Contingencies Online - July/August 2011

Puzzles MARK DANBURG-WYLD
Fight Club
SUMMERTIME IS UPON US, and that means that the four boys
who live on my street will spend two solid calendar months playing
King of the Hill.
King of the Hill, like most children’s
games, is based on some level of vio-
lence. It’s a straightforward domination
challenge in which one child gets to the
top of a mound of dirt and attempts to
repel everybody else’s attempts to knock
him off (or knock her off—but, let’s face
it, it’s usually a him). As long as a child
stays on top, he is the King of the Hill.
In my neighborhood, the hill is a
4-foot-high pile of gravel that Old Man
Hawkins plans to use for a path in his
back garden. Since he’s had that inten-
tion for about seven years now, the local
boys consider the gravel pile to be a per-
manent feature of the landscape.

My four young neighbors who are
regular contestants in King of the Hill
are Hank, Dale, Bill, and Jeff. Having
grown up with this pile of gravel, they
have turned their summer pastime into
a fairly regimented activity. On the first
day, two of them are randomly selected,
and both attack the hill at once. Whoever
wins is King of the Hill for that day and
is challenged on Day 2 by one of the boys
who weren’t involved on Day 1—chosen
again at random. The winner advances
to Day 3 against the last boy. Thereaf-
ter, the winner one day is challenged by
whoever has sat out the longest. The Day
4 match, for example, is between the Day
3 winner and the Day 1 loser.
The boys start on the first of one
month, and play one round a day up to
and including the last day of the next
month. While this doesn’t sound like
much, the rounds can go on for hours,
with much pushing, grabbing, tumbling,
punching, cursing, and similar activity—
all in the name of good, clean fun. It’s
fight club for the prepubescent.

previous Issue’s puzzle
socratic Method
For this month’s puzzle, we travel back
in time 2,401 years. In the toe of Italy’s
“boot,” a young seeker named Socrates
(no, not that Socrates) who is seeking
admission into the cult of Pythagoras
is being interviewed by the head of the
school, Philomath. As we join them,
Philomath has just asked Socrates why
he wishes entry into the mysteries.

Solutions may be e-mailed
to the author at cont.puzzles@
gmail.com. In order to make the
solver list, your solutions must
by received by July 31, 2011.