Community Magazine September 2011

eLuL 5771 SePtemBeR 2011 91 CIVIL seNse A fellow stopped at a rural gas station, and after filling his tank, he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. As he stood by his car to drink his cola, he watched a couple of men working along the roadside. One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man came along behind and filled in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was about 25 feet behind filling in the old. The men worked right past the fellow with the soft drink and went on down the road. “I can’t stand this,” said the man, tossing the can in a trash container and heading down the road toward the men. “Now hold it,” he said to the men. “Can you tell me what’s going on here with the digging?” “Well, we work for the county,” one of the men said. “But one of you is digging a hole and the other is filling it up. You’re not accomplishing anything. Aren’t you wasting the county’s money?” “You don’t understand, mister,” one of the men said, leaning on his shovel and wiping his brow. “Normally there’s three of us; Rodney, Mike and I. I dig the hole, Rodney sticks in the tree and Mike here puts the dirt back.” “Yeah,” piped up Mike. “Now just because Rodney’s out sick, why should we stop working?” Chanch E Loo Loo ChaRItY Case A local charity office realized that the organization had never received a donation from the town’s most successful lawyer. The person in charge of contributions called the lawyer to persuade him to contribute. “Our research shows that out of your annual income of at least $500,000, you give not a penny to charity. Wouldn’t you like to give back to the community in some way?” The lawyer mulled this over for a moment and replied, “First, did your research also show that my mother is dying after a long illness, and has medical bills that are several times her annual income?” Embarrassed, the charity rep mumbled, “Um ... no.” The lawyer interrupts, “…or that my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair?” The mortified charity rep began to stammer out an apology, but was interrupted again. “…or that my sister’s husband died in a traffic accident,” the lawyer’s voice rising in indignation, “leaving her penniless with three children?!” The humiliated charity rep, completely beaten, said, “I had no idea...” On a roll, the lawyer cut him off once again. “So if I don’t give any money to them, why do you think I should give any to you?” Marc Joseph Riddle: Finding a Weigh SUBMITTED BY: Steven Cohen Lee sells canned sardines in one pound increments from 1 until 121 pounds. Since his regular scale is broken, Lee decided to use an old, but accurate balance scale to weigh each can that is sold. What is the minimum number of counterweights Lee would need to bring into balance any of the 121 possible sizes of canned sardines? Last Month’s Riddle: Principal of Truth Some of the students in Mrs. Pammy’s fourth grade class were misbehaving, but she did not know which. So she sent three of the suspected boys to Principal Morris so he could figure it out. Ben said: “We all misbehaved”. Sam said, “Just one of us did not misbehave.” Harold said nothing. Principal Morris knows that misbehaving students never tell the truth and students who behave never lie. Who got detention? Solution: Ben and Harold got detention. Ben must be a misbehaving student (and thus not telling the truth) because if he was a behaving student, he could not make the statement that they were all misbehaved. This means that at least one of the students must be behaved. If Sam was lying, then (as Ben stated) Harold must be behaved. But that can’t be because then Sam’s statement would be true, and misbehaved students can’t make true statements. Therefore it must be that Sam behaved and Harold did not. Solved by: Yitzy D, Ezra Sitt, Victor Grazi, Isaac Hamaoui, Abie Rishty, Sylris Matsess, Morris Esses, Daniela Blum Junior Riddle: Sondra’s Sandcastle SUBMITTED BY: David Dweck Sondra was at the beach and made a round sand-castle that was two feet tall and four feet wide and used 160 pounds of sand. Next to the castle Steven made a round hole. If the hole was three feet wide and one foot deep, how much sand is in the hole? Last Month’s Junior Riddle: Balancing the Books A balance scale is exactly balanced when there are three books on one side of the scale and one book and a one-half pound weight on the other side. All the books weigh the same amount. How much does each book weigh? Solution: By removing one book from each side of the scale, we can see that two books weigh one-half pound. Therefore each book weighs one-quarter pound. Solved by: Loraine Grazi, Yitzy D, Rajel Betech, Bobby F., Ezra Sas- son, Reena Shilian, MJ Jemal, Zalman Cohen, Nissim Khafif, Ezra Sitt, Victor Grazi, Hymie Franco, Shapsie Burekhovich, Mamie J., Binyamin Hamaoui, Isaac Hamaoui, David Rishty, Sylris Matsess, Morris Esses, Yael Blum, Michael Stein Trivia: SEND YOUR SOLUTIONS! email: riddles@Community M .com • fax: 718-504-4246 mail: 1616 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11223 Correct solutions received by the 20 th of each month will be featured in the next issue along with your name. ! Price paid last year by Lily Safra for “L’homme qui marche I,” a bronze sculpture of a man walking. The highest price paid for a work of art at auction. (Source: Sothebys) $104.3 : 44. 55 : million Number of working lifetimes (2345.67 years) it would take a typical American sculptor (median income $42,650) to afford “L’homme qui marche I.” (Source: US Bureau of Labor and Statistics)