Why Did I Buy This Book? Page 6

  Take a close look at the images on this page. Give yourself a minute. Then, turn the page and see how many questions you can answer.

  answers on page 368

  1. How many saguaro cacti were there?

  2. Were there more black coyotes or white coyotes?

  3. What kind of skulls were there—cattle or wolf?

  4. How many armadillos were there?

  5. How many birds were in the air?

  6. Were they flying to the left or the right?

  7. Was the lizard pointing up or down?

  8. How many coyotes were howling?

  9. Was it day or night?

  10. What two animals were peeking around the cactus on the left side of the scene?

  Chapter Seven:

  THAT’S LOGICAL

  We all get stuck in a rut as we cruise along in our busy lives. We get used to doing things and thinking about things in a specific way that works for us, and we travel the same old well-worn paths. That’s fine for efficiency and when it comes to juggling schedules, meals, chores, and responsibilities, it’s perect. But as we age our brains start to close off those paths less traveled and we start to lose functionality. So take those untread paths! Try these logic puzzles. These kinds of puzzles tap into your creative thought, ask you to think around a problem, and come up with new ways to see the familiar. They get you to tap into your problem-solving capabilities and sharpen the old wits. These puzzles require you to solve codes, untangle twisters, perform processes of elimination, and make use of your inner math skills. You’ll feel the sparkle in your cerebrum before you can say “that’s logical”!

  Brain Melters

  Try your hand, and brain, at these logic puzzles. They’ll tap into your mathematic skills, your pattern skills, as well as good old logic and common sense.

  answers on pages 369–372

  1. Chip, Al, and Joe went clamming on the beach in Maine this summer. They gathered enough clams to fill a small crate. They went back to the campfire, washed the clams, and steamed them, then let them cool while they went swimming. Chip got out of the water first and secretly ate one-third of the clams while the others were still swimming. He ditched the shells in the woods and went back to the beach. While he and Joe were arguing over the biggest fish in the Atlantic, Al snuck off and decided to eat his third of the clams. He ate one-third of what was there. Al hid the shells, grabbed a beer, and went back to the beach. Then Joe took off to change out of his swim trunks. He decided to eat his third of the clams and ate one-third of what was left in the pot. He also hid the shells. None of the guys had a clue that the others had done the same thing. So when the sun set, they all gathered around the clams and divied up what was left in the pot. They each got 16. How many clams were there to begin with?

  2. Helen was a lifelong hiker and was always on some trail. Last fall she took a walking tour of Italy. One day she was on a rural back road from Cortona to Perugia, and when she came to her trail junction, she discovered that the signpost had fallen down. The post was marked Perugia, Montepulciano, Umbertide, and Cortona. Helen was frustrated because she didn’t know which trail to take and her family was expecting to meet her for dinner at a little vineyard in Perugia. She ended up making it in time to meet her family. How did she get the sign in the right place and go in the right direction?

  3. There are six countries hidden in the text below. Can you find them all? After a delicious lunch doused in chiles from Raj, a pan-Asian spot on the avenue, Vic had pains in his chest, chin, and throat that worried him. He decided to go to the emergency room. “Can a dash of hot sauce cause this amount of pain?” he screamed. “Watch your anger, man! You’re going to work yourself into a hospital stay if you’re not careful.”

  4. If Ralph, the industrious robin, can find one worm in 15 minutes, and Rosie, the quick-on-her-feet robin, can find one worm every 12 minutes, and their chick, Rhonda, takes 20 minutes to eat a worm—and she eats all day long!—how many worms will they have left at the end of a day?

  5. Keith was excited about his first bake-off at the county fair. He was one of four pie makers who had won entry into the contest, and he was thrilled to show off his best apple pie. The contestants ranged in age from 14 to 22. There were two teenagers aged 14 and 17, and another contestant who had just turned 20. When ribbons were awarded, the contestant coming in last also happened to be the oldest contestant. Lynn was eight years older than the baker who came in second. Keith was neither the oldest nor the youngest, and Kai finished ahead of the 17-year old but didn’t win. Leo, though his filling was delicious, had burned his crust a bit, and he didn’t win either. What was the ribbon order of pie makers?

