A PUZZLING CONCLUSION

BY KEN WEBER

Marking time at the Jolly Morphology Club

The owners of this once popular pub near Mono Mills had to be creative to keep patrons loyal when Prohibition made the sale of beer and alcohol illegal, so they turned it into a social club (free admission) and entertained patrons with word games and puzzles. In the puzzle below, the middle beer keg is missing an hour hand. Patrons could win rewards in this keg by adding the missing hour hand to show a specific time signature. Time signatures on the other kegs provided the clues to do this correctly. What time should the middle keg show?

REWARDS INSIDE!

A math journey with options

this one if math is your thing A two digit number beginning with a 3 differs from its reverse by twice the product of these two digits. (Hint: twice the product of these two digits is a number whose half exceeds the product’s third by the sum of its digits.) What is the two digit number?

this one if math makes you uneasy Bart and Winnie spent the evening playing cribbage for $1 a game. Bart won three games. When they stopped playing Winnie was $5 ahead. How many games did they play?

this one if math makes your brain shut down There’s a way to add five to nine and get two. What is it? Granny’s raisin solution

Preparing her famous butter tarts on the morning of the Alton Fair was always a busy time for Granny and the “help” she got from her eager grandson was usually more than she wanted. To keep him busy she outlined a 6 x 6 grid on the chequered oilcloth that covered the kitchen table and set a dish of 12 raisins beside it.

To earn a freshly baked butter tart (usually two), her grandson had to arrange the 12 raisins in the grid with two in each row, column and diagonal, and no more than one raisin per square. Would you have earned a butter tart or two? First you estimate

In the typefaces used to print In The Hills magazine, and in the most commonly used typefaces for printing the English language, the capital (upper case) letter H is roughly vertically symmetrical.

It can be folded at its midline horizontal axis and the top half will fit over the bottom half more or less evenly. In these most commonly used typefaces how many capital letters are vertically symmetrical? (Before actually calculating the number, what is your best estimate: 8? 9? 10? 11?)

a

The sculpture is finished. Now do you mount it on a stele or a plinth?

f

Paper sheets cost 10 cents a dozen. You have 25 cents. Will that buy you a ream or a quire?

Nouns from the outer edge

b

The yellow part of an egg is the yolk; the white is the __________ ? c

Firkin or flagon: which one is easier to raise in a toast when it is filled with ale? d

The rope around your neck holding a whistle is a halyard or a lanyard?

g

Which is more likely to upset you, a jibe or a gibe? h

In the War of 1812, was a soldier safer behind a bastion or a balustrade? i

You have bought the paint. Now will you brush it on your mantle or your mantel? e

[4 + 3 = 7] Is the number 4 the augend or the addend in this math statement?

j

Is the dot over the letter i a tittle or a pip?

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