# 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:** 34
**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 20, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/661 "2017-07-20T02:36:18Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Just FYI I’m gonna stick with my original theory. Seriously, fuck Craig. No. Craig fucks you. 🙂 > [@](#): > > That said, I’ll play along :). > > 1. Are they both human? > 2. Did the same people know them both? 1. No 2. Some do ---
**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 20, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/662 "2017-07-20T02:37:36Z")
> [@peter morris](#): > > i’m gonna guess. > > they were hurricanes? yes! Dingdingdingding! ---
**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 20, 2017, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/663 "2017-07-20T02:38:54Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > They were flying a two-person aircraft which got into difficulty and they had to bail out with parachutes. Craig landed in the sea, where he was stung by a jellyfish, nibbled at by sharks and finally eaten by a giant sea monster, while Beulah landed amid some moonshiners in the Cahulawassee River valley. That’s also correct. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/664 "2017-07-20T03:03:12Z")
Here’s a quick one: A woman comes home with a bag a groceries, and one her way to the kitchen, walks past her husband, dead, in the living room. She shows no alarm or concern, and goes to the kitchen and puts away the groceries. ---
**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 20, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/665 "2017-07-20T03:13:08Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Here’s a quick one: > > A woman comes home with a bag a groceries, and one her way to the kitchen, walks past her husband, dead, in the living room. She shows no alarm or concern, and goes to the kitchen and puts away the groceries. In an urn? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/666 "2017-07-20T05:39:31Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > In an urn? Yup. ---
**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 20, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/667 "2017-07-20T13:08:52Z")
Hey, he’s not getting any deader, but that milk will spoil if she doesn’t get it put away quickly. Priorities. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/668 "2017-07-20T14:33:20Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Here’s a quick one: > > A woman comes home with a bag a groceries, and one her way to the kitchen, walks past her husband, dead, in the living room. She shows no alarm or concern, and goes to the kitchen and puts away the groceries. I’ve heard this before with more red herrings thrown in. Something like… A woman comes home with a bag a groceries, and on her way to the kitchen, she glances at her husband who is dead in the living room. He died of an apparent suicide, gun still in his hand, the wall next to him splattered in blood. The woman shows no alarm or concern, and goes to the kitchen and puts away the groceries. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/669 "2017-07-20T16:52:43Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > It’s interesting how many of the puzzles presented on this thread rely on increasingly-outdated cultural knowledge. Leper colonies, newspaper headlines, trains in tunnels, etc. > > I’m not advocating that future puzzles should be emoji-focused or anything, but … it’s interesting. A woman unfriends 51 people on Facebook, sells her jewelry on ebay and releases a number of pet animals into the wild. She also swears off a certain kind of fruit. Why? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/670 "2017-07-20T18:00:36Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > A woman unfriends 51 people on Facebook, sells her jewelry on ebay and releases a number of pet animals into the wild. She also swears off a certain kind of fruit. Why? 1. Is she pregnant? 2. Is she in the middle of a divorce? 3. Did her computer get hacked? 4. Is the fruit real fruit, or is it part of some kind of game, like the cherries on a slot machine? 5. Does the number 51 have some significance for the woman? 6. Did all 51 people do the same thing to get unfriended? 7. Did the 51 people do nothing in particular, she just made up her mind to unfriend 51 people, or to get her list down to a certain number, so she had to subtract 51? ---
**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 20, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/671 "2017-07-20T18:32:03Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > A woman unfriends 51 people on Facebook, sells her jewelry on ebay and releases a number of pet animals into the wild. She also swears off a certain kind of fruit. Why? Because drama queen. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/672 "2017-07-20T21:10:40Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > A woman unfriends 51 people on Facebook, sells her jewelry on ebay and releases a number of pet animals into the wild. She also swears off a certain kind of fruit. Why? She doesn’t like Donald Trump. “unfriends 51 people on Facebook” - they were Trump supporters “sells her jewelry on ebay”- they were _Ivanka Trump Collection_ “releases a number of pet animals into the wild” - they looked like Donald Trump’s hair “also swears off a certain kind of fruit” - she will no longer buy oranges or orange-colored fruit ---
**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 20, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/673 "2017-07-20T22:02:00Z")
1. Were the 51 people correlated to the other cards in a deck of playing cards? 2. Were the 51 people correlated to each US state and the District of Columbia? 3. Is the number of pet animals released relevant? ---
**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 20, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/674 "2017-07-20T22:08:34Z")
1. Is the particular number 51 relevant? (Would this problem work as well if she’d unfriended 62 people?) ---
**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 20, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/675 "2017-07-20T22:30:22Z")
1. Regulation question for Biotop: Are one or more words in the riddle best understood through some sort of wordplay or other nonstandard definition? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/676 "2017-07-20T22:30:30Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > A woman unfriends 51 people on Facebook, sells her jewelry on ebay and releases a number of pet animals into the wild. She also swears off a certain kind of fruit. Why? All but the jewelry on eBay I can understand as going offline: she erases herself from Facebook, no longer plays Pokemon Go (“pet animals”), and swears off online casinos (“cherries”). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/677 "2017-07-20T22:47:52Z")
Is this something to do with playing cards? Is she a queen? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/678 "2017-07-20T22:58:56Z")
Are the 51 people the total of her friends on Facebook, or does she still have some friends left? ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/679 "2017-07-21T00:27:09Z")
Sorry. I got called into work right after posting the wuestion. I will try and answer all the questions during this lunch break. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868/680 "2017-07-21T00:30:16Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > 1. Is she pregnant? > > 2. Is she in the middle of a divorce? > > 3. Did her computer get hacked? > > 4. Is the fruit real fruit, or is it part of some kind of game, like the cherries on a slot machine? > > 5. Does the number 51 have some significance for the woman? > > 6. Did all 51 people do the same thing to get unfriended? > > 7. Did the 51 people do nothing in particular, she just made up her mind to unfriend 51 people, or to get her list down to a certain number, so she had to subtract 51? 1. No 2. No 3. No. 4. Yes real fruit. 5. No 6. No. 7. No. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868.md?page=33) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/53-bicycles-a-lateral-thinking-puzzle/790868.md?page=35)