Flashback to 1981
Hey all you long-running GAMES fans! We're back with something a little different that we think you'll enjoy. Every 15th of the month, we will be featuring a puzzle previously published going as far back as 1980! You can solve online, but if that's not your thing, we've also provided a printable version.
Remember, this puzzle was published in 1981, and a lot may have changed since then.
We hope you enjoy July's puzzle!
Printable pdfs
It Costs an Arm and a Leg: The Ask a Silly Question Quiz
Fit as a fiddle … crazy as a loon … quick as a wink. Common phrases we use without a second thought. But did you ever stop to consider just how fit a fiddle is or how crazy is a loon? Or how quick a wink might be? We have. As a matter of fact, we’ve collected 14 overworked expressions to see if you can guess their literal meanings. May you be wise as an owl—or at least have the luck of the Irish.
1. How blind is a bat?
a) Totally blind
b) Partially blind
c) Venetian blind
d) It depends on who’s swinging it
2. How long a way is it to Tipperary?
a) 4,410 miles from Kansas City, Kansas
b) A grenade’s toss from Belfast
c) 3,381 miles from Manhattan
d) 358 miles from Gloccamora
3. How cheap is a cheap joke?
a) $889 minimum per sketch on The Carol Burnett Show
b) “Take my wife—please!”
c) $45 per joke used on The Tonight Show
d) Free if you’re Milton Berle
4. What is the cost of an arm and a leg?
a) A leg of lamb cost about $8.50 a pound
b) The Bionic Man’s arm and leg cost three million dollars
c) Venus de Milo’s recently discovered arms were auctioned for four and a half million dollars
d) At a mannequin supply house arms go for $18.50, legs for $100
5. How much is a bellyful?
a) 8 quarts for a pregnant woman
b) 2 quarts for the average adult
c) Howard Cosell expounding on anything
d) 5 quarts for the average male
6. How many is as many as the hairs on your head?
a) For brunets like Ronald Reagan, about 200,000
b) For carrot-tops like Lucille Ball, about 75,000
c) For blondes like Goldie Hawn, about 140,000
d) For ex-catchers like Joe Garagiola, about 55
7. How early is an early bird?
a) It rises about a half hour before dawn
b) It rises at sunrise
c) It gets up whenever the worm does
d) It always takes a 6 a.m. wake-up call
8. How high is the moon?
a) 153,758 miles from earth during a new moon
b) The equivalent of three billion McDonald’s cheeseburgers stacked end to end
c) Highest recorded moon is out the 20th floor of Delta Phi
d) On the average, 238,857 miles from the earth
9. How deep is skin deep?
a) 2/3 to 3/4 inch deep
b) 1/16 to 1/8 inch deep
c) It varies: some people are thick-skinned, others thin skinned
d) 1-3/4 feet for an elephant
10. How slow is a snail’s pace?
a) Brazilian tree snails move one foot per minute
b) Damn fast when Julia Child eyes it hungrily
c) Land snails move about two inches per minute
d) As slow as most Amtrak express trains
11. How fast is greased lightning?
a) It varies with air temperature
b) 186,000 meters per second
c) 299,792 kilometers per second
d) 2,000,000 miles per second if it’s greased with Crisco
12. When do the swallows come back to Capistrano?
a) Annually on March 19
b) Swallows have never been sighted in Capistrano
c) Six days before the equinox
d) Whenever Pat Boone warbles the song
13. How would you drink if you drank like a fish?
a) Like Dean Martin
b) Like Carry Nation
c) With fin-esse
d) Till you’re stewed to the gills
14. How light is a feather?
a) Duckfeathers weigh .013 to .063 grams
b) Downfeathers weigh and upwards of 3 to 4 grams
c) Horsefeathers is light entertainment
d) The rare feathers of the Rara Avis weight about .00001 to .00002 grams
Published in GAMES, July/August 1981