is the number of letters appearing at least twice. Then the number of different words is n*(n-1)+m

Can you write a sentence or story using only four-letter words?

Cats love body heat; they look snug when lain upon laps. “Look” said Jane. “When they doze atop mine legs this purr says ‘glad puss’, then, come food time, they jump down with glee”. They like nice fuss, with back rubs, tail tugs.“Purr purr. Love warm time. Firm head bump. Mien good.”Tom’s paws work hard. Digs into ribs, fast pace.“Purr purr. Push feet. Food time nigh! Want eats! Purr.”Tim’s eyes open; Puss pair jump down with cats’ duet.“Meow! Move Jane lady. OBEY your role. Gift cats your prey!““Want fine wild fish! Feed your cats Jane lady.”Love serf Jane gets down from sofa, goes into food room. Yeah! Both cats very keen. Lady gets pack, tips over bowl!Fear! Pack void; food gone AWOL. Look bowl. Look Jane lady. Look bowl. None. Dish bare.What! None? Help! Give Jane lady most dire look. Both cats fret.Poor cats. Huge snag, tray food gone. Sans duck, sans lamb… sans fish. Tins used also, gone! Vast fail Jane!Lent just came. Jane made diet plan, skip shop trip – stay home with soup only! (Also save cash). Fool!“Meow. Fill bowl. Meow! Cram dish.”Rubs lady legs with side. Wave tail.“Meow. Want food soon!” “Yowl!”Jane gets Idea… very good plan! Left over pork/beef meat loaf from last week! Okay? Over aged? Past best date … Only tiny risk when that meal also came over-done. Just hope cat’s guts cast-iron!Jane lays grub down ASAP.“Here puss. Food!”Nose scan seek food. Tom’s face fell. Poor food, odor dire. Foul fare. Make even road kill nice.“Meow. Veto dull evil mess.” Walk away.