November 24th, 2015

Today's Question - Hats off to you - A group of 10 cadets are on their way to the Army - Navy Game when a gust of wind blows all their hats off. A quick footed young man scoops them up and hands them back randomly. What are the odds that exactly 9 of them received the correct hat? Holiday Notice There will be no Comments on November 25, 26, 27 as Wonder Woman becomes the Duchess of Domesticity. Wednesday paring, peeling, and preparing; Thursday Cooking and carving; Friday scraping and scouring. (So, since the brains of the operation is out – I may take off too.)

Reveal Answer Answer - The odds of exactly 9 of the cadets receiving the right hat are zero. If 9 got the right hat, the tenth one must have had the right hat also so it would be impossible for exactly 9 to have the right hat.

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November 23rd, 2015

Today’s Question –Why is Thanksgiving always on a Thursday? (So, since the brains of the operation is out – I may take off too.)

Reveal Answer Answer - Thanksgiving is on a Thursday because - Well in a way - because that\'s when the Pilgrims had it. Not at first of course - the First Thanksgiving was a three-day event. Then for many decades it was different days in different places. Finally, New Englanders put it on "Lecture Day" (Thursday) to avoid conflict with the Sabbath but keep a religious note. (Lecture Day was that day of week when preachers would circulate to read or lecture to the people. Sometimes the preacher was not a trained and ordained minister. Rather he might be the only one in the village who could read and write. That made him the \xe2\x80\x9cperson\xe2\x80\x9d to go to for help and advice. The 16th and 17th century British pronunciation of \xe2\x80\x9cperson\xe2\x80\x9d sounded liked \xe2\x80\x9cparson\xe2\x80\x9d\xe2\x80\xa6.a name we find synonymous with preacher.) Washington kept the tradition when he declared the first national Thanksgiving and most Presidents followed suit. Finally, FDR and Congress wrote it into law as the fourth Thursday in November to lengthen the Christmas Shopping Season coming out of the Depression.

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November 20th, 2015

Today’s Question - Is that with stuffing or without? If a turkey weighs 8 pounds plus one-third its own weight – how much does it weigh?

Reveal Answer Answer - If the turkey weighed 8 pounds plus one-third its own weight then the 8 pounds represents 2/3rds of the weight. Thus the turkey weighed 12 pounds.

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November 19th, 2015

Today's Question - Little Charlie finally retired with his savings. For the first quarter of his life he saved quarters. The next fifth of his life he saved $5 bills. The next third of his life he saved $20 bills. In the 13 years before he retired he saved $100 bills. How old is Charlie as he retires. (Bet you thought we were going to ask how much he had saved??)

Reveal Answer Answer - Little Charlie would be 60. Several folks reported confusion. If you add up the fractions 1/4; 1/5; 1/3, you get 47/60. That means the remaining 13 years was 13/60th's of his age.

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November 18th, 2015

Today's Question – You're the cream in my coffee - Astrobucks coffee house is going slimmer and skimmer. Their counter milk used to be a blend of 95% skim and 5% cream. How much more skim must they add to a quart of their milk to bring it down to 4% cream?

Reveal Answer Answer - According to Sister Herman Joseph, you need to add approximately one pint of skim to get down to 4%.

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November 17th, 2015

Today's Question - If 6 Bibbles and 2 Bobbles cost $10 and 6 Bobbles and 3 Bibbles cost $15, what does 1 Bibble cost?

Reveal Answer Answer - A Bibble costs $1 (a bobble costs $2).

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November 16th, 2015

Today’s Question - "Just watch the road will you!" Smiling Sal is driving on the road between Tedium and Oblivion. He is driving at a steady speed. He notes that every three minutes he meets a bus coming toward him and every six minutes a bus overtakes him. How often do the buses leave from the terminal in each town?

