# Lateral puzzle -- anybody know the answer?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 13, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032 "2003-11-13T15:21:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/1 "2003-11-13T15:21:26Z")
Over on the Lateral Thinking Puzzles Forum, somebody recently posted a puzzle for which they admitted they didn’t know the solution.
The point of that forum is to answer lateral puzzles. It helps a lot for the puzzle host to know the answer. We’re on a quest for one of us to find the solution to this one, so we can have fun trying to solve the puzzle.
So I’m presenting the puzzle here, in the hopes that somebody knows the solution. Feel free to post the solution here (in a spoiler box, please), or join the forum and take over the puzzle.
So here’s the puzzle:
> [@](#):
>
> _Towns and Kids In Horror_
> Two towns are separated by a field. One fine Saturday morning all of the kids came out of their houses from both towns and ran into the field. Suddenly they all stopped, looked at the field in horror and ran back into their houses crying. The field was empty except for two piles of stones in the middle of it. What happened?
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### Author:  [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/2 "2003-11-13T15:27:52Z")
Blair Witch?
Ha ha, kidding.
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### Author:  [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/3 "2003-11-13T15:31:11Z")
Their stone castle had collapsed?
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### Author:  [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/4 "2003-11-13T15:32:52Z")
Hrmmm…they were visited by the Blair Witch?
Serious guess: The field had been a graveyard, and someone knocked over all the headstones and piled them up…?
Less solid guess: since the kids apparently all ran out into the field at the same time, was it some kind of game field, like football or soccer? And is there some kind of game equipment, made from “stones” (like curling, but other sports might use that term for something else) that was broken up and piled in heaps? Hence the kids’ horror that someone would vandalize their playing field?
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/5 "2003-11-13T15:45:06Z")
Well. true laterla puzzles require yes/no quesions and answers.
Also, you have to use different meanings of the words to draw the mental picture.
For example…kids can be children or goats. Field can be a field of corn, wheat, etc…or a baseball field, football field, soccer field.
Maybe it was a corn field, and the kids were showing up for a harvest.
Now, ‘two piles of rocks’ is significant, because that refers to something specific.
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### Author:  [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/6 "2003-11-13T15:58:18Z")
42!!
😃
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### Author:  [@CrazyMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyMonkey)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/7 "2003-11-13T16:25:54Z")
So, I guess the concert was cancelled when Mick Jagger and his buddies all died of drug overdose the night before the event?
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### Author:  [@SpaceDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceDog)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/8 "2003-11-13T16:32:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The field was empty except for two piles of stones in the middle of it. What happened?
I’m guessing the key here is the ‘empty’ bit, I suspect that there was supposed to be something in the field that is no longer there. The stones may or may not have something to do with it.
Perhaps … hang on let me see if I can work spoilers …
Each towns kids were building a massive snowman. They returned in the morning to discover the snowmen melted and only the stones used for the features left ?
SD
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### Author:  [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/9 "2003-11-13T17:01:40Z")
That has merit, **SpaceDog**. That’s quite plausible, and involves sufficient lateral thinking to be a good candidate for a solution. Thanks!
It also sounds like a variation on a classic puzzle. I’ll have to check on that.
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### Author:  [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/10 "2003-11-13T17:05:08Z")
We don’t get to SEE??? BLARGH! I cryeth foul!
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### Author:  [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/11 "2003-11-13T17:09:58Z")
I am such a dork!!! OK, I understand it all now… bring forth the dancing monkeys!
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### Author:  [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/12 "2003-11-13T17:13:44Z")
I’m thinking these two towns are rivals, and their respective groups of kids squared off against each other in the field and had a rock throwing war. They all happened to be bunched together in 2 groups at the time, threw rocks in mass all at once, then ran home crying because they each got hurt by a rock.
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### Author:  [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/13 "2003-11-13T17:16:53Z")
I still say the Blair Witch happened along and scared the crap outta the kids!
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### Author:  [@SpacemanSpiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpacemanSpiff)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/14 "2003-11-13T18:17:16Z")
The key has to have something to do with the fact that there are two towns. Otherwise, the riddle would have worked just as well with one town. In other words “There was a town with a field in the middle. On fine Saturday…” You get the idea.
In anycase, I have a feeling that this is the key, but that doesn’t mean I’m anywhere close to having the answer. Moot point, anyway, I guess… I don’t have a clue about how to make spoilers.
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### Author:  [@smam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smam)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/15 "2003-11-13T18:27:52Z")
Maybe it’s an invisible force-field and the kids ran into it and hurt themselves, so they all threw rocks at it and left.
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### Author:  [@Irishlove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishlove)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/16 "2003-11-14T01:48:40Z")
Two towns are separated by a field?
That makes no sense to start with, unless it’s a hell of a big field.
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### Author:  [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/17 "2003-11-14T01:51:56Z")
How about the remains of a stone bridge connecting the two towns?
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### Author:  [@BIH\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BIH_Boy)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/18 "2003-11-14T02:15:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Irishlove \*
> \*\*Two towns are separated by a field?
> That makes no sense to start with, unless it’s a hell of a big field. \*\*
Maybe it’s Springfield and Shelbyville.
I’m sure there’s an episode of the Simpsons where the towns are basically seperated by a big field that has a lemon tree on the Springfield side.
As for the riddle - I’m stumped.
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### Author:  [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/19 "2003-11-14T02:20:07Z")
Are the towns named “East Berlin” and “West Berlin” and the field has a crop of anti-personnell mines? The piles would be piles of rubble.
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### Author:  [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-puzzle-anybody-know-the-answer/213032/20 "2003-11-14T02:25:43Z")
I got sucked into the lateral puzzles forum several years ago – I was fortunate to get out. These things suck your brain cells right out of your eyeballs. Distressing to see them moving in on the SDMB.
Oh, and :).
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