Season's Greetings

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas season and all the very best for 2018, may all your brick walls come tumbling down.

 

Potentially dangerous Heather ! Happy Christmas to You !

 

How about giving this trivial Quiz a go as it is Christmas (can use the word now)...a little light hearted as I am sure you will agree.

1.Johnny's mother had three children. The first child was names April. The second child was named May. What was the third child's name?
2. There is as Butcher who is 5ft 10ins tall and wears a size 11 shoe. What does he weigh?
3. Before Mt Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
4. How much dirt is there is a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet?
5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly?
6. Bill was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?
7. In California (USA) you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?
8. Which is correct to say: "The yoke of the egg are white" or "The yoke of the egg is white"?
9.If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in another field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in a third field?

and now one with a slight genealogical bent that might just need a little more thought
10. Jane tells her friends that her grandmother is only one year older than her mother. How can this be?

I might if asked convey the answer to No. 10 but doubt answers to the others are necessary...but you never know?

Happy Christmas to all.

 

I'm sure you have Tim, but keep it to yourself a while longer, and I will ask you to reveal your answer and confirm it aligns with the answer I have.

 

I have answers to all 10 but it took me a while to spot the obvious in 1.

 

My wife took ages over No. 9 which she thought was a mathematical problem, but I assured her wasn't, but she answered No. 1 almost at once. No. 10 she thought about for perhaps best part of a minute, and then trotted out the answer. It seems what challenges one person is blatantly obvious to another. If its any consolation I too had to think about No. 1 until the truth slowly dawned.

I liked my sister's answer to No. 1, when she said 'I suppose the answer is June but I bet there's a catch in it somewhere'. I said 'too true blue' (after all she's been Australian for over 40 years so she would understand that).

 

OK, time for the answer to No. 10 and will let others have a stab first but I'm sure most will have come up with the right solution. Will of course confirm.

 

Thanks Bob, have an answer to all 10, hope they are correct.

 

No 6 was obviously tailor-made for some members of the forum.

My own story would give you a similar question - after all, I was born in Summer, but my birthday is always in Winter.

 

Answer to No. 10. Jane is referring to her father's mother (her paternal grandmother)... I'm sure we have all come across generational age oddities in our own research.

For the record -and I'm sure none of you need it - here briefly are the answers for 1-9:
Edward - Meat -Mt Everest -None (it is a hole) - incorrectly - Billy lives in the southern hemisphere - you take pictures with a camera -neither, yolks are yellow -one (the others are combined).

I will leave you with one sent to me by a family member which although I think the answer is outstandingly obvious, for some reason others argued differently. See what you think.

"If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?

I have one final Ancient Greek Paradox puzzle to set before Xmas which I think most will find enjoyable and intriguing. I will confirm the race answer then and later provide the most obvious Paradox solution after others have offered their own.

 

Are you trying to confuse us, Bob?

 

Well done Pauline you are of course correct, it should be Johnny. In my defence the original time I came across the puzzle was in a Book where it was Edward's mother and that was the one I showed my wife to which she answered 'Edward of course'. Later I found the same question (in spirit at any rate) as the first of a list of 10 puzzles, and that was the one I copied. Unfortunately 'Edward' was still in my mind when providing the answers. So mea culpa and apologies to all those scratching their heads to work out where Edward came into the picture.

 

Here's another riddle to get you thinking. Can you explain how the following statement is correct?

"Last year my twin brother was 16. Next year I shall be 21."

 

You are not his twin

 

I deduce the 20 year old had a twin sister and brother, both of whom are (now) 17. He/she is merely referring to the twin brother. Had both the twin siblings been boys it would have been necessary to say 'last year my twin brothers were 16.

 

I can't resist this one because it gets people time and again and works on the same principle as the 'Johnny's mother' puzzle above.

Time is really dragging at work for Marjorie. At noon, she looks over at the clock on the wall. The big hand is on the seven, and the little hand is between the four and the five. What time is it?

 

Correct: but it is remarkable how many argue they are now in first place

 

Both good suggestions, but no - the speaker and the brother are twins of each other. And this riddle dates from before things like IVF were thought of.