10 killer brainteasers!

Ready for another weekender quiz? Here goes...

Here are 10 logic brainteasers that will get your brain into thinking shape!

1. What would you be sure to find in the middle of Toronto?.

2. Who makes it, has no need of it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Who uses it can neither see or feel it. What is it?

3. A boy is locked in a room by robbers. All that is in the room is a piano, calendar, and a waterbed. The room is locked from the outside. What does he eat, drink, and how does he get out?

4. A magician is standing on a concrete floor holding a raw egg with his hand outstretched. Without the aid of any objects, he is able to drop the egg two feet without breaking its shell. How does he do it?

5. A man walks into an art gallery and concentrates on one picture in particular. The museum, curator notices this and asks the man why he is so interested in that one painting. The man replies, "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son." Who is in the painting?.

6. What do these three have in common: dogs, diamonds, and double plays?

7. A man is asked what his daughters look like. He answers, "They are all blondes, but two, all brunettes, but two, and all redheads, but two." How many daughters did he have?

8. Today I purchased two different pieces of candy. Together they cost $1.10. One candy cost one dollar more than the other candy. What was the price of each piece of candy?.

9. You are a bus driver. At the first stop, 4 people get on. At the second stop, 8 people get on. At the third stop, 2 people get off, and at the last stop, everyone gets off. The question is: What color are the bus driver's eyes?

10. What two words, when combined, contain the most letters?

ANSWERS BELOW... DON'T CHEAT, SO DON'T PEEP.
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1. The letter 'o' (TorOnto)
2. A coffin.
3. He eats 'dates' on the calendar, he gets water from the waterbed, and he uses the piano key to escape.
4. He holds the egg higher than two feet. The egg will fall the first two feet without breaking.
5. The son of the man studying the painting.
6. Man's best friend, a girl's best friend, and a pitcher's best friend.
7. Three. One is blonde, one is brunette and one is a redhead.
8. One was $1.05 and the other was 5 cents.
9. Since the riddle starts out by saying you are the bus driver, the answer would be the color of your own eyes.
10. Post office!


What's Your Score?
0:  Back to riddle school with you! Next time, try and think a bit more outside the box, we know you can do it!
1-3: You're a novice riddler, who still misses most but is starting to grasp the basics of riddling.
4-6: You're a riddler in the making, no doubt about it! Your ability to think outside the conventional answers is quite impressive, good for you!
7-10: Are you some kind of super riddler? How did you DO that?? We take our respective hats off before your mighty riddling powers, and can only hope you can teach us your clever, clever ways.

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The Gingerbread Man unwrapped.. yummy!

Can you tell if you were born left-handed?

It's the start of the weekend, so it's chill-out stuff today. What better than quiz-time.

First, I was told I was born left-handed but it seemed I was made to switch to using my right hand for the usual stuff like writing, holding the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left hand, etc. Apparently, there are tests to determine if you are born left- or right-handed.

Now answer this question without hesitation:

After using the toilet to poo, do you use your right hand or your left hand to clean up?

Let's do this test for dementia next:

1. Johnny 's mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May....What was the third child's name? 2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall and he wears size 13 sneakers....What does he weigh? 3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, ...what was the highest mountain in the world? 4. How much dirt is there in a hole ...that measures two feet by three feet by four feet? 5. What word in the English Language ...is always spelled incorrectly? 6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. ....How is this possible? 7. In California , you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. ...Why not? 8. What was the U.S. President 's Name...in 1975? 9. If you were running a race, ...and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now? 10. Which is correct to say,... "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"? 11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, ....how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field? Here are the Answers 1. Johnny 's mother had three children. The first child was named April The second child was named May.What was the third child 's name? Answer:Johnny of course 2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall, and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh? Answer: Meat. 3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world? Answer: Mt. Everest; it just wasn't discovered yet. [ You 're not very good at this are you?] 4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet? Answer: There is no dirt in a hole. 5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly? Answer: Incorrectly 6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible? Answer: Billy lives in the Southern Hemisphere 7. In California , you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not? Answer: You can 't take pictures with a wooden leg. You need a camera to take pictures. 8. What was the U.S. President 's Name in 1975? Answer: Same as is it now - Barack Obama [Oh, come on ...] 9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now? Answer: You would be in 2nd. Well, you passed the person in second place, not first. 10. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"? Answer: Neither, the yolk of the egg is yellow [Duh] 11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field? Answer: One. If he combines all of his haystacks, they all become one big one.

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Okay, now that you have endured these 11 "duh" teasers, here's the answer to...

After using the toilet to poo, do you use your right hand or your left hand to clean up?

Answer: You use toilet paper! [Duh (of course, this assumes you do use toilet paper).]
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Still on poo, this item was featured in a Christmas gifts supplement...

