One Blush (For Sylvia) And Then To Work

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 36, 1 March 1940, Page 20

One Blush (For Sylvia) And Then To Work

N | OST immodestly, and most irreverently, The Puzzleman has invented a parody beginning "Give us each day our daily blush." Because readers will insist on sending him letters like this one: "Congratulations, Puzzle-Puddler, on the most preposterous puzzle page ever perpetrated. It is quite the best, and most comprehensive, I’ve ever seen." That’s from Sylvia, of Wellington. Sweet Sylvia! There are others, but one blush this week is enough, for last week, thanks to the Department of Industries and Commerce, and its advertisement, there was not much nutriment for hungry puzzlers. This week, to work right away: First, four problems that had to be omitted last week. One Was a Magnet Two problems in metalwork come from G. F. Chippindale, who asks readers to say how they would find which of two pieces of steel was magnetised if no apparatus, not even a pin or a "piece of cotton, or any other metal was available. The second concerns a clever mechanic who was asked, as a test of proficiency, to fit a round peg into a square hole without daylight showing through the joint when it was held up to the sun. The mechanic ac- complished this with ease. How? The job was done in steel. Mr. Blimp ‘The strange tale of Mr. Blimp, of Battersby on the Bay, is told by L.C.T, Mr. Blimp, it seems, was short of ready cash, and planned to visit the bank before he went buying his bread and beer. He, planned to withdraw a sum of money consisting of a certain number of pounds, shillings, and pence. But in making out the cheque he carelessly reversed the number of the pounds and shillings and had spent 40 per cent. of * the cash before he discovered the error. That evening, he won four shillings at bridge, and found he had left the exact sum he’d intended to draw. What was that sum? This similar problem comes from W. R. Hamer (Foxton): Six Smart Men A reporter was asked to "cover" six professional men visiting New York. He returned to his editor and said: "I found the six men walking up Fifth Avenue six abreast. Mr. Thompson was on the outside, next to the doctor. The lawyer was between Mr. Jones and the engineer. Brewster was not next to the man on the inside. Mr. Harvey, I found, was in love with the engineer's sister. The atchitect- was walking between Mr. Harvey and the doctor. Mr. Fish had nobody on his right. The author had never met Mr. Thompson before. Babeson is not a pianist."

And the editor had to work out their names and professions himself, for he sacked the reporter in a fit of temper. Can you? Down Our Street And now, one of our own, entitled "Down Our Street," or "Who Cares?" The distance between the lamp-post and the sign-post in the diagram is 9 yards, The distance between the tree and the centre of the gate is equal to the total of that between the lamp-post and the sign-post and half that between the centre of the gate and the lamp-post. The distance between the centre of the gate and the lamp-post is equal to the distance between the tree and the centre of the gate and the distance between the lamp-post and_ sign-post added together. What is the distance from the tree to the sign-post? The Green Funnels There is a promise to keep to P.J.Q. (Motueka) who sent this one. The Green Funnel Line of ships (so he says) trades between the ports A and B. One of these ships leaves each port each day at noon and arrives at each port at noon each day. The time occupied by each ship between ports is exactly one week. One of the directors of the company, wanting first-hand information of the working of the service, stepped on board one of the ships leaving A and travelled on her to B. How many Green Funnel ships would he meet on the trip? Answers Just for variation, we cast back to February 16, the date on which Volume 2, Number 34, of The Listener saw the dim light of a gloomy summer’s day. That indefatigable puzzler, L.C.T., supplied some general knowledge tests, taking in vain the name of Our Bob. The answers are more or less a lemon, for the first question, relating to Mr. Semple’s immoftal exclamation "Oh, for another handl" referred to "hand" as a measure of length. (Three inches =one palm; four inches=one hand.) So that the answers were 499, and four inches. The second, in which he made the simple statement: "Oh, for another nail," referred to a "nail" as a measure of cloth. (One nail=two and a-quarter inches.) So the answer to the problem was 2% inches, ;

The problems in the panels on the same date were easy: Green Cheese was obvious; There and Back, simple. The trains, of course, at any speed, would be equidistant from any point as they passed. The question of averages would be considered rather more subtle by any puzzlers other than The Listener readers, They made short work of it with simple mathematics, and treated P.J.Q.’s cyclist’s' record attempt with the same felicitous facility, When F.W.K. sent from Nelson his problem about dividing the 17 horses among the three sons, he very kindly included the answer. The lawyer who presided. added one horse of his own, and from the total of eighteen extracted the fractions to secure his total of 17. A simple matter of selecting odd numbers which total to an even number, or something like that in whatever technical language appeals’ to our purist mathematicians. Prizes Awarded This puzzle attracted a good number of answers, but not many Aesops appeared to answer Miss Collins’s problem about the slow race for camels. The week’s apple pie goes to the aforementioned sweet Sylvia, a new correspondent from Brooklyn (that’s in Wellington!), who got in first with the answer that the wise man persuaded the weary contestants to exchange camels. We like that sort of problem, and would welkome more. To G.M.H., of Putaruru, we admit defeat, but without shame, for we really have not had ‘time to get to work on the problem of supplying the three houses from the three mains without crossing the leads. All readers rally please. ... (We think some leads might trun through the houses.) As an afterthought, we return to P.J.Q’s cyclist, in order to record readers’ protests about the inaccuracy of the averages stated. However, on the figures given, Sylvia (What! Again?) decides that he travelled 100 miles, and anything Sylvia says is good enough for us. Sylvia also says that the car running to Wanganui and back averaged 34 2/7th m.p.h., or 34,.285714, the 2 and the 4 repeating. Sylvia really is super. She answered all these, and the horses problem, and the locals problem, made some wise comments about green cheese, and, in short, did everything but enclose her ‘address. We feel quite bereaved.

The honourable laurel leaf also to another new one, "S.J.8.", of Spreydon, who sent answers to a whole host of problems in recent issues and demands a Nelson apple for standing up successfully to F.W.K. To acknowledge everything would steal too much space, However, thanks to S.J.S. for telling us that the man who entered the hotel had 514d. His answer to the delicate question of shunting the trucks was not complete.