The Iron Yuppie

Nytimes Puzzles via Chooky

Chooky's Puzzles via Chooky

My girlfriend gave me a puzzle a few weeks ago which I absolutely loved. She said "I bought something today, I paid 99 pense for it". In a lot of ways, this was the perfect puzzle for me. It gave the absolute minimum of information yet was incredibly rich. First, I had to figure out what was cheap enough but still worth her mentioning it to me. Second, I had to remember it was in pense meaning bought from a country that used the pound (is there another form of currency that has pense as a denomination?). Third, because we don't use pense locally, I had to conclude that it was an Internet purchase (or phone purchase, but that seemed unlikely considering how cheap it was). Then I had to compare the date and what her interests were to try and get a union on everything. I still ended up stumped. (Turned out it was the new Coldplay single)

What is it about puzzles that are so engaging? I absolutely loved being challenged in this way... my major problem always comes down to the fact that I over think these things and then get into a perceived dead end... then I jump to the answer. I should force myself to work them through more often.

D