Simple Puzzles [NOT 19/8/22]

What Little Thing Has You Stumped?

19/8/22 blue dogcollar 24
Child solving a puzzle
Kindergartener Working on a Puzzle 1942 / Marjory Collins / Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2017838768/

Little Things You Can’t Solve… But Someone Might?

There are great mysteries in the universe, like String Theory and the origin of life. But there are also little mysteries which must have a solution, you’re just not sure what they are.

When I was in high school my parents asked me about something that mystified them. Every night when I was in the bathroom before bed they heard a tapping sound. For a long time they wondered and wondered until they couldn’t take it any more. What was it? The answer is I tapped my toothbrush on the edge of the sink to shake off the excess water after I rinsed it out.

Something that currently mystifies me is why spray bottles keep failing. When I look online, the answer is usually the little straw gets clogged, or the top mechanism gets clogged, or else the seal where the straw enters the top. But none of these things seem true, and I assume something else is failing. What is it?

What Little Puzzle Puzzles You?

So what little, solvable thing gets under your skin? Something like what the Kingsmen were actually singing on Louie Louie is not a big deal but it’s unsolvable, the guy who sang it is dead and he never came up with a coherent answer. So think of something you think someone might actually answer.

What are dogs doing when they do X? Where is a better place to buy Y? What’s a good thing to bring to Event Z that everyone will eat? What’s that instrument that makes that sound on that song? How do I get this kind of stain off my fingers? What’s the reason behind this kind of facial hair suddenly being so popular?

What’s puzzling you that you think someone can solve for you?

Kid Puzzle 1904 C. Lowry Pittsburgh Post
Kid Cut Ups Puzzle 1904 / C. Lowry, Pittsburgh Post / Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018695320/
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24 Comments

  1. Someone in the cubes near me reeks of body odor but it happens even when the cubes are empty. I don’t understand what it is. Facilities collects trash daily so it’s not like rotting garlicy food in a trash can.

  2. When I was working from home back in the Nortel decade,  For several months I kept hearing loud annoying buzzing coming from inside the walls during a large part of the day. It turned out I had a wasp nest inside in my walls between the insulation and the plastic. They used the vent holes in the brick to enter from the outside to the interior. 

    I sprayed a can of wasp killer into the vent holes where the wasps came out of.  In two days I nuked the nest.

  3. I met my Korean Korean family when I was 9. I was surprised to have so many1st cousins. My grandpa had 9 kids from what my dad told me but I had 43 cousins.

    The math did not compute and when  I learned about the birds and the bees,  the biology didn’t either because the most kids my aunts and uncles had was 3.

    I did not figure out till I was in my early 20s that gramps got around and probably had a woman or five on the side.

    Years later my parents were talking about my gramps the woman chaser,  drinker and gambler. I then mentioned I that I knew why I had so many 1st cousins because many are half cousins. My parents were surprised I could figure it out.

    • I remember my Mom saying when she was little my Grandfather would say once a year he was taking the family cow “for a walk.” It was only years later she realized he was taking their cow to a neighbor with a breeding bull who would impregnate her so she would give milk. Technically, yes, he was taking the cow for a walk over to the bull’s pasture, but that wasn’t all.

  4. I met my new neighbors today.  It’s a young extended family.  One of the kids asked me if he could get his tennis balls from the yard that inadvertently ended up in my yard.

    I figured I’m not going to be the stereotypical grouchy scary old single male neighbor and said, “Sure you can, let’s go get them.”

    At least I don’t want to be the asshole neighbor.

  5. Why does my wife only have to pee right as they announce “we are now boarding the plane”?

    Last weekend my fire alarm went off at 2am but only for a couple seconds, then nothing until 5am, same thing.  Hasn’t made a sound since?  WTF?

    • Could be some fine particles (pollen) crossed paths with your smoke detector?

      A few years ago we were shut down for three hours as the fire dept tried to find the cause of the alarm.  It turned out the fine powder spraying from a valve in a bin caused the smoke detector to light off (ionization detection only.)

      • That is a good theory, my buddy said spiders can cause them to do that & based on my recent calls to kill spiders by other residents of my home, that is plausible.

        • Totally a spider! That happened to me… I’m embarrassed to admit my husband was on a work trip and I was pregnant and nervous so I called the fire department… They couldn’t find the fire (duh) then one guy blew into the smoke detector and a spider came flying out. I’m sure they still laugh about that incident over beers.

          • Hopefully not a vindictive spider that will keep doing this to get back at me for all his family I have killed.  I didn’t want to do it!  I was forced by the females in my house!  They needed to see death to let me go to bed!

      • I do like to read when I shit so that is more like a Pavlov thing for me at least.  I don’t think I could drink coffee in a bookstore without a Costanza moment.

  6. For 2 years I’ve wondered why my treadmill belt has been a little lopsided and assumed it was a manufacturer issue. And every few uses I’d have to shove one leg to the side when I stepped to shove it towards being less off-center.

    Turns out that if I had read page 29 of the manual, I would know that there are guide screws you can access with an allen wrench to adjust the alignment.

    Anyways, now it’s aligned better. Still making this weird clicky thumpy sound intermittently, but that’s something I can deal with by turning the tv volume up.

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