Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

Many years ago, I lived in Vermont. One Saturday morning, the phone rang. It was one of my fellow teachers, and he needed a hand moving a cast iron stove into his house.

He explained that he was going to pick it up at the factory, and he'd be back in a few hours. He asked if I could help. I said, "Sure. Go get the stove. I'll be waiting."

I immediately got dressed and engaged in every manner of household activity, hoping that I'd have some kind of an accident. Nothing worked, and as I waited, I noticed a wonderful thing began to happen: the snow that was falling down changed to freezing rain.

I said to myself, "This could be good. He's never going to be able to get up his steep driveway when he returns." I'd be off the hook. And maybe by tomorrow, when the ice has melted, his brother-in-law will be home to help.

So, sure enough, there I was, hiding behind the drapes when he pulls up. I'm peeking out, and I see that he's slipping and sliding and can't get up the driveway. Every time he lets the clutch out, the wheels spin like crazy, even with the additional weight of that cast iron stove.

He gets out and throws some sand under the wheels, but it doesn't help.

He gets out again. This time, he opens that little engine compartment door that the VW Microbus had in the back. He does something that takes a second or two, then he closes the engine compartment door. The next thing I know, he's climbed his driveway -- and he's on the phone, telling me to come over and help him move the stove!

What did he do?

Last week's puzzler:

There's a fancy French restaurant cafe called Cafe Pretension. They had started a new promotion. On their anniversary, a married couple purchasing an entree at full price would get the second entree free. The promotion turned out to be a huge success.

Of course, the restaurant required diners to bring some proof of the date of their anniversary to receive the discount.

One Wednesday night a waiter came to Francois, the owner, and said, 'Boss, that couple over there is claiming that today is their anniversary, but they don't have any proof.'

Francois went over and introduced himself and engaged in a little tete-a-tete with them. Francois asked the woman, 'Tell me a little bit about your wedding day.' She said, 'It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the birds were chirping as I opened my window to prepare to get ready for my wedding. I saw the flowers in bloom. It was spectacular.' She goes on to explain to Francois that today was their 28th wedding anniversary.

Francois says, 'How charming! But, unfortunately, you do not qualify. I don't believe that today is your 28th wedding anniversary.' 'In fact,' he says, 'You're a bold face liar!' And he slaps her across the face, spilling her vichyssoise onto her lap.

How did Francois know that today was not their wedding anniversary?

Last week's puzzler answer:

How did Francois know it was not their 28th wedding anniversary? Well, it turns out that the calendar exactly repeats itself every 28 years, so if, in fact, they had gotten married on a Sunday, then it would be Sunday now. So he knew they were lying because 28 years ago, it had to also have been a Wednesday, and it couldn't have been a Sunday.

_______________________
Scott MacLean
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http://www.nerosoft.com