Unscramble: Decipher each of these anagrams into ordinary English words, writing one letter in each box: Now arrange the circled letters to find out what the walls in the adult book store were made of: __  __  __  __  __  __  __      __  __  __  __ !

A Hole in One: The alleged experts¹ haven’t yet figured out how to get to a black hole, much less how to get back, so all that we non-experts have to go on are artists’ conceptions of what the event horizon might look like. These usually resemble the end of the trombone closest to the microphone. Since we lack an eyewitness account, let’s stipulate that this is indeed what a nearby observer would see.² Now then, let’s suppose that this observer is positioned so as to be able to look straight down the throat of the trombone. If this observer were to plot the path of a single object trapped in the gravitational field of the black hole, i.e., on the event horizon, as it spins ever faster around the axis of the trombone and is gradually drawn down to the black hole itself, what geometric figure would be the result? If the observer were somehow able to simultaneously be at a position parallel to the axis of the trombone and plotting the path of the same object, what would the resultant plot be?

Marx Brothers, Four Years Later: In the December 1980 Puzzle Page, I ran the following puzzle, originally submitted by Vince Combs:

Four men were shipwrecked on a tropical island. They spent their first day building huts and gathering a pile of coconuts. They were so tired after their day’s labors that they decided to wait until morning to divide their coconuts evenly between them. During the night, one of the group, fearful that he might not get his fair share, arose and divided the coconuts into four equal piles. There was one coconut left over which he threw to a nearby monkey. He then buried his share, put the remaining coconuts back into a single pile, retired to his but and turned in. Later, another man, for similar reasons, arose, divided the coconuts into four equal piles, and threw the one left over to the same monkey. He took his share to his but after putting the remaining coconuts back into a single pile, and turned in. Subsequently, the remaining two men did the same, each one throwing a single left over coconut to the monkey. In the morning, all arose together and again divided the pile into four equal shares except for the one odd coconut which they threw to the monkey. What is the smallest number of coconuts they could have gathered on the first day?

What would that answer have been if there had been five men instead of four (and assuming the fifth man behaved the same as his four predecessors)? How many coconuts would each man have wound up with?

No Shadow of a Doubt: If you were to ask an astronomer, [s]he’d tell you that, technically, an eclipse of the sun is quite impossible. Why?

(Answers next month. Send solutions, comments, and your own puzzles to the editor)

¹ Ye Old Puzzle Editor (Y.O.P.E.) is reminded of Bob Heinlein’s comment on experts in Time Enough for Love (the quote may not be exact but it’s close enough): Listen to the experts. They’ll tell you what you can’t do and why not. Then go ahead and do it. [Editor’s note: Before you call yourself an expert, remember that an “ex” is a has-been, and a “spurt” is a drip under pressure.]

² This representation also ignores the probability that the field of influence of a black hole is very likely a sphere, not a straight line. However, the artists and theorists might be both wrong. It’s been said that not only is the universe stranger than we think, it’s stranger than we can possibly imagine.