17 times 5 equals what?

We went karting near Portland last evening - Parantap, Gaurav, Arnab, Rudrajit and I. The price per person for 10 minutes of racing was $17. The guy at the counter was trying to figure out how much we should pay him. He wondered aloud, "What is 17 times 5? Oh God, I need a calculator for this!" We all blurted "85" in almost unision to which the guy was clearly exasperated. "How do you guys know these things?!"

At first, we laughed quietly to ourselves. Then it dawned upon us - if he really knew by rote that 17 times 5 was 85, we probably wouldn't have been in this country in the first place.

Epiphany.