Occasional Puzzles - Let's shake on it
Today’s puzzle is from a dedicated Occasional Puzzles reader and tortellini lover from Silicon Valley.
Today’s Puzzle
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, two American and two Italian entrepreneurs meet to discuss a deal to import handmade tortellini. All four are wearing face masks and keeping a safe distance, but to seal the deal they want to shake hands. More precisely, each person on each side wants to shake hands with each person on the other side. That is, both Americans will shake hands with both Italians, but not with each other, for a total of four handshakes. They have no Purell, but they do have one pair of latex gloves (i.e. just two gloves, not two pairs of gloves). How can they use those two gloves for the four handshakes without any risk of contamination?
Assume that they can all put on and take off gloves without contaminating the outside of them.
Wednesday’s Puzzle - The good, the bad, and the weird friend who keeps throwing parties
Your very quirky friend (yes, the same one who made you solve logic puzzles at her birthday) has invited you over for a dinner party. You are skeptical (understandably so), but you decide to give her another chance. Unfortunately, when you arrive, you discover your fears were justified. Posted on the door is the following:
CONDITIONS OF ENTRY - In the pairs of words below, the left words are examples of BAD words and the right words are examples of GOOD words. Any guests heard using BAD words at tonight’s dinner will be thrown out immediately.
- in / out
- jump / hop
- reign / rule
- solution / answer
- ajar / open
- liberty / freedom
Can you identify what all the bad words have in common and survive the dinner? (It could be something about their meaning, spelling, pronunciation, or something else entirely.)
[SPOILER] Answer to Wednesday’s Puzzle
All of the bad words have dots when lowercase!