Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

A fellow's driving across the desert from Salt Lake City to Janet Reno, Nevada. He happens to look in the rear view mirror, and says, "Yikes!" He realizes he's in urgent need of a haircut. So, he gets off at Exit 321, which is between Winnemucca and Elko.

He finds himself in beautiful downtown Horsetown, Nevada. Where there are, of course, two barbershops.

He strolls past barbershop number one and looks in the window. There are no customers in the shop. It's kind of messy. Even the barber looks kind of messy. He's unshaven, he's got a rumpled shirt on, there's hair on the floor, and his haircut is lousy.

The guy thinks, "Maybe I should check out the other joint." So, he moseys along and arrives at barbershop number two and looks in that window. It looks terrific. It's nice and clean. The mirrors are clean and shiny, there's no hair on the floor. The barber looks neat and well groomed. He's a got the good haircut.

The question is, which barbershop does he select for his haircut?

Last week's puzzler:

A boy takes the bus downtown and goes to the sporting goods store and buys himself a fishing rod.

Soon after that, he's standing at the bus stop. The bus comes. He gets on, and the bus driver says, "Sonny, where are you going with that thing?"

The boy says, "I'm going home."

The bus driver says, "Not on this bus you aren't. Don't you know there's a city ordinance that you can't carry anything on the bus if it's longer than four feet?"

The kid says, "But I have to take the bus home because I've got a meeting of the young existentialists this afternoon. If I miss it, they'll kill me.

The bus driver says, "Tough!" and boots the kid off the bus.

The boy goes to the sporting goods store and tries to return the fishing rod. They laugh at him and point to the sign that says, "No return on fishing rods over four feet."

The kid stands there in bewilderment, and then he asks the store clerk for something.

Five minutes later he's riding the bus home with the fishing rod.

What did he do?

Last week's puzzler answer:

He got a box that was three feet by four feet, and just deep enough to hold a rod. So, the rod became the hypotenuse of a right triangle, the diagonal of the box.