There was a man that lived on the 56th floor of a building. He takes the elevator. If it is sunny then he goes to the 32nd floor and takes the stairs the rest of the way, if it is rainy then he goes all the way up. Why?

He is really short and can't reach the elevator button for the 56th floor. When it is raining, he pushes the button with his umbrella.

That's it.

I should think that it would be simpler to carry a stick of appropriate length on those non-rainy days than to climb all those flights of stairs.

On the other hand, all those stairs help him stay in shape. No doubt he will live longer, especially if it doesn't rain often.

Wow! I wouldn't have thought of this answer. Great job, DTape!

The receptionist on the 32 floor is very attractive and he is trying to get a date, so he stops there to chat with her.

Let’s try another:

You’re driving a bus, starting from the bus barn. At the first stop, 3 people get on (two men and a woman.)
At the next stop, 1 man gets off and 3 men and 5 women get on. At the next stop, a man, a woman and a child get on; 2 men and a woman get off.

At the next stop, the man, woman and child get off and 2 children get on. Next, a man and 2 women get off and 5 men get on.

Ready to solve it?

Are you sure?

Get ready:

What is the bus driver’s name? (For bonus points, is the driver a man or a woman?)

Bus driver is GrumpyGord. The riddle said that I was driving the bus. Driver is male.

You’d be amazed how many people get caught up in what appears to be a math problem, and forget the first word. (Granddaughters, nieces, nephews, even wife - with predictable result that she stated emphatically that my parents were never married.)

A plane crashes exactly on the US - Canadian border (one wing on one side, one wing on the other.) Which country autopsies the survivors?

No one. You don't autopsy the living.

You guys are a much tougher crowd than my granddaughters (that’s probably a good thing. )

I'll try this one:

You live in a house in which all the windows face south. You look out the window and see a bear. What color is the bear?

White. If you live dead center on the North Pole and therefore the windows on all four sides of your house look south.

However, it seems equally possible that you live in a house without windows on three of its sides, in which case, the bear is probably some variation on brown, dark brown, black, or cinnamon color. It's hard to say which.

Let’s revisit the bus riddle. How many people were on the bus after the last stop?

12? I did it in my head, so I may have lost track.

Sometimes the grandkids are not into the humor of the situation. The other day my 14 year old grandson who is just starting chemistry got into the difference between carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide so I asked him if he knew the difference between H2O and H1O and he got into the unbalanced charges etc. So I told him that the H1O was half a glass of water and he just was completely baffled.

We went on an Alaskan cruise with the granddaughters (and those people they live with), and as we got off for the first port call in Alaska, I asked them if they’d like to have some Alaskan money to spend. They said yes, so I gave them each a dollar bill. Evidently, I found that more humorous than they did. (Perhaps I’d have gotten better results with a twenty?)

You’re right! (Usually, everyone forgets to count the driver.)

To be fair, these would probably all stump me if you asked me in person. I process written and verbal information totally differently.