Then, again, if you are someone like Li Peng who has two cats, you might want to get this:

Me? I couldn't resist these gingerbread men (still in their wraps but not for long... breakfast beckons):

Mr Biden, do you like kimchi? It's hot and fiery!

US Vice President Joe Biden is in South Korea by now, the third and final leg of his three-nation East Asian trip. No doubt he will plead with the South Koreans not to expand their own (currently limited) ADIZ which, if extended, will very likely overlap with both Japan's and China's ADIZs. Maybe he'll find the kimchi stew at the dinner reception more agreeable!

So there will be a menage of three fiery historical enemies, two of them US allies! President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry must be secretly glad they are not the ones making this thankless trip. Maybe only Mr Biden likes kimchi.

I found this PBS interview with two former senior US officials who were heavily involved in East Asian security affairs: Kurt Campbell and Susan Shirk. The interview occurred on the eve of Mr Biden's trip:

Examining U.S. interests in calming tensions between China and Japan

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec13/china2_12-03.html

I had, in my earlier blog, used the analogy of China being perceived as a "paper tiger" by its own worked-up citizens if it failed to act more forcefully once its ADIZ was inplemented. Ms Shirk used the same analogy!...

SUSAN SHIRK: No, I don't think China will back off and I don't think -- I mean, although that would be our preference.
I think what we should do is to press both sides to consult on emergency communication measures in order to prevent accidents. And we should also ask China what its intentions are in the South China Sea, because, in that announcement it made on the air defense notification zone, it said it intended to announce further zones in certain areas, which could mean that where we are heading up on a similar crisis in the South China Sea.
And this is really very dangerous, because, right now, the nationalist public in China is pressing the government and saying, are you just a paper tiger? You have made this threat, and you are not acting upon it. And that is one thing I am quite concerned about.
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There is also this snippet in TODAY (Dec 5) which suggests that, in upping the ante, China wants Japan to acknowledge that they both have a territorial dispute over the islands in question:    

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I thought these two pics in TODAY (one from yesterday's edition and one from today's) provide an interesting study in handshake diplomacy -- and what these men are thinking of as they pose for the respective photo ops...

Firm handshake and some back slapping between "old" friends... will it be a case of a friend in need is a friend indeed?

Just the firm handshake between "new" friends... but who will end up as primus inter pares (first among equals)?

Or maybe President Xi was telling Mr Biden to read the latest Pew report!...

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Finally, sometimes a story and an ad get, unfortunately, juxtaposed:

Washington's Mr Biden goes to Asia...

American Vice President Joe Biden's long planned trip to Asia was supposed to showcase, to allies and friends (and fence-watchers), US resolve and reliability, especially with regard to its strategic "pivot to Asia" policy (whatever that means) and in its endorsement of the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement (which China is not party to).

That was the US plan.

But most analysts agree that China has cleverly hijacked the agenda with its Nov 23 declaration of an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over areas that overlap with Japan's ADIZ (in place since the 1960s). South Korea is scrambling to come up with its own ADIZ, expected to overlap with Japan's and China's newly declared one.

Let's start with Biden's meeting with hand-clasping back-slapping treaty ally Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:

Was Mr Abe expecting Mr Biden to tell China "I don't care if Japan has an ADIZ, I don't care if we have ADIZs on both sides of continental USA, all around Hawaii and God knows where else, when Uncle Sam says you are not to all of a sudden decide to have an ADIZ, you quietly comply... or else!"

Or, maybe, Mr Biden was expected to tell the Chinese leaders they should know their place, ie, to put it in Hokkien: "Mai boh tua boh sway!" (I don't know if there's a Mandarin equivalent.)

But, as the report above in TODAY (Dec 4) shows, and despite the promising headline, Mr Biden merely made reassuring NATO (no action, talk only) noises.

Meanwhile, ahead of Mr Biden's next itinerary, the China Daily was already giving him a tongue-lashing, as reported in TIME (Dec 4):

Chinese Paper to Biden: ‘Straighten Out’ Your Facts

http://world.time.com/2013/12/04/chinese-paper-to-biden-straighten-out-your-facts/

After Mr Biden's meeting with the Chinese leaders, Global Times, that cheeky Chinese publication, merely (and gleefully) reported -- with nary a single reference to China's ADIZ:

Chinese VP meets with Biden

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/829816.shtml#.Up9JNJWIrIU

Mr Biden goes on to South Korea next. I await what the headlines will declare.

News with a twist?

Let's hope it'll be a lucky Rabbit. Just don't declare a Lunar Defence Identification Zone!...

I found this image below on the Web. Goes well with the story above...

Meanwhile, India gets lucky too. Call it a 'cheap shot' but it works!...

Back on earth, Tip No 1: How to 'hold' your wife's attention!...

Nope, trolls don't scare him...

But how about a 'hearing malfunction'?...

Finally, Singapore buys brand-new submarines...

