puzzles and riddles

[sushi]

Well, since I have a proper keyboard now, I can do something a bit more detailed and difficult.

 

I'm apparently going for the world record for most absurd puzzle backstory. :)

 

For the record, you don't need to know anything about politics or history for this puzzle. I've bolded the names of the important characters, but you don't even need to know who they are.

 

Barack Obama, after a long and successful life, eventually dies of old age. Upon his death, he discovers the greatest secret of the United States Presidency: because of an ancient pact made by George Washington, after being inaugurated into office as president of the United States you can't go to heaven or to hell, but instead spend the afterlife in eternal combat in Presidential Valhalla.

 

So there Barack Obama is, locking katanas with Teddy Roosevelt. Not far away, a shirtless Grover Cleveland is trying to land a blow on sprightly John Adams with his mighty battleaxe, and William Howard Taft has put down his claymore to give George W. Bush a mean wedgie.

 

"So you know all about our lives." Taft says, as he swings Bush around his head. "But you came into office after we were dead, so we know nothing of yours. Tell us, what was life like as the first black president?"

 

Obama runs his katana through Teddy Roosevelt and steps over his body to engage Franklin D. Roosevelt. "I'm not here to tell stories." he says through gritted teeth. "I'm here to kick ass and take names. And I seem to have misplaced my name-taking notebook somewhere, so I'd really appreciate it if you'd keep an eye out for it, and return it to me if it turns up."

 

Cleveland chops Adams in half, and attempts to close in on Abraham Lincoln -- no easy feat, with Lincoln's long arms. "Come on, Obama!" Cleveland says. "At least tell us when you died! All you've ever told us is the year!"

 

"January 5th, January 6th, January 9th!" Obama says as he finishes FDR off. "Feburary 7th, February 8th!" he growls as he hacks through James A. Garfield. "March 4th, March 6th!" he yells as he backstabs Lincoln. "April 4th, April 5th, April 7th!" he howls as he bisects Bush. "It was one of those days. You figure it out!" he shouts as he decapitates Taft and Cleveland with one swipe. Sheathing his katana, he catches their heads, one in each hand.

 

"The month was..." and then he whispers in Taft's ear.

 

"And the day was..." and he whispers in Cleveland's ear.

 

And he drops the heads and charges off after Richard Nixon.

 

As the heads of Taft and Cleveland lie there in the dust, waiting for the respawn, Taft says "Well, I'm still not sure about the date, but at least I know that you don't know either.

 

"At first I didn't know, but now I do." Cleveland says.

 

"In that case, I know too." Taft says.

 

How do they know?

[sushi]

Too outlandish, or too difficult? :)

[Laach]

Too outlandish, or too difficult? :)

 

Pretty outlandish and long. Probably not difficult though.

 

Barack Obama

William Howard Taft

Grover Cleveland

 

"January 5th, January 6th, January 9th!" Obama says as he finishes FDR off. "Feburary 7th, February 8th!" he growls as he hacks through James A. Garfield. "March 4th, March 6th!" he yells as he backstabs Lincoln. "April 4th, April 5th, April 7th!" he howls as he bisects Bush. "It was one of those days. You figure it out!"

 

January (FDR): 5, 6, 9

February (James A. Garfield): 7, 8

March (Lincoln): 4, 6

April (Bush): 4, 5, 7

 

I'm thinking this could have to do with the order in which everyone was killed. I have to get back to homework though, so I'll begin solving it later.

[sushi]

I rescind my previous puzzle. Let's go for something a bit different:

 

A man lives on the twentieth floor of a building. Every day when he comes home, he rides the elevator to the tenth floor, and takes the stairs for the remaining ten floors -- but when it's raining, he takes the elevator directly to the 20th floor. Why?

[Brassow]

The stairs are the fire escape metal ones DUH.

[sushi]

Yeah, that's the usual first guess. But no, it has nothing to do with the stairs being wet.

[tulpamancer31]

the elevator and stairs are in two separate buildings semi-connected and the man doesn't want to get wet going from the elevator to the stairs.

[Laach]

The thing I want to know is why a man would only take the elevator halfway in the first place.

But yes, there has to be a relation between the stairs, the elevator, the rain, and his position on the 20th floor.

My thought is that he doesn't change his mind because he wants to, but because something physically limits him from taking the stairs.

---

Is it because he's wet, and that he doesn't want to slip on his wet shoes?

---

Or maybe he doesn't want to encounter the boss that appears on the stairs only during rainy weather.

[sushi]

the elevator and stairs are in two separate buildings semi-connected and the man doesn't want to get wet going from the elevator to the stairs.

 

Nope, everything is inside the same building he lives in.

 

The thing I want to know is why a man would only take the elevator halfway in the first place.

But yes, there has to be a relation between the stairs, the elevator, the rain, and his position on the 20th floor.

My thought is that he doesn't change his mind because he wants to, but because something physically limits him

 

You're on the right track.

 

Is it because he's wet, and that he doesn't want to slip on his wet shoes?

---

Or maybe he doesn't want to encounter the boss that appears on the stairs only during rainy weather.

 

Nope. But that first one is a pretty common guess.

[Laach]

You're on the right track.

 

Most people when reading the riddle would think that there had to be something wrong with the stairs. To think outside of the box, you have to consider that rather than something being wrong, something might have actually gone right. In which case something wouldn't be physically limiting him, but rather a new and better option made him choose a different route.

 

So the possible ways of thinking about this are:

• Something is wrong with the stairs due to the rain
  
• Something is right with the elevator due to the rain
  
• Something is wrong/right with the building due to the rain
  

 

I don't think the number of stairs hold any relevance, so I'll put that possibility aside until I get desperate or something.

 

Hmm, maybe the elevator is dependent on the rain. Like it runs on hydraulic based machinery, or uses a pulley system to push him up. The only logical reason he wouldn't go up all the way normally is if the elevator was incapable of doing so without the rain.

 

You also never say which floor he starts on during the rain. I can easily assume that the rain allowed him to swim to the 10th floor and then he took the elevator directly to the 20th.