Flashback to 1992
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 1992, and a lot has changed since then.
We hope you enjoy June's puzzle!
Printable pdfs
Dr. Quizzler's Mind Teasers
Fifty years ago one of America’s most popular (and most brilliant) puzzlemakers was Dr. Quizzler a.k.a. John Henry Cutler. Readers of his syndicated newspaper feature scratched their heads over his original trick puzzles, trivia questions, and brainteasers of all sorts. We like him, too. As a tribute to him, here are some of our favorite questions from Dr. Quizzler’s fevered brain.
1. If Betsy Ross were living today, what would she be most noted for?
2. Uriah was reading a book in his living room when his wife, Rachel, not knowing he was reading, turned out the light, leaving him in the dark. Yet Uriah continued to read without interruption. How was this possible?
3. Susan had two pairs of twins twice. How many children does this make?
4. Using modern U.S. currency, what is the most money you can have without being able to change a $20 bill?
5. We don’t wish to stir up any antagonism, of course, but what are California grapefruit popularly called in Florida?
6. Hans and Franz carry 100 pounds of weight slung on a pole between them. Assuming their hands are 10 feet apart, and the load is 5 feet from Hans, how much weight does each carry?
7. Two goldfish bowls half full of water exactly balance on a balance scale. If you put a couple of goldfish in one of the bowls, will the scales still balance?
8. Just before poor Tess died, she said, referring to one of the three doctors in the room (named Green, Brown, and White, respectively): “He did it, the cad!” Based on this comment alone, Dr. Brown was held suspect? Why?
9. There is something that almost everyone wants, that everyone can have, and that people are now fighting for. But while fighting for it, they have lost it. What is it?
10. A dog is tied to a tree with a 15-foot leash. The tree is 3 feet in circumference. As the dog winds himself around the tree, a bone that he holds in his mouth constantly digs a groove ¼ inch deep in the ground. How deep will this groove be after the dog has wound himself as much as possible around the tree?
11. What is cowhide chiefly used for?
12. What common motorized means of transportation in New York City (there are more than 50,000 of them) carries almost three times as many passengers daily as all the city’s trains, buses, subway cars, and automobiles combined?
13. A regular book has 100 leaves. On what leaf is page 49?
14. What relation is a man to his mother’s only brother’s niece?
15. Quickly now: Would you rather be nearly drowned or almost saved?
16. Without writing this down, what would the word POD spell if printed in small letters upside-down?
17. Which is correct? I’ll give the candy to (whoever) (whomever) wants it.
18. Auntie’s cockeyed clock stops for a minute after every 10 minutes. How long with it take the minute hand to go once around the dial?
19. You are speeding along in a train that’s going 60 miles an hour in a straight line. You jump 3 feet vertically in the air. Will you land in the same spot that you jumped from?
20. What well-known animal jumps when it walks and sits down when it stands up?
21. Everyone knows that in baseball only one person on each team is called the pitcher. In what well-known game do all the players pitch?
22. A fence separates my property from Hector’s. Say my pet peacock flies over the fence and lays one egg on Hector’s property. According to standard law, does Hector own the egg or do I?
23. You have just 30 seconds for this one: Name for states in the Union whose names begin with the letter I.
24. Make sense of the following: “I am what I am what I am not I am not am I not not what I am not I am.”
25. Why didn’t William Howard Taft run for a third term as President of the United States?
26. If the Earth rotated so fast that a day were only an hour and a half long, approximately how much would a 150-pound person living on the Equator weigh?
27. Mr. and Mrs. Twitchell have six daughters. Each of the daughters has a brother. How many persons are there in the entire family?
28. A cobbler can cut six soles out of a piece of leather 10 inches square. How many soles can he cut out of a piece of leather 20 inches square?
29. General Robert E. Lee ordered an American President off the battlefield to save him from harm. This same President eloped with the daughter of Zachary Taylor. Who was he?
30. You can see farther in the daytime than at night-true or false?
Published in GAMES, June 1992