The cowboy the coffee and the coughs

Here are the new puzzles:

1. A cowboy rides into town on Friday. He stays for one night and then rides out of town on Friday. How come?



















(picture from here)


2. Yesterday, I dropped my sugar cube in my coffee and a minute later I lifted it out intact. How come?










(picture from here)


Now, I have to get back to my weekly puzzle: how to get rid of my irritating, incessant coughs?

The Braking Puzzle

The new puzzle is short and (hopefully) clear. It goes like this:

A man dressed all in black is walking down a deserted country lane. Suddenly, a large black car without any lights on comes down the road. A few seconds before it would run over the walker, the car brakes with a screech and stops just in time. How does the driver, who is not a psychic, know that there is a man in the road?



And a short trick question (this week's special bonus):

You are running a race. You manage to overtake the runner who is in the second place. At which place are you now in the race?

Think, think:)

What is the punch line?

Autumn tree (picture from here)

November. The crows are gathering on the yellow-leaved or barren trees. There is still a bit of sunshine occasionally but the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. It is easier to be depressed at this time of year so a good joke can come in handy . I came across this one in a collection of Scottish Jokes. Read the joke and find out a good punch line for it. Feel free to post it as a comment if you want to share your ideas. The original punch line will be published among the comments of this entry, early next week.













A dram of whisky (picture from here)

The joke: Duncan McSporran, the barman in a small village, had a new customer who was very regular in his habits. Every day he would come into the pub and order three drams of whisky. After a while, Duncan asked him why he did it that way.
The man said: -"I have two brothers. One of them lives in Canada, the other in Australia. We never see each other so we have a special way of drinking: we each have one for ourselves and one for each of the other two. That way we feel that we are still in touch."
One day, the man came in and ordered only two whiskies. He drank them in the usual way and was about to go when Duncan stopped him with the words: -"I hope nothing has happened to one of your brothers."
The man turned and said: -"No, no. They are both fine."
-"But you only had two whiskies," said Duncan.
-"Oh, that! ( --- PUNCH LINE HERE --- ) " said the man.

Two Sisters in the Shed

Here is the new puzzle for you to think about:

On a nice spring day, two sisters decided to clean out the old shed in their garden. It was full of old, unused bikes, yellow newspapers, big, wooden boxes, roller skates, ragged clothes, worn-out shoes, rubber boots, dried bats, spider webs... so when they had finished the work they were totally exhausted. However, one of the sisters had been more willing to do the dusty and dirty jobs than the other one so she ended up with a dirty face while the other's face remained more or less clean. The sister with the clean face went and washed her face but the girl with the dirty face did not go to have a wash. Why?















The shed after the cleaning (picture from here)




------- Don't read on if you don't need help with the puzzle ------


Clue: How can you tell normally that your face needs washing if nobody tells you so? What if the two girls couldn't find the everyday tool for that? What would they think if they looked at each other?

A puzzle story

A few days ago I visited my mum for lunch and she told me this story. It is a puzzle story, which means that you will have to think and find out how something could possibly happen in the story. At first, I had all sorts of clever answers but, honestly, the one my mum gave me in the end was so good that I'd like to share it with you on the blog. So, here goes the story and if you have any good solutions you can post them as comments. In next week's post, the "original" solution will be revealed. But who knows? You may come up with equally good or even better ones.

The Puzzle:

There is a two-meter long tube which is made of plastic. It is straight and has a diameter of 45 centimeters. There are no holes on the surface of the tube anywhere and there is absolutely nothing inside it but air. The tube is located in somebody's garden. It is lying on the ground and it isn't covered or housed in anything special. Two cats (perfectly healthy young tabbies:) look into the tube from the opposite ends. The two cats cannot see each other. How is it possible???











It's time to think (picture from here)