The Night Watchman

Okay, the new puzzler is here.

There is a night watchman who works at a large automotive company.

One Tuesday morning, he runs into the fancy offices upstairs looking for the president of the company. He demands to see the president of the company immediately. The secretary tries to turn him away, but the night watchman will not take no for an answer.

He finally gets into the president's office and he says, "I had a horrible dream last night that you were flying on an airplane that crashed and everyone on board was killed. It was so real that I had to come here and tell you immediately."

The president in fact did plan to fly to Los Angeles that very same day for a business meeting. He decides to cancel that flight based on what the night watchman told him because he is a very superstitious guy.

That night, on the 11pm news hour, the president learns that the airplane he was supposed to be on had crashed killing everyone on board.

The next morning he summons the watchman to his office and fires him on the spot.

Why did he fire the night watchman?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Lover's Lane

Puzzler time.

This one is automotive and kind of historic. Here we go.

There was a guy back in 1935. He had a brand new Chevrolet 6. He was so excited about it so he took his girl for a ride.

So he took her for a drive across the newly opened George Washington Bridge and parked in Lover's Lane in Alpine, New Jersey overlooking the New York City skyline. Very romantic.

To make it more romantic, he turned on the radio to listen to some music. Now in 1935, radios in automobiles used vacuum tubes which had a grid that had to be heated up, in that part of the tube, for the current to pass through. And this radio drew heavily from the six-volt battery. When it came time to leave Lover's Lane, the starter would not turn fast enough to start the engine. It was cranking too slowly. And this was a problem because he had to get his girl home by 11pm.

So he started the car using the only tool he had in his possession, a pair of pliers.

And the puzzler is, how did he do it?