and are puzzles posted on the ragbag?

answer: from time to time they are. here is a good one that recently crossed my footpath (i rewrote it to prevent resourceful readers from gooooogling the answer).

a good one: gertrude “gerty” corpuscle is on a blind date with manfred “bogman” burns. gerty learns that bogman has three children and asks their ages.

says bogman, “the product of their ages is 36.” gerty ponders this and then asks for more information. “the sum of their ages is the same as our bar bill,” says bogman pointing to the tab. gertie ponders this and asks for more information. says bogman, “perhaps it may interest you to learn that my oldest child has irritable bowel syndrome (i.b.s.) and has soiled many of our finest linens.”

says gertie, “that interests me greatly.” then gertie tells him the correct ages of his children.

question: how old are bogman’s kids?

epilogue: gertie and bogman settle their bar bill and wind up making out for a little (at gertie’s place, thank goodness). they have a few more dates after this but soon realise that their relationship was based entirely on math and solving math problems. they break up and go their separate ways.

epilogue to the epilogue: many years later, gertie and bogman bump into eachother again, and it is revealed that they are actually half-siblings.