Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

Imagine you have in front of you two cardboard cubes. They can be any size. You also have a magic marker.

There's nothing written on these cubes -- yet. You're going to write something on them with the magic marker. You'd like to use these cubes to represent the date.

For example, if today is the 3rd of the month, the two cubes would be next to each other and one would have a zero and the other would have a three. If it was the 22nd, it would be a two and a two.

You've got six sides on each cube, and with those six sides you need to be able to represent every single date.

Here's a hint: Think outside of the box.

How do you do it?

Last week's puzzler:

This puzzler comes from the wonderful world of the cinema. The story opens with our three protagonists escaping from a chain gang. In the opening scene, they're chained together and running to catch a slow moving freight train.

The leader of the gang, Everett, is the first one to jump into what he thinks is an empty boxcar. The others, meanwhile, are still running along side.

The moment he is inside, Everett's confronted not with an empty boxcar but by three hobos. Considering that the protagonists' most urgent need is to get their shackles removed, Everett asks the following question: "Any of you boys happen to be a smithy or otherwise versed in the metallurgical arts?"

But before he can get an answer, one of his comrades slips and falls and Everett is yanked out of the car and the train takes off.

Now here's the question. When Everett asked the question the hobos all looked at him blankly, because it didn't make sense.

Why not?

Last week's puzzler answer:

Remember the first line or two of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous poem, "Under a spreading chestnut tree, the village smithie stands, the smith, a mighty man is he, with large and sinewy hands." The first few words are crucial. A smithie is the building, so when Everett asks, "Any of you boys happen to be a smithie," he's asking them, "Are you a building where blacksmithing is done?" and, of course, they couldn't possibly be.

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Scott MacLean
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