  6. Which of these words doesn’t belong when shortened? swish

  women

  shear

  glove

  seven

  brawl

  clover

  swing

  stone

  7. What is the name of this popular dog breed? A B

  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N

  A B C D E F G H I J K

  A B C D E F G H I J K

  A B C D E F G H

  A B C D

  8. Amy went to her daughter’s swim meet and wrote down all the results. In the end, she was confused. Can you figure out from Amy’s notes what the final results were? 1. Peyton Poule beat Pat Paddler and Wanda Wader.

  2. Sam Splash beat Wanda Wader, Pat Paddler, and Laneline Lena.

  3. Goggles McCormick lost to Sam Splash.

  4. J. B. Jammer beat Pat Paddler.

  5. Goggles McCormick beat Chloe Chlorine.

  6. J. B. Jammer lost to Chloe Chlorine and Sam Splash.

  7. Pat Paddler beat Buck Brick.

  8. Laneline Lena beat Goggles McCormick, Trenton Trout, and J. B. Jammer.

  9. Trenton Trout lost to J. B. Jammer and Peyton Poule.

  10. Buck Brick beat Trenton Trout.

  11. Peyton Poule lost to Laneline Lena and Goggles McCormick.

  12. Chloe Chlorine beat Pat Paddler, Peyton Poule, and Buck Brick.

  13. Pat Paddler lost to Wanda Wader and Laneline Lena.

  14. Wanda Wader beat J. B. Jammer and Buck Brick.

  9. Lydia’s granddaughter, Greta, hid her precious pearl necklace. Greta, a precocious child of three, was happy to show off her shape-naming skills, deciding to make a game of the missing pearls. She told Lydia only one thing: “The necklace is inside a 6-inch-long cylinder surrounded by a thousand squares.” Where did Greta hide the necklace?

  10. Pete the pathologist had a petri dish in which he had collected a rare form of Bacillus bunyonus. The bacteria divide every minute in two equal parts that are the same size as the original organism. These then divide in the next minute, and so on. Pete’s petri dish was full at noon. At what time was Pete’s petri dish half full?

  11. It’s time for the Silver Fox Ballroom Dance competition. Can you figure out which couple will win the highest score for this Freestyle Younameit Anythinggoes round?

  The couples dancing were:

  COUPLE #1 Ned and Ina Sneed III

  COUPLE #2 Sam and Sue Sassfactor

  COUPLE #3 Lyle and Lily Houndstooth

  COUPLE #4 Chi-chi and Cha-cha Brown

  COUPLE #5 Flame and Flora Freebird

  Check out each couple’s interview comments about their routine and then look at the Judges’ Rules to see who earned the most points.

  NED AND INA:

  “After performing two whistle-flips, we did two elegant neck-knocks, a jaw-dropping sprawl-for-all and finished with a squeaking turnabout. As newcomers, we feel we did a pretty good job. We certainly had a lot of fun.”

  SAM AND SUE:

  “We were happy with our shriek-twist and we’re thrilled that we nailed the neck-knock before we had a sprawl-for-all. We worked super hard on our routine, and it showed.”

  LYLE AND LILY:

  “After the two exhausting whistle-flips and the one flaming shriek-twist, we had a sassy sprawl-for-all and
then finished it off with a flourishing shriek-twist in perfect tandem. We’re really pleased.”

  CHI-CHI AND CHA-CHA:

  “Ours was straightforward and classic: We did three harmonizing shriek-twists. I think the judges were impressed with our approach. We’ll see if it pays off.”

  FLAME AND FLORA:

  “People expected us to just go right in and do our signature neck-knocks, but we decided to stir things up a bit this time and toss in a heck of a squeaking turnabout followed by a surprising sprawl-for-all. It was bold, but so are we, dammit!”