Reveal Answer Answer - The buses have an even schedule (as buses often do). Because he is moving toward the oncoming buses he sees more of them (naturally). So....in an hour he sees 20 oncoming (three minutes) and 10 overtaking (six minutes). So that's 30 in an hour. If he were stopped, he would see 15 from either direction. Therefore, the buses leave every four minutes (60 minutes \xc3\xb7 15). I wish I was on that route. \x0c Cashin\xe2\x80\x99s Comments November 17, 2015 Page 3 of 3

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November 13th, 2015

Today's Question - If six pearl onions and three dwarf potatoes cost 15 cents and the same amount would get you nine dwarf potatoes and three pearl onions. What would it cost for 100 dwarf potatoes?

Reveal Answer Answer - 100 dwarf potatoes would cost you $1.00. (But what would you do with them?)

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November 12th, 2015

Today's Question - Table, court, lane, field, course, ring, diamond. What might be the common bond in these words?

Reveal Answer Answer - The words were all sports surfaces - baseball diamond; golf course; boxing ring; etc.

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November 11th, 2015

Today's Question - In the following series of anagrams the number "7" substitutes for the same letter of the alphabet in each case. Find out what letter is replaced by "7" and rearrange the letters to form words. XLYL 7 DFYF 7 RFWD 7 GMDO 7 DLEI 7 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) A Special Thank You To All The Wonderful Folks In The Armed Forces And All Their Veteran Predecessors

Reveal Answer Answer - The missing letter represented by "7" is "A". The words then become: 1) Laxly; 2) Daffy; 3) Dwarf; 4) Dogma; 5) Ideal.

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November 10th, 2015

Today's Question - I'll catch you later - Al started riding his moped from home toward the picnic grove at noon. He travelled at a steady 4 mph. Bob started from the same spot at 2:30 and went at a steady rate of 5 mph. They both arrived at the same time. How long did Bob travel and how long was the trip?

Reveal Answer Answer - We don't know what they planned to do at the picnic grove but we hope they brought a flashlight. Al started 2 1/2 hours before Bob, so when Bob started Al had a 10 mile head start. Since Bob travelled 1 mph faster than Al it would take him 10 hours to catch up over a distance of 50 miles.

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November 9th, 2015

Today's Question - "I'll buy an "E", Vanna" - Lots of words have double letters. Among the more common are "LL"; "TT" and "SS". Can you think of relatively common words that fit each of the following sets: "VV"; "WW"; "UU"; "II"; "KK" and "HH"?

Reveal Answer Answer - "Double or Nothing" You may have a different list but the ones we got were: Savvy, Powwow; vacuum; skiing; bookkeeper and withhold.

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November 5th, 2015

Today's Question - Whose house is it? Which word does not belong: A) Villa; B) Bungalow; C) Maisonette; D) Cottage?

Reveal Answer Answer - The class ran an hour longer than it would have if novice Sean had left things alone (9 + 5 hours = 2:00). Therefore, half of that hour it was going the wrong way and the other half hour correcting. Since the Abbot returned it at 11:30, then Sean must have pulled his prank at 11:00 - one half hour earlier.

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November 4th, 2015

Today's Question - Animal Crackers are the topic of one of the great school yard trivia questions. There are 18 different cookies representing 17 different animals. Which animal appears twice? How many of the 17 animals can you name?

Reveal Answer Answer - The 17 animals and 18 cookies....I'm sure you knew....the 17 animals are: buffalo, elephant, gorilla, kangaroo, rhinoceros, camel, tiger, seal, zebra, sheep, monkey, giraffe, lion, cheetah, hyena, hippopotamus and bear. And the 18 cookies....well they're all of the above...but the bear shows up twice - once sitting - once dancing.

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November 3rd, 2015

Today's Question - If the timepiece with the fewest moving parts would be a sundial, what would be the timepiece with the most moving parts?

Reveal Answer Answer - The sundial is the timepiece with the least moving parts and the most moving parts are in - the hourglass. (We had submissions for "stars" which we dismissed as impractical for day work - what about sundials at "night" was the response.)