But wait! What's this talking head (below) saying? Subs = national prestige? For that, you'll want an outdated ex-Soviet aircraft carrier!

So who's cocking a snook at whom?

Those three days spent blogging on Geylang meant having now to catch up on other stuff.

A major international furore is still going on over China's recent establishment of an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over areas that include territories whose ownership is in dispute. China, Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan are those parties involved. Even the USA got into the act, dispatching two B-52H heavy bombers over the Chinese ADIZ.

Military aircraft from Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan (which previously seldom challenged China over disputed areas such as the South China Sea) have entered the ADIZ at will, cocking a snook at Beijing, if you will (the silhouette below, from phrases.org.uk, graphically explains this expression).

China, then, seems to have been shown up to be a "paper tiger". Indeed, analyses such as these two below follow the conventional argument:

I had taken this conventional view too but this article in today's ST (Dec 2) made me do a rethink regarding China's real target and its longer-term aim:

And, as if to reinforce the point, this Global Times article (and its accompanying none-too-subtle illustration) makes clear China's ultimate aim:

China's ADIZ is for more than just Diaoyu sovereignty

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/829275.shtml#.UpyxbJWIrIU

Here are the article's concluding lines:

In the short run, China can take one step and look around before taking another, since China has all the initiative and flexibility on how and to what extent such rules will be implemented.

An uninvited presence over another country's ADIZ was and is a way to claim rights and show concern. If others can do this to China, China can do this to others. China's grand strategy aims for a future role as a great power, and Japan is just a current concern for the time being.

The establishment of an ADIZ aims at larger strategic goals than the Diaoyu Islands and will aid China's strategic initiatives in the long run.
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So, who's cocking a snook at whom? Only time will tell. Meanwhile, for China's leaders, they have to convince the country's legions of restless netizens that it is not a paper tiger that is being made to eat humble pie. For the sake of regional stability -- and a check on that dreaded spiral of miscalculations -- I hope it can do that, time and again.

Down Memory Lorong (Part 3).

Many of the lorongs in Geylang, including Lorong 32, have back alleys. House No 53, the ground floor unit, had a door and a collapsible gate at the back that gave access to the alley. In the case of House No 53A (the upper storey), the spiral staircase led (up) to a sort of sun-deck which we covered with a zinc roof, as well as (down, after the back door) to a large wooden door that also gave access to the back alley. I suppose such access served as fire escape.

On my recent bus ride back, as I turn the corner of the Casa Emerald condo, this is what the back alley looks like now:

The back alley still has rubbish strewn about but at least it is paved now. Back then, the concrete surface was broken here and there and hence uneven. But this alley was where the two girls learnt to ride their bicycles... first with trainer wheels, then with me running alongside, and finally, with the girls going "solo"! (Lynn loved to ride her little bike up and down the alley so much in the late afternoon/early evening that Angie had to order her home for dinner.)

I then looked around and at the back portion of Casa Emerald. This is what I saw...

Spiral staircase! Not only that, it is an actual Sixties-era staircase left intact, and sticking out amid the more contemporary condos it is sandwiched between.

Ah so, I believe it is the back of House No 49 (and 49A), identical to mine...

I am transported back to the old days. We kept two terrapin turtles, Finky and Finko, in basins up on the deck. The girls, when not in school, would accompany me as I opened the back door to climb up the stairs and wash/clean the basins (we had a tap up there) and feed the turtles with long beans which they (the terrapins, not the girls) gobbled up quickly.

Back to the alley... we could walk to Lorong 34 from there:

At the corner of Lorong 34 (Guillemard Road end) was our favourite seafood stall located in a coffeeshop. It is still there, but it opens only in the evening:

Looking towards Guillemard Road from Lorong 34, one can see Kong Hwa School, one of the primary schools run by the Hokkien clan association:

We nearly put Liane in that school, which had just started a pre-primary programme then. I think her life would have taken a different turn if she had not gone to our church's kindergarten and then to Methodist Girls' School instead but that's another story, perhaps for another time.

At Lorong 34 still, and looking towards Geylang Road, one can see the former Maha Bodhi School, now used for another purpose:

The school was so close to our house that its daily routine became familiar to us, ad nauseam: morning assembly, singing of the national anthem, teachers shouting out instructions over the PA system, chatter of the kids, the shrill ringing of the school bell ever so often, etc...

Maha Bodhi School was also a polling station during general elections. I first cast my vote there.

Final stop... the playground at Lorong 38 where, come evening time on my days off, I would take the girls to play on the swings and the see-saw. This is what I now spied:

 
  

It is still there! Some of the facilities have changed and the swings which the girls loved so much have disappeared. Also, there appears to be some contractor work being done there...

So, is the playground being torn down? Or is it being upgraded further? I guess I will know if I should make a future "Down Memory Lorong" trip.