Don’t get Bored
Exercise Your Mind

Boredom
According to a recent survey, 400 million packets of crisps are eaten in the UK, every year, out of sheer boredom.

The Moral?
Boredom makes us fat.

A better approach
Exercise your mind!

It doesn’t really matter what you do, as long as you exercise your mind. Because if your mind is busy, you won’t be bored and you won’t eat so much junk.    Get a new job, join a group, take a class, create something, teach-yourself-something, start a diary, grow something, join your library, write a best-seller, run off with your neighbor (Whoops! Just kidding!), build something, get involved in your favorite cause, build a web site.

Start now!
To prod you into action, here are 2 problems. The first is easy, the second is more difficult and requires pen and paper. Have a go at solving them. It’ll take your mind off popcorn!

Problem 1
Bill is traveling through the jungle in a jeep. Sitting next to him is his son Jack. Suddenly, the jeep hits an obstacle and overturns. Bill is killed and Jack is left unconscious. Fortunately, an hour later, the jeep is discovered by several natives who carry Jack to the local hospital. As he is wheeled into the emergency room, Jack is recognized by the ageing, drunken surgeon who exclaims: ‘Good Lord! It’s my son!’

Question
What is the relationship between Jack and the ageing drunken surgeon?

Problem 2
Cinderella and three of her girlfriends are rushing home from the ball. It is seventeen minutes before midnight. To avoid being turned into pumpkins they must reach Cinderella’s castle before the clock strikes twelve. It is pitch dark and the only way into the castle is across a long narrow foot-bridge. So they have seventeen minutes to cross the bridge.

However, there are several problems

• Due to the wobbly state of the bridge, no more than two people may cross at one time.
• There is only one flashlight. It must be carried by any person (or pair of people) who cross.
• Once used, the flashlight must be ‘walked’ back across the bridge. It cannot be thrown. Thus, if Cinderella and a friend cross the bridge together, one of them must walk back to the others with the flashlight.
• Each girl walks at a different speed. Cinderella takes 1 minute to cross the bridge; Jackie takes 2 minutes; Eileen takes 5 minutes and Mary takes 10 minutes.
• If two of them cross together, they must walk at the rate of the slower girl’s pace.
  Thus, if Jackie and Mary cross together, it takes them 10 minutes. However, if Jackie then returns with the flashlight, it takes her only 2 minutes to cross.