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November 2nd, 2015

Today's Question - This is too cheesy for par - At a post-Halloween party, Tucker rattled three dice in a cup. When he rolled, the total on the three dice was a two digit number. The number on top of one of the dice was the sum of two digits in the total. The numbers on the bottoms of the other two dice were the two digits of the total. What did Tucker throw? 175K 5.0% 0.2% 34.5 hrs. $18.0 bln. Cashin’s Comments November 2, 2015 Page 4 of 4

Reveal Answer Answer - First let's repeat the question - This is too cheesy for par - At a post-Halloween party, Tucker rattled three dice in a cup. When he rolled, the total on the three dice was a two digit number. The number on top of one of the dice was the sum of two digits in the total. The numbers on the bottoms of the other two dice were the two digits of the total. What did Tucker throw? Okay, so if the two digits in the total are represented on the bottom of two dice, we know they must be digits from 1 through 6. Thus the universe of 2 digit possibilities is 11 through 16. One of the components is the sum of the two digits. The other components are equal to 7 minus one of the digits (opposite sides of a die add up to 7). Therefore, the total is 14 and the components are 5, 6, 3. See it's easy!!

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October 30th, 2015

Today's Question - Is that spring ahead, fall behind? Digital clocks have lots of odd coincidences. There are 4 digits (like 12:12). How often do the visible digits add up to a total of "3". (Hint: 1:11 would be an example). P.S. What times are they?

Reveal Answer Answer - The digital clock combos that add up to "3" are, of course, 12 in number. Starting from noon: 12:00; 1:02; 1:11; 1:20; 2:01; 2:10; 3:00; 10:02; 10:11; 10:20; 11:01 and 11:10.

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October 29th, 2015

Today's Question - I'm all mixed up. Can you make two common words out of each set of letters? Plame; 3) Uttidale; 4) Topino

Reveal Answer Answer to all mixed up - 1) Starer 2) Plame 3) Uttidale 4) Topino

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October 28th, 2015

Today's Question - State alphabets again - There are only two states that begin with two consonants back to back - What are they??

Reveal Answer Answer - The two states that begin with consecutive consonants are: Rhode Island and Florida. Nice try to "Wyoming". A "y" is considered a vowel in some circumstances and most usages.

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October 27th, 2015

Today's Question - You have five pairs of white gloves and five pairs of black gloves in a drawer. The room is pitch black so you can't see a thing. How many gloves must you pull out in order to have at least one pair of the same color? (Careful!)

Reveal Answer Answer - Looking for a pair of gloves - If it had been socks or scarves or marbles it would have been "3". But gloves are right-handed and left-handed. In theory, you could pull out 10 left-handed gloves (5 one color and 5 the other without a pair) so the answer is "11".

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October 22nd, 2015

Today’s Question - "I think my watch stopped" - When the day after tomorrow becomes yesterday, that "today" will be as far from Sunday as "today" would be from Sunday when the day before yesterday becomes tomorrow. What day of the week is today?

Reveal Answer Answer - The number that comes next in the series: 4, 10, 22, 46, ___ is 94 (each number is double the previous +2).

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October 21st, 2015

Today's Question - We I.D. everyone ma'am! - "How old is David?" That was the question asked of Dave's mom as they signed up for the kite flying contest. She replied - "I'm seven times as old as Dave is now. In 20 years, he'll be half as old as I will be then." How old is Dave??

Reveal Answer Answer - Little Dave is 4 years old and his mom is 28.

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October 20th, 2015

Today's Question - A very tough one - what letter or letters might come next in this sequence - "N, W, R, OU, IV, I, V, __"?

Reveal Answer Answer - We told you it was tricky - The next letter would be "G" since this series was the middle letter(s) of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

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October 19th, 2015

Today's Question - One-third of an hour after a candle was lit; the other end was also lit. It took a further one- third of an hour for the candle to burn out. If the candle was lit at both ends at the start, and one end was quenched when only the middle one-third of the candle remained, how long in all would it take to burn the candle out?

Reveal Answer Answer - The candle problem is essentially the same thing stated in reverse - so the results would be the same.

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October 16th, 2015

Today's Question - One-third of an hour after a candle was lit, the other end was also lit. It took a further one- third of an hour for the candle to burn out. If the candle was lit at both ends at the start, and one end was quenched when only the middle one-third of the candle remained, how long in all would it take to burn the candle out?

Reveal Answer Answer - The only state without caves is Rhode Island. Nice try to Iowa, Kansas and other flat out guesses.

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