  JUDGES’ RULES

  Score three points for each whistle-flip, shriek-twist, or neck-knock

  Score ten points for each squeaking turnabout

  Divide the final score by two if you have a sprawl-for-all at any time.

  12. It was a beautiful morning, and Dinah and all five of her best pals loaded into the minivan and headed out to hit the early yard sales. The first place they got to had a bunch of baseball cards, a broken toaster, some interesting clothes, and a few fishing rods. Nothing hugely exciting. The next place had a ton of old 8-track tapes and a working player to boot! Dinah and her pals cheered! They each dug through the baskets of tapes to grab the one they loved best. In the end what they gathered was Led Zeppelin, Joan Baez, Dolly Parton, Patti Smith, ABBA, and Donny Osmond.

  Using these clues, can you figure out who ended up with what?

  Dinah chose an 8-track tape by Joan Baez. Lena hates pop and country music but got a tape she wanted. Kathy chose a solo singer and not Dolly Parton or Patti Smith. Mary chose a female singer. Liz chose a tape by a group. George chose ABBA.

  13. How many 32-cent stamps are in a dozen?

  14. Things really heated up at the end of Tunetown’s local music covers contest, and the audience got to vote for their favorite performance. Eunice’s rendition of “Freebird” was not last—even though her performance was cut short when she twisted an ankle leaping from the stage into the arms of the audience. Madge only just managed to avoid last place, coming in third. The lady who rocked “Stayin’ Alive” was very successful and took first place. Ida beat the woman who belted out “I Will Survive”—only because she was taken away for light-headedness due to low blood pressure; and the lady who sang “You Really Got Me” beat Vera. Can you determine who sang what and who won?

  15. It’s Chip’s birthday! When he adds 4 times his age 4 years from now to 5 times his age 5 years from now, he gets 10 times his current age. How many candles will be on Chip’s cake 3 years from now? Can you figure out what date the Summer Night Fling is?

  16. How high would you have to count to get to the first number spelled with an A?

  17. Frankly, Frank was a flirt. He was in love with three women from his apartment complex, and couldn’t decide which one to give his heart-shaped box of antioxidant-rich, extra-dark chocolate almond bark, so he decided to send each woman a Valentine’s Day card. In the end, Frank was burned, because each of the women thought the card came from someone else. He was left to munch on his heart-healthy treat all on his own.

  From the following clues, can you work out the name of each woman, the color of each card Frank sent, and the name of the man each woman believed sent it?

  1. Unluckily for flirty Frank, when Miss Lulu Flaymon received her card, she thought it was from Brock.

  2. When Miss Hortense Hubbahubba received her blue card, she told Miss Frieda Bellabella, and together they worked out that the card was from Dylan. It didn’t occur to either of them that it was from flirty Frank!

  3. The woman who received the red card was convinced it came from Ewan.

  4. Neither Miss Frieda Bellabella nor Miss Hortense Hubbahubba received a pink card.

  18. Doug’s apartment was quite the wildlife center. He had a number of parakeets, cats, and cockroaches in every nook and cranny. There were exactly 150 feet and 50 heads in total, not including Doug. There were twice as many cockroaches as cats. How many of each animal were there?

  19. Find a five-digit number that has no zeros in which no digit is repeated, where: The first digit is a prime number. (One is not a prime number.)

  The second digit is the fifth digit minus the first digit.

  The third digit is twice the first digit.

  The fourth digit is the third digit plus three.

  The fifth digit is the difference between the first digit and the fourth digit.

  20. Recycler Renee really does her part for greening the world. On one of her highway hikes, she gathered 49 empty one-liter plastic soda bottles. She knows it takes 6 6/7 bottles to make a small fleece scarf. At the end of the day how many small scarves will Renee be able to make?

