This year the emphasis is on puzzles and conundrums of all sorts designed to test, tease and tantalise you and yours over the festive season. So pen and paper and ready, teddy, go!
Section A
1. A man wants to grow a tree very quickly. He buys some special tree seeds that will cause it to double in height every day. On the tenth day, the tree is twenty feet high. On what day was it five feet high?
2. What is the next letter in this series? OTTFFSSEN ?
3. How Many months have 28 days?
4. A man lives on the 20th floor of a building. Every day he takes the lift down to the ground floor when going to work. When returning he always gets off at the 15th floor and uses the stairs up to the 20th – Why? especially as he is actually a lazy sod!
5. What word when you add additional letters becomes smaller?
6. A garda was walking down a street and while passing a house he heard a shout, “Don’t shoot me, Tommy, don’t shoot”. There was a gun shot and the Garda entered and raced up the stairs. He witnessed three people standing over a dead body – a lawyer, priest and engineer. Whom did he immediately arrest and why?
7. How many pairs of animals did Moses take on to the Ark?
8. This chap rode into town on Good Friday, he stayed three days and left on Good Friday. Explain!
9. A snail is climbing out of a well. The well is 30 feet deep. Every day the snail climbs up three feet but each night he slips back two feet. How many days will it take him to get out of the well?
10. How far can a dog run into the woods?
Section B
1. Which English word is most frequently pronounced incorrectly?
2. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins, and they were not adopted. Explain how that could be!
3. Under international law, if a plane crashes travelling between a North American country and south America ( including Central America) where would the survivors be buried?
4. Anthony and Cleopatra are lying dead on the floor of a villa in Egypt. Alongside them is a broken bowl. There is no mark on either of the bodies and they were not poisoned. Explain how they met their death.
5. You are very tired and go to bed at 8 pm. However you have a very important appointment at 10 am the next day and don’t want to oversleep. So you wind up (the good old days!) your alarm clock and set it for 9. How many hours do you sleep?
6. A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is an unopened package. There is no other person or creature there. What happened to him?
7. You have just tossed a coin that came down heads ten times in a row. What is the probability that it will come up heads the next time?
8. A man arrived in Heaven and saw thousands of naked couples. He looked to see if he might recognise any of them but there was something different about one couple and he said – they have to be Adam and Eve. What led him to this conclusion?
9. Six thousand, six hundred and six euros is written E6,606. Now write eleven thousand, eleven hundred and eleven as fast as you can!
10. Which is heavier a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?
Section C
1. Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn but there is a very logical reason why they should be there. What is it?
2. Where is Karl Marx buried?
3. HIJKLMNO (5) – famous crossword clue.
4. GGSE (9,5) – even more famous crossword clue!
5 Potatoes are to peanuts as apples are to: ( a), bananas, (b) lilies, (c),peaches,(d) cucumbers?
6. The odd-man out- George Sand, George Orwell, George Eliot?
7. What feast was the Good King Wenceslaus celebrating?
8. Which Irish Men grow tallest?
9. Name the two Waterford streets named after British Prime Ministers.
10. And What Waterford street could be described as a ‘big shot’?
All the Best! Answers below.
Section A
1. The 8th day
2. T forTen. O –One, T- Two etc.
3. All of them!
4. The man is a dwarf, of course, with apologies to all vertically challenged people!
5. SmallER.
6. The priest was the only man- you may have made sexist assumptions about the gender of the other occupations named, tut, tut!
7. None- It was Noah who did the Ark gig!
8. Good Friday was the name of his horse.
9. 28 days when he gets to the top on the t8 day he does not fall back again!
10. Half way obviously , after that he’s coming out again.
Section B
1. INCORRECTLY, of course.
2. Because they were triplets or quadruplets etc.
3. They wouldn’t be buried anywhere as they were the survivors!!
4. Anthony and Cleo were goldfish some clumsy person must have knocked the bowl over.
5. One hour- at 9PM!
6. His parachute did not open.
7. 50/50
8. The only couple without navels- think about it!
9. 12,111.
10. A pound of feathers – because it weighs 16 ounces, metal is weighed in troy ounces of which there are twelve to the pound.
Section C
1. They had belonged to snowman built by children but snow has since melted.
2. London but some will say it’s a communist plot!
3. Water- The letters from H to O.
4. Scrambled Eggs – get it?
5. Peaches – both grow on trees, potatoes and peanuts grow under the soil.
6. George Orwell, while all are pen names, Orwell is the only man of the three.
7. Saint Stephan.
8. Fir (trees!).
9. Gladstone and Wellington Streets
10. Cannon Street -Boom, Boom!