Today’s Riddles: May 28, 2010:

Which of the men is so prudent and wise
as to say who drives me on my path,
when I rise up strong, at times severe,
powerfully prominent, sometimes vengeful,
I travel throughout the land, burn houses,
seized plunder? Smoke rises,
grey over rooftops. The trees on earth
shall be, the violent death of men, when
I shake the woods, the flowering forests,
fell tall trees, roofed with rain, by
the highest powers, driven in my wandering,
widely sent; I have on my back what once
covered men, body and soul, both in water.
Say who covers me, or how I am called,
that bears that burden.

A farmer in California owns a beautiful pear tree. He supplies the fruit to a nearby grocery store. The store owner has called the farmer to see how much fruit is available for him to purchase. The farmer knows that the main trunk has 24 branches. Each branch has exactly 12 boughs and each bough has exactly 6 twigs. Since each twig bears one piece of fruit, how many plums will the farmer be able to deliver?

Julie is going on an extended trip for three weeks. She lives in a remote area where there are frequent electrical power outages which can last up to three or four days. Julie has quite a bit of food in her freezer which would go bad if it thawed and then re-froze. She does have digital clock and a VCR which would flash 12:00 if the power went out. Unfortunately the clock and VCR flash even if the power only goes out for a few seconds. What can Julie do so that when she returns home she will be able to determine whether the power was out long enough to thaw her food?Asking a neighbor whether the power was out, isn’t a reliable option because the nearest house is half a mile away, and one house may have power, while another house may have no power. She won?t be able to have a neighbor check on her house every day, and has no one to house sit.