If any of you were interested in Sledman’s recent thread, Game- Why did he die?, then maybe you were like me, and were a little confused as to what the game was about. I was really looking forward to something more like a riddle, but that’ll teach me to make assumptions. Anyway, rather than go on about it, I decided to post one of my own. Here are the rules for these things:
[ul]
[li]I describe a situation which is missing some vital information, and then pose a question. Your task is to answer the question by figuring out the vital information.[/li][li]Ask me yes-or-no questions only. I’ll answer Yes, No, Unanswerable, or Irrelevant. If it’s Irrelevant, then the answer could just as easily be Yes or No, so the answer wouldn’t help you figure it out. If it’s Unanswerable, you may yet be on the right track; try rewording the question.[/li][li]Usually, these things do not require a knowledge of trivia, but just a general idea of how things work.[/li][/ul]
Enough ado. Here it is:
One sunny Summer afternoon, a man is out fishing in the middle of a lake, over 100 meters from the shore. He slips and falls into the water, and despite the fact that he can swim, he calls for help. A woman, who can not swim, just happens to be at the edge of the lake, and hearing his shout, rescues him. The question is, How did she manage to save him?
I hope this isn’t too obvious - it’s the first one I’ve ever written myself. But, let’s see how it works out.
Alright alright. I knew that was too easy. Incidentally, it wasn’t the Southern Hemisphere - it was Greenland. So there! Fortunately, I have another one I came up with in the shower:
I am always late. To my left and right are two who are always early. What am I pointing to?
This is simple. Using basic Calculus equations of kilocalories in Spam, I see that the answer truly is “duck”. To further test my answer, I consulted a Magic 8 Ball. After shaking the Hell out of it, sure enough, “duck” appeared. The bum fishing through my garbage cans agrees, too. I had to give him a fifth of rum, but he agrees.
JBurton99 – now that was an HONEST answer to the OP. I didn’t get perverted out of no where. Um, Kellibelli started it. She DID! I swear!
Demigod#5 – no, no, you can’t use basic Calculus or you just fudge the entire thing up! You have to look at it from a basic, geometric perspective. And then calculate everyone’s weight into Shakespeare minis a Bacon and then you can run it into trig and then to Calculus. Then you take the framistan to the point of no return and you arrive at the point. Which is just silly. So I’ll stop here. For the moment.
Well, it’s true about me having a really boring life, but it’s hardly a secret. Now then.
Sure, I’ll give you some hints, but you people are supposed to ask questions. Didn’t you read the OP? Let’s see…
I am not a person, or any sort of living thing (nix the duck and the platypus). Neither are the two next to me. Neither is that at which I’m pointing.
That at which I’m pointing is not either of the two next to me.
Myself, and the two things next to me, and the thing I’m pointing at, are all similar objects, but the three of us are more similar than the pointed-at object.
I am a little worried that after that orgasm answer, the real answer will be… well… anticlimactic. (Don’t bother rolling your eyes for me - I’ll do it myself. :rolleyes: )
Oh well, I knew it would anger some people, but it really was straightforward and to give any more detail at the beginning would have given it away. I would hope you accepted it more for the lesson in Historical Causation it was intended to be.
Sledman, I have no malice against you, and I have no real problem with your thread; I’m sorry it came across like that. I understand now that it’s a lesson in Historical Causation, and may I say, it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever had. I just wish I’d realized what it was earlier on, so that I wouldn’t have stayed up at night, thinking there was some trick I was missing. I know you weren’t trying to deceive anyone, but I’m sure there were others, like me, who managed to deceive themselves.
Ditto to what Achernar said, Sledman… I thought it wasa good thread, and it was a good thread, but it wasn’t the same good thread that I thought it was.
Now, as to Achernar’s riddle: Is the item referred to a mechanical device, or a part of one?
