Lateral Thinking Puzzles - third time is best!

Thread Games
2321

I believe we have a winner here.

Gerald was born in 1876. By the time he went to sea in 1896, he had experienced 5 birthdays. There was no leap year in 1900, so he expected to have to wait 8 years for an actual birthday.

But alas, in 1904 he was on a ship and on February 28, 1904, they crossed the dateline.

He was the unluckiest man in history in this respect because not only did he wait 8 years because of 1900, he had to wait 12 years because he skipped February 29 in 1904!

The little square piece of paper was the February 29 on their calendar, which they ripped off. The note simply explained how incredibly unlucky he was for missing his birth-date again.

Note: All fictional, no such person has ever been shown to go through this.

2322

Why wouldn’t it be February 29th as soon as he crossed the line? Unless his body crossed the IDL exactly at midnight.

2323

OK, I have one, ripped from the headlines (except, since it happened to me, it didn’t actually make headlines).

When I woke up this morning, I saw that my freezer door was wide open. But I wasn’t at all concerned about that fact. Why not, and what happened?

2324

Did you come home drunk and slept in the freezer because it was the middle of summer and your AC didn’t work?

2325

Was the freezer full of food?

2326

Was the freezer in the house?
Was the freezer plugged in?

2327

Were you defrosting it?

2328

No. Amusing though that might be.

Yes.

Yes to both. Well, apartment, not house, but same difference.

No.

2329

The food that was in the freezer: Was it food that should, in fact, have been kept frozen?

2330

Yes, it should have been kept frozen.

2331

Had it already thawed due to a long loss of power, and you intended to throw it all out anyway?

Were you intending to cook it all that day and wanted to thaw it anyway?

Was the house, or the freezer’s location in the house, well below freezing temperature?

Was there something keeping the freezer temperature cold despite the open door?

ETA: were you for some reason in a state in which you didn’t care what happened to the food in the freezer?

ETA twice: was the freezer door open because somebody else in the house was in the process of getting something into or out of it?

2332

Was it opening indicative of something positive that had occured?

  • power was turned back on?
2333

Was the penny on top of the ice?

2334

Yes, it had already thawed due to loss of power. That’s part of the solution.
No, I was not intending to cook it.
Neither the house nor the kitchen was below freezing, nor was there anything keeping the freezer cold.

My own state was normal, and nobody else was putting anything in or out of the freezer.

2335

Was the freezer door open when you went to bed?

2336

Could you see the light coming out of it and you knew the power was back?

Edit: Or heard it running, felt its cold, etc.

2337

Had you previously moved the contents, because of the loss of power, to somewhere else where they would stay frozen?

2338

It’s still off.

2339

I did not move the food.

BTW, for reasons related to this puzzle, I’m currently posting mostly via my phone, which isn’t as easy for me. So please either reply to one of my posts, or @ me, with your questions.

2340

Was the power out in your apartment?