# 53 bicycles: A lateral thinking puzzle **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 9, 2017, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868 "2017-07-09T19:51:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 32
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/621 "2017-07-19T00:17:40Z")
snoe got it. Is the full set you’re referring to FDR, LBJ, and JFK? Or, are you counting less-used ones like DDE or RMN or other? ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/622 "2017-07-19T00:19:11Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I suspect that there are many reasons. As with all historical events or cultural conventions, that’s a safe guess :). But see below ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/623 "2017-07-19T00:23:47Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > snoe got it. There are only so many kinds of cabin 🙂 > [@](#): > > Is the full set you’re referring to FDR, LBJ, and JFK? Almost! > [@](#): > > Or, are you counting less-used ones like DDE or RMN or other? Not DDE or RMN, certainly. I can think of one “other” example, at least… ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/624 "2017-07-19T00:25:23Z")
Were all their middle names actually older family surnames? ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/625 "2017-07-19T00:26:48Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Does it have to do with the art of headline writing in newspapers? Yup! ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/626 "2017-07-19T00:29:58Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Were all their middle names actually older family surnames? Sounds like it might be true, but not the explanation I was looking for. I’m sure that there are some non-shortened presidents for whom that’s true as well (Ronald WILSON Reagan, as a guess). ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/627 "2017-07-19T00:33:37Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > There are only so many kinds of cabin 🙂 > Almost! Not DDE or RMN, certainly. I can think of one “other” example, at least… It’s not at all obvious to me, so I guess I’ll just list them. Was it HST? GRF? (LLK?) JEC? RWR? GHWB? WJC? GWB? BHO? DJT? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/628 "2017-07-19T00:38:15Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > Yup! Total length of names? ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/629 "2017-07-19T00:41:37Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > It’s not at all obvious to me, so I guess I’ll just list them. > > Was it HST? GRF? (LLK?) JEC? RWR? GHWB? WJC? GWB? BHO? DJT? I’m wondering who “LLK” was, but none of those abbreviations completes the set, either. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/630 "2017-07-19T00:42:40Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Total length of names? Be more specific… ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/631 "2017-07-19T00:52:43Z")
The commonly-abbreviated names have the longest surnames: Kennedy, Roosevelt, and Johnson. It would save less space to simply write “Bush” or “Nixon” since the lower-case letters are smaller. And Eisenhower can be called “Ike”? ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/632 "2017-07-19T01:01:18Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > I’m wondering who “LLK” was, but none of those abbreviations completes the set, either. LLK was Leslie Lynch King, Jr. of course. Our [38th president](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford). I’m baffled how the set could not have been completed, so I guess I’ll dig deeper into the question. By “US Presidents” did you mean persons who had held the office of “President of the United States”? By WWII did you mean World War Two? By ‘initials’ do you mean the first letter of each of their names? Wait, did you mean WJB? That’s even more obscure. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/633 "2017-07-19T01:06:44Z")
Does the set you are referring to include fictional presidents? ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/634 "2017-07-19T01:31:08Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > He had been blind and extremely depressed about it, but received a treatment in Switzerland that was supposed to cure him. He was told not to take off his blindfold, though, for over a week. However, when he was on the train, he could not help but lift the blindfold and peek. They were in a tunnel, total darkness. In his depression he would have killed himself. However, he saw the light of the cigarettes and realized his vision had returned. Gosh, I never realized all those eye transplant patients were so suicidal. Doesn’t show up in the obituaries so often. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/635 "2017-07-19T01:40:32Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > I’m baffled how the set could not have been completed Well, “Ike” is not “DDE.” Sorry to nitpick :(. I think I answered your original question about DDE accurately … I read it as referring to nicknames, not to the presidents themselves. **ZipperJJ** and **Ludovic** basically got it. The presidents with the most familiarly abbreviated names – FDR, JFK, LBJ, and Ike – all had last names that were seven characters or more in length, and would hence reduce the font size of newspaper headlines. The other ten presidents all had six-character-or-fewer last names: Truman (6), Nixon (5), Ford (4), Carter (6), Reagan (6), Bush (4), Gore (4) – just kidding! Bush again (4), Obama (5), and Trump (5). Why didn’t we shorten Bill Clinton’s name, though? He’s got 7 characters in his surname. But one of them’s a skinny old “i” – enough to squeeze into a decent-sized headline! This may be a bit of a “Just So” story – euphoniousness (who wants to say “RWR” out loud?) and other factors may have contributed as well. Still, the answer was deducible from the question with minimal knowledge, so I thought it was worth throwing out there. I got this explanation from one of the pieces in Hendrik Hertzberg’s excellent journalistic anthology _Politics_; I was hoping to quote it, or at least cite the relevant piece, but a) I’ve lent my copy out or lost it and b) the relevant passage is not on Google Books or Amazon’s “look inside” preview. So you’ll just have to buy a cheap, remaindered copy and hunt for it yourself. Hertzberg gives details about point sizes, etc. Postscript: If a hint was needed, I was going to point out that this “issue” is unlikely to arise with future presidents. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/636 "2017-07-19T01:46:23Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > Well, “Ike” is not “DDE.” Sorry to nitpick :(. I think I answered your original question about DDE accurately … I read it as referring to nicknames, not to the presidents themselves. I agree that Ike is not DDE, but I’m baffled as to whose initials you are claiming it is… So, I guess you were using a very novel definition of the word “initials”. It was my third question that illuminated your deception. Do you have any source which defines the word initials such that a modern president could be referred to in this fashion? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/637 "2017-07-19T02:26:11Z")
As an aside… I find that it’s difficult to remember General Eisenhower’s first name, but not at all difficult to remember President Eisenhower’s. Not that that makes any sense, of course. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/638 "2017-07-19T03:10:33Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > Why are some of these presidents’ names commonly shortened, while others aren’t? > [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > I agree that Ike is not DDE, but I’m baffled as to whose initials you are claiming it is… > > So, I guess you were using a very novel definition of the word “initials”. It was my third question that illuminated your deception. Do you have any source which defines the word initials such that a modern president could be referred to in this fashion? Ah, I see. I was not, I think, dishonest in how I phrased the actual question; see above. The reference to initials was in the table-setting; in the question, I did not specify that these presidents’ names were commonly shortened _in this way_ or something like that. (I did try to imply it, as previous puzzles implied that a cabin was a small house or home was where someone lived.) Eisenhower and Clinton were the outliers that made the pattern more complex and tricky. And interesting, I hoped. Sorry if it seemed unfair, though. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/639 "2017-07-19T03:54:44Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > Ah, I see. I was not, I think, dishonest in how I phrased the actual question; see above. The reference to initials was in the table-setting; in the question, I did not specify that these presidents’ names were commonly shortened _in this way_ or something like that. > > (I did try to imply it, as previous puzzles implied that a cabin was a small house or home was where someone lived.) > > Eisenhower and Clinton were the outliers that made the pattern more complex and tricky. And interesting, I hoped. > > Sorry if it seemed unfair, though. ☹ I thought it was a great question. I’m sure other people here have obscure trivia like this they could contribute. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/640 "2017-07-19T14:42:23Z")
I guess I’ll go again if no one else minds. This one was new to me from a podcast on lateral thinking. I’m not sure if it is a good one or not. I guess we’ll see. **A man in uniform stands on the beach of a tropical island. He takes out a cigarette, lights it, and begins smoking. He then opens a letter and begins reading it. The cigarette burns down between his fingers, but he doesn’t throw it away. He then cries. Why?** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868.md?page=31) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868.md?page=33)