The next time you reach for your smartphone to play the latest cartoon game app, try out one of these interesting online puzzle games instead. They’re just as fun and addictive as those racing games or bubble breakers, but they stimulate your brain just as much as your senses.

Riddles Hub
Riddles Hub expands on the popular riddles you loved as a child, offering a whole database full of word problems that will really make you think. Each riddle describes an object or a person, and they’re all organized by categories like logic, match, alphabet, relationships, or words. If you’re stumped by a riddle, Riddles Hub also offers helpful clues to point you in the right direction before you give up.

The Cyclopedia of Puzzles
This online collection of tricky math puzzles features 5,000 puzzles, tricks, and conundrums. Taken from a 1914 book created by Sam Lloyd, these puzzles all appear in their original forms on photocopied pages. If you love history and mathematics, The Cyclopedia of Puzzles offers a little bit of both.                           

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Regulars say that the seafood is so fresh at Ford’s Fish Shack that it’s like dining at the beach. Must-try items are the Maine chips, which are hand-cut potato chips with lobster (it’s charmingly spelled “lobstah” on the menu) and melted blue cheese; the shrimp tacos; the calamari; and the crab cakes. For dessert, many patrons enjoy the blueberry pie and the banana pudding. Also, regulars tout the complimentary mini corn muffins and warm maple butter that servers bring out as you read the menu.

Ford’s has 12 beers on tap, including Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA and Left Hand Milk Stout, plus many more in bottles and cans. It also offers a wide selection of red and white wines, as well as a few signature cocktails, including Ford’s Fantastic Lemonade (blueberry vodka and lemonade with mint and blueberries) and Felix’s Cadillac Margarita.

If you'd like to visit, this Ashburn restaurant is open 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.

Ford’s Fish Shack
44260 Ice Rink Plaza
Ashburn, VA  21047
(571) 918-4092

CC-BY-SA-3.0/Flickr/fred_v

There are a large number of “river crossing puzzles” in the world of logic puzzles, in which people must cross a river with a variety of constraints. One of the most popular of these puzzles is the Bridge and Torch Problem, which tests your logic skills and your rational thinking. Though it may seem like a simple enough question, the answer to this tricky word problem eludes many of the people who try to solve it. 

In the Bridge and Torch Problem, four people approach a riverbank at night. The narrow bridge nearby can only hold two people at a time. They only have one torch, but it has to be used when crossing the bridge. It takes Person A one minute to cross, Person B two minutes to cross, Person C five minutes, and Person D eight minutes. Two people crossing the bridge together must move at the slower person’s pace.

Can all of the people cross the bridge in 15 minutes or less? Once you reach an answer, check it here! 

CC-BY-SA-2.0/Flickr/CrosswordMan