IT?S PUZZLE TIME AGAIN!
For the past decade, I have been enticing readers with puzzles every Christmas, and many people look forward to them.
As the years pass, readers send in their answers much more quickly. Although I applaud their ingenuity, real puzzles can only be appreciated with some thought. They are meant to be pondered on for a while?not for a few seconds with the help of the Internet search engine.
This year, I am providing more challenging puzzles. Some solutions may be found on the Internet (though purported answers may not always be correct), but readers still have to think awhile to solve them. The questions below demand logic, insight, common sense, language, mathematics skills and most of all determination and patience.
The first three readers to send in correct solutions to all puzzles will receive a complimentary copy of one of my Straight Talk books, on popular math and science. Please send a complete explanation of your answers. Do not forget to include your real name?anonymous e-mail will be disqualified.
Here are the puzzles. Have fun!
1. What a lovely sight! The rays of the sun cross the sky from behind a far-off cloud or mountain. Scientists call these rays crepuscular rays, since they fan out from a point seemingly just behind another object. But aren?t the rays of the sun supposed to be parallel when they reach earth? How can a cloud or a mountain cause the rays to diverge in this way? Explain.
2. Use each letter of the phrase ?ENABLE PITCHFORK? once to spell out three different kinds of professions.
3. If the integers from 1 to 222,222,222 are written down in order, how many 0?s will there be in all?
4. In a distant galaxy, qqrills, rabbids, and slops are simply forms of bulc. Rabbids are both slops and bulc. But there are slops which are neither rabbids, flyx nor qqrills. There are rabbids which are neither flyx nor qqrills. Some qqrills are slops, as are all rabbids, and even some flyx as well. Some flyx are rabbids, some are slops, and some, unluckily, both qqrills and rabbids. Now consider those flyx which are not bulc. Can they possibly be slops? Explain.
5. What really came first: the chicken or the egg? Come on, think like a scientist!
Send your solutions to blessbook@yahoo.com, with the tagline ?Christmas Puzzles.?
Art with Mio
Five-year-old Mio Mendiola has cancer, but he is a fighter. He is also an artist, and an exhibit of his works runs until Dec. 20 at Gallery 7 Digital Studio, 3rd floor, Eastwood Mall, Libis, Quezon City.
The exhibit, ?start with Mio,? is a collaborative project. Mio?s doodles are used as seed drawings and passed on to other artists who finish the masterpiece. Mio?s mother Jasmine is spearheading the exhibit to help her son, and their journey can be seen in www.miofightscancer.com.
Artists include Team Manila, Robert Alejandro, Electrolychee, CJ de Silva, Nolan Fabular, 27 + 20, Elbert Or, JP Cuison, Ronnie Villanueva and John Ed de Vera, who are working together in building a new hope for children with cancer. Proceeds are divided between the artists and the medication and hospitalization expenses of Mio Mendiola. All prints will be printed on 24? x 16? canvas. All artworks can be purchased on-line and during the exhibit.
For details, contact Michelle Robles at 7271983 or 0922-8761777. You can e-mail her at gallery7digitalstudio@gmail.com, or visit www.gallery7digitalstudio.com.
For super kids
Give books this Christmas. A good one is ?SuperDevos: 365 Devotions for Energized Kids,? by award-winning children?s writer Grace Chong. Published by OMF Literature, the book speaks to kids in their language. ?Do you want to be a superkid? Do you have to fly, lift cars, and be invisible to be called super? Did you know that you can be super just by obeying your parents, loving God, and reading ?SuperDevos???
?Children today are more active than they ever were,? Chong says. ?The world presents them with too many choices. So when can they pause and listen to God?s Word? When can they find out about God?s love, promises and plans for them??
Chong believes that weekly Mass is not enough, so she has written ?SuperDevos? for children to do daily devotions by themselves or with the help of their parents. Each devotion is around two minutes long, unless there is further discussion. Daily, children can learn Bible verses, short prayers, and reflections, aided by humorous cartoons, done superbly by artist John Michael Lu.
When presented with the book, my son turned eagerly to his birthday page?May 6. The Bible verse John 6:35 is one of his favorites: ?Jesus said: I am the Bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.? He reads the prayer: ?Lord, let me seek You first, so that I may never thirst. Without You, nothing is right; with you, everything is bright. Amen.?
The reflection for the day centers on a desert, dry and arid except for oases. These fertile areas range in size from one hectare to wide swaths, and they are created by underground water sources like springs and wells. ?They?re the most welcome sights to a thirsty desert traveler.?
My son reads on, ?People who don?t have Jesus in their lives are those walking through the desert?thirsty, needing water so badly. Desert travelers need an oasis. People need the Lord. Without Him, nothing we do will ever be right or have meaning.?
?This is cool!? my son nods. Cool as an oasis.
?SuperDevos? is available at OMF Literature Inc., tel. 5316635, web site www.OMFLit.com. For more information, contact Misha Pallorina at MishaPallorina@OMFLit.com.
Contact the author at blessbook@yahoo.com.
