There are a number of puzzles of great antiquity that seem to surface with each new generation. They sometimes appear in Marilyn's column.
If a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, how long would it take a grasshopper with a wooden leg to kick all of the seeds out of a dill pickle?This is a parody of a puzzle that apparently asks how long it would take a certain number of chickens to lay a certain number of eggs. Assuming that a fractional chicken can lay a fractional egg or that a fractional chicken can contribute to laying a whole egg the base rate is that one chicken can lay one egg in a day and a half or that one and one-half chickens can lay one egg in one day. Some readers probably miscalculate this as one chicken can lay one egg in one day. Marilyn is reported as having made this mistake and printing a correction.
(Looking at a picture) "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son." Who is that man?This puzzle responds to stepwise simplification (see The Woman With Two Children). Replace "my father's son" with its equivalent "me or my brother." Since the puzzle states that you have no brother it simplifies to "me" and the puzzle simplifies to "That man's father is me."
A farmer has a fox, a goat, and a cabbage. He wants to cross a river but his boat will hold only one item besides himself. He cannot leave the fox with the goat or the goat with the cabbage. How can he get all three across the river?Take the goat first, leaving the fox with the cabbage. Row back and pick up the fox. Take the fox across and bring the goat back. Leave the goat and take the cabbage across. Row back and pick up the goat.