Fall is in the air—and so is the chance to sharpen your brain. Our September Mensa puzzles are here to stretch your thinking with a clever mix of literary twists, logical riddles and brainy seasonal trivia. From a secret Shakespeare quote to a cleverly disguised nursery rhyme, this month’s questions offer the perfect mental warm-up for the season. Grab a pencil, clear your mind and see how many you can solve without peeking. Good luck, genius!

Questions

1. A simple substitution code has been used to conceal a “quote.” Work out the code to decipher the original words. 

     Hamlet:

     QFPQMF   EPO’U   SFBMJAF   IPX   IBSE   JU   JT   UP  TQFBL   JO    CMBOL   WFSTF.

2. Which is larger: the number of inches in a mile or the number of full weeks per year in 1,200 years? 

3. A line from a nursery rhyme has been put into a very fancy language below. Can you put it back into everyday English?

     Small individual dressed in the color of a clear sky, please use your mouth to force sound from a metal instrument.

4. Start with the number of Apostles in the Bible, subtract the cube of two, add the number of Greek Fates, then add the number of winds in popular parlance. 

     What number do you get?

5. The names of five people are hidden in the sentence below. Can you find them? (The letters are in consecutive order.)

     Really, a wanted man fleeing from the police who saw a police car looking for him would run and hide.

Answers

1. People don’t realize how hard it is to speak in blank verse. (Code: Q = P, F = E, etc.) 

2. The number of inches in a mile (63,360 vs. 62,400).

3. Little boy blue, come blow your horn. 

4. 11 (12 – 8 = 4 + 3 = 7 +4)

5. Al, Ted, Lee, Carl, Nan (Lya is also acceptable.)

Just for LocalLife readers: Take the Mensa Practice Test for just $5! Visit americanmensa.org/mht and use offer code: Local21. Quiz © 2018 Dr. Abbie F. Salny. Mensa provides official tests and answers to LOCAL Life as part of an exclusive license agreement.