Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

Logic Puzzle

Before getting to this week’s topic, here is the weekly logic puzzle.

A blind man is placed at a table with 30 coins. He is told that 10 are face up heads and 20 are face up tails. Gloves are put on his hands, so he can't feel which side is face on any coin. He is tasked with separating the coins into two piles such that the number of tails will be the same in each pile. The piles may be of any size and may be unequal to each other. How should he do it?

 

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Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

Last month I spent a week in the small city of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The main purpose of the trip was to feel it out as a possible place to move to after I retire, which is not far off. The locals refer to the name of the city at T or C, which I shall do from this point forward.

I stayed at a nice casita on Air BnB, which was very inexpensive. In fact, everything in T or C is quite cheap, including the housing. A major point in its favor.

The terrain is mostly flat. The climate is that of a high desert, which means it’s cooler than places like Las Vegas. To be specific, the elevation is 4,311 feet, compared to the 2,030 of Las Vegas.

One thing I’m looking for wherever I move to is close proximity to both mountains and water. T or C meets both requirements. In easy walking distance of town, although necessitating wading across the Rio Grande River, is Turtleback Mountain. This climb is 4.5-mile round hike with about 2,000 feet of elevation gain. It’s not very technically challenging,but makes for a good workout.

T or C is a few miles from the largest body of water in New Mexico, Elephant Butte Reservoir. I went kayaking on it three times and stand-up paddleboarding once. It is very scenic with easy car access. Also nearby is Caballo Reservoir, which is fourth-largest body of water in New Mexico by surface area.

A major draw to T or C are the hot springs. The city sits atop a natural supply of hot water, which currently supply ten spas. In fact, the name of T or C was Hot Springs, before it was changed in honor of a radio game show 75 years ago. I personally visited three of them. The business model is generally paying by the hour. Most spas offer small private tubs. The Riverbend Hot Springs have a nice public area with pools of various temperatures. Unfortunately for single soakers, the price is usually the same for one or two people. However, the Riverbend has a half-off single-soaker promotion before 4:00 on Mondays to Thursdays.

T or C has a lot of live music for a city of its small size. Personally, I attended a weekly performance at the Fiddlers Playhouse, a jazz performance at an art studio, and duo at the golf club and two live music performances at the primary bar in town, the T or C brewery. The performers don’t seem to mind if only several people are in the audience, which is generally the case.

The city hosts an impressive veterans’ park and museum, which includes a replica at half the size of the Vietnam veterans wall in Washington DC. I looked up how many Shacklefords died in the war. The answer is four – but all of them spell their name incorrectly as Shackelford.

Overall, here are the pros and cons, as I see them, about moving to Truth or Consequences.

Pros:

1. • The locals are very friendly and easy-going.
2. • The cost of living is very cheap.
3. • Hot springs
4. • Close to water

 

Cons:

1. • Not many restaurants. Often a drive-in is the only place to eat open.
2. • Lack of diversity in the population. The vast majority look like me in both age and race. Hardly anybody under the age of 30.
3. • It may be too small for me.

 

Logic Puzzle Solution

Place 10 coins in one pile and 20 in the other. Then, flip over all the coins in the pile of 20.

To show this works, let pile 1 be the pile of 10 coins and pile 2 be the pile of 20. Let h = number of heads in pile 1.

The number of tails in pile 1 will be 10-h, since it has 10 total coins.

Originally, pile 2 will have 10-h heads, since there are 10 total heads. After flipping over all the coins in pile 2, there will be 10-h tails, the same as the total tails in pile 1.