9 February
2018
9 February
2018
Puzzle time!!
Sitting at the motorbike center (bike getting serviced), I am bored enough to see if I can bore you with one more puzzle to get the weekend rolling ….
There is a contest to judge the smartest couple of them all. Teams of husbands and wives show up for the contest and are soon read out the rules…
Each couple will be taken to a separate room by two officials. Each room will have two tables in diagonally opposite corners. The couple will be separated in the room and asked to go sit at the two tables in the two corners with their backs to each other. From that distance, they will not be able hear or see what is going on in the other table. Under no circumstances can any of the couple utter any sound. If they do, they would be automatically disqualified. Next to each table sat one of the two officials.
The husband and the wife will be given a dice (all dice are perfect dice – one sixth probability for each side). At the sound of a large gong, they will independently roll their own dice on their own table. And note whether they have an even face up or an odd face up. (Odd means 1, 3 or 5). Now, on a piece of paper, each have to write what they think came up on the OTHER table – odd or even. Once both have written their guesses, the two officials will shout out what was written.
If at least one of them guessed correctly about the other table, they continue. If both got it wrong, they will be escorted out of the room and eliminated from the event.
The last couple standing (actually sitting at their tables 🙂 ) wins the event.
So those were the rules.
After all the rules were explained, the officials allowed each couple to talk for a few minutes in case they wanted to come up with a plan and then were escorted to their rooms for the competition to begin.
The smartest couple had devised a way such that they would always win. What strategy did they use?
Note that this is not a trick question like whispering or passing hand messages etc. They were really smart and came up with a way to never get escorted out.
If you know the answer / figured it out, please send me a personal message. I will respond there and also announce your name in the common forum.
6 February
2018
5 miles in a new forest trail
4 February
2018
From the bartender’s corner – Death’s Door Rouge Martini
A Rouge Martini is a rather simple cocktail made from gin and Chambord liqueur. I used the Death’s Door Gin today. Like I was surmising yesterday, the simplicity of the gin made it pretty good for a cocktail. The raspberry was not drowned by the junipers or other botanicals. I might increase the gin to liqueur ratio next time (I used 2:1 this time) to let the raspberries be a little more understated. Overall though, for a wet and cold evening, getting ready for the Super Bowl, it was a great drink.
I am sure the experts must be wondering how does the blackberry fit into the scheme of the gin or Chambord. Well, it does not. Ideally, the right garnish would be a raspberry (or a string of raspberries with blackberries). I could swear I had some raspberries in the kitchen. Evidently not. Ergo, just blackberries 🙂 Not sure it did anything to enhance or take away from the nose of the drink but it had a good visual effect, all the same!
3 February
2018
From the bartender’s corner: Gin #30 – Death’s Door
For such a dramatic name, the distiller’s website is fairly frank about this gin being very simple. In fact, other than the mandatory junipers, the only two other botanicals are coriander and fennel seeds. The distillers claim that you can taste all the botanicals – well that is because there are only 3 of them.
The base alcohol is more interesting though – it is made from winter wheat, corn and barley!
The distillery was established in 2006 in Washington Island in way up north Wisconsin.
For a simple gin, it is surprisingly good. While I will not claim to be an absolutely great gin but it is mild and soft enough to make it a go-to gin especially with tonic water. I tried it two days in succession and I liked it on second day more than first day. And because of that softness and not being too forward in anything, I suspect it will make a good gin for cocktails.
The juniper is predominant in the nose and I was surprised by the citrusy palate (suspect the corianders). The finish was fairly uneventful other than the remnants of the juniper.
3 February
2018
10 mile run in about 100 minutes
1 February
2018
Faster run in flat trail today
31 January
2018
Royters News: Catching up on today’s news
Finished up my day and sitting in my bed, tried to catch up on the highlights of the day. The first piece of news that caught my attention was that an Amtrak train full of politicians hit a truck today.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/01/31/gop-retreat-train-collides-with-truck-no-serious-injuries-reported/?utm_term=.033783ea5d50
Apparently, one of them was carrying garbage. Decided to dig further to find out which one.
🙂
31 January
2018
How did that come around? – “Under the Weather”
I was on a birthday call with one of my friends in Singapore yesterday and she mentioned that her teenager son has been under the weather for the last couple of days. After keeping the phone down, I started wondering why do we say somebody is “under the weather”?
Of course the phrase means “being sick”. The first instinct I had was that inclement weather or season had to do with the source of sickness. But why “under”? In a very abstract sense, weather coming from mostly elements like cloud, skies, wind etc etc, in general, you would think that you are always “under” it, would you not?
After researching quite a few etymological sources, I learnt that this is actually a nautical term. (Is it not crazy how many nautical terms have made it to our day to day English?). While a couple of sources mention about the side of the ship during bad weather and one mentions about how when all the sick sailors names were written, some of them would spill over to the column under the “Weather” section in the log book, the most prevalent and accepted reason is slightly different.
During the sea-faring days, on a day of rough weather, a ship would sway from side to side and be tossed around violently. This would cause some of the passengers or sailors to get sick (seasick). The normal procedure was to then send them downstairs to floors lower than the deck since there would be far less swaying there.
This is what gave rise to the phrase “under the weather” – you are sent below the deck level when you get seasick from the ship’s violent swaying caused by rough weather.
Learnt something yesterday.
30 January
2018