  21. What runs but never walks,

  Has a mouth and never talks,

  Has a bed but never sleeps,

  Has a body and never leaps?

  22. It was late and very dark outside when the woman who had been reading turned off the light and fell asleep. In the morning, she woke up refreshed. She wandered to the front porch and got the paper, brewed her coffee, and sipped it as she glanced at the headlines. What she saw shocked her. The headline read:

  SHIP WRECKS ON ROCKY COAST.

  200 DEAD! ENTIRE STATE IN MOURNING.

  The woman finished her coffee, got dressed, and called the police to turn herself in for the mass murder of 200 individuals.

  Why?

  23. Biff made two elegant desserts for his fancy date with Ella that evening. Ella was sitting in the dining room while Biff went into the kitchen to serve the desserts. When he got there, he couldn’t decide which of the two fancy desserts he should serve on which of the two plates. How many choices did he have?

  24. Ella loved the chocolate decadence and yummy banana chiffon that Biff had made for her so much, she decided to have another date with him—even if he did take way too long in the kitchen between courses. This date was a brunch, and Biff had a papaya and a mango, hoping to woo Ella with his knowledge of tropical fruit. This time, he had three fancy plates on which to display the fruit. And again, he was faced with too many choices. This time Biff asked Ella what she thought.

  How many choices did they have?

  25. Take the number of days in a leap year, add the number of months with 30 days, divide by the unlucky number never represented in tall buildings, add the number of days in July, add the square root of nine, and divide by the number of days in a week. Which month does the number you’re left with represent?

  Phoning It In

  Stand-Up Stan works at the phone company. He thinks he really knocks ’em dead at the switchboard, but everyone wants him to hang it up. His material is ancient—prehistoric, really. Before his routine he gets a mysterious phone call giving him a joke and a code for the punch line.

  answers on page 373

  Using a phone pad as a decoder, can you figure out Stan’s routine?

  1. What made the dinosaurs extinct? 8-4-3-9 6-3-8-3-7 8-6-6-5 2-2-8-4-7!

  2. What’s a dinosaur’s favorite flooring material? 7-3-7-8-4-5-3-7!

  3. Why did the triceratops eat the steel factory? 7-4-3 9-2-7 2 7-5-2-6-8 3-2-8-3-7!

  4. What did the T. rex tell the doctor after he stubbed his toe? 4-8-’-7 3-4-6-6-7-6-7-3!

  5. What do you give a nauseated dinosaur? 7-5-3-6-8-9 6-3 7-6-6-6!

  Behind the Eight Ball

  Eight-Ball Edna is having a bad day. She had several messages from the underworld, but they were all in code. Lucky for Edna, she had a Magic Eight Ball, which gave her this clue.

  answers on pages 373–374

  What were Edna’s otherworldly messages?

  1. Her horoscope said: Hsq sllwflagf lg lzw kayfk!

  2. Her fortune cookie said: Egfwq oadd ugew qgmj osq lgvsq

  3. A psychic stopped her on the street and said: Qgm oadd tw jauz!

  4. The Ouija Board said: Lgvsq ak qgmj dmucq vsq.

  5. And her clairvoyant grandson said: Tmq s dgllwjq laucwl!

  Morse Code


  Rocky was serving time for bad jokes. He’d been put away for gagging his audience and leaving them in stitches. He says he’s an innocent guy—just a victim of bad humor. You be the judge. Rocky now does his routine by clunking his head on the wall in Morse Code so all the other convicts can hear him.

  answers on page 374

  Can you figure out his jokes?

  1. The robber’s defense was based on poison ivy. Why?

  2. How come the blanket thief was never prosecuted?

  3. How did the shampoo thief escape?

  4. What happened to the guy at the coffee stand?

  5. How did the pork-industry crime ring get busted?

  BUSTED!

  The bust of Benson Bassoonblaur is bent out of shape. He feels the classics are being neglected. Can you figure out which of these classic composers Benson most admires?

  answers on page 375