# Lateral Thinking Puzzles: Fourthcoming Mysteries **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [May 29, 2026, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468 "2026-05-29T01:30:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [May 29, 2026, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/1 "2026-05-29T01:30:02Z")
I don’t have a good puzzle to kick of this thread, but I do think it is time to start a new thread as it is better to not have so many pages to scroll through. Anyone got one to start us off again? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2026, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/2 "2026-05-29T15:43:55Z")
A man enters a field and dies. (I’m assuming this is where folk ask questions with only yes/no answers…) ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2026, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/3 "2026-05-29T15:47:24Z")
Is it a mine field? ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2026, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/4 "2026-05-29T16:42:22Z")
Did he enter the field of toxicology ? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2026, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/5 "2026-05-29T17:02:58Z")
Did he enter the field… On foot? In a vehicle? By falling from above? By tunneling from below? In some metaphorical sense (like @pjd’s example of entering the field of toxicology)? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/6 "2026-05-29T17:49:23Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Is it a mine field? No > [@pjd](#): > > Did he enter the field of toxicology ? No > [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Did he enter the field… > On foot? > In a vehicle? > By falling from above? > By tunneling from below? > In some metaphorical sense (like @pjd’s example of entering the field of toxicology)? Falling from above (I say, you chaps are good at this! 🧐) ---
**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:** [May 29, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/7 "2026-05-29T17:52:41Z")
Yeah, we already went through all of the old classics in the first few pages of the first iteration of the thread. You’ve got to come up with something new to hook us. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2026, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/8 "2026-05-29T18:12:33Z")
Sorry - I didn’t read through the entire set of previous threads (at least I got this one started…) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/9 "2026-05-30T17:52:35Z")
Well, if nobody else has one, I have another tale of youthful folly that may work. So: **a woman asked me out on a date, and I turned her down, and this isn’t one of those stories where a guy cluelessly fails to realize that he’s being asked out; I understood her perfectly — sure as I knew exactly who she was, and sure as I’d known her for years — and I looked her right in the eye when she stood right in front of me to ask me that question and receive my just-as-perfectly-understood answer. Anyway, it wasn’t until months later that I found out that I’d turned her down when she’d asked me out on a date.** Can you explain my idiocy? ---
**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:** [May 30, 2026, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/10 "2026-05-30T18:00:35Z")
Was the incident you found out about later the same incident you’d described in the previous sentences? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/11 "2026-05-30T18:01:21Z")
Yes, it was. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/12 "2026-05-30T18:17:18Z")
Did she say, in so many words, that she was asking you to go on a date with her? Did she invite you to do something with her that is generally understood as a date (going to a dance, dinner-and-a-movie, etc.)? Did she invite you to do something with her that might or might not be a date, depending on the participants’ feelings and the way things unfold (coffee, going to a museum, etc.)? Was it Opposite Day, April Fools’ Day, or some other occasion when the normal rules of language and social interaction are somehow altered? A situation / occasion where role-playing is expected? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/13 "2026-05-30T19:02:34Z")
Hmm. Let me take these in reverse order: > [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Was it Opposite Day, April Fools’ Day, or some other occasion when the normal rules of language and social interaction are somehow altered? A situation / occasion where role-playing is expected? Nothing like that; I’d had every reason to think that she’d straightforwardly meant what she’d said, while also figuring that we were in a situation where the normal rules of social interaction and language were in effect. > [@](#): > > Did she invite you to do something with her that might or might not be a date, depending on the participants’ feelings and the way things unfold (coffee, going to a museum, etc.)? It was both less and more general than that: on the one hand, she didn’t invite me to do anything in particular; on the other hand, she simply — and, “in so many words,” _explicitly_ — put the offer out there to go on “a date.” (I can’t recall her exact wording all these years later, but she intended to convey — and I correctly understood — that I could’ve replied by _specifying_ “go to a museum” or “get coffee” if I’d wanted to accept “a date” on those terms.) > [@](#): > > Did she invite you to do something with her that is generally understood as a date (going to a dance, dinner-and-a-movie, etc.)? Again, _no,_ she didn’t specifically invite me to do a dinner-and-a-movie thing with her, or for us to go to a dance together. But, in another sense, I correctly figured that I could’ve accepted the offer of “a date” by specifying ‘dinner and a movie’ or ‘a dance’. > [@](#): > > Did she say, in so many words, that she was asking you to go on a date with her? Again, “a date” was the exact wording she used (and, yes, I knew that she meant ‘a scheduled romantic appointment’ rather than ‘a sweet and chewy fruit, to be enjoyed fresh or dried’). ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/14 "2026-05-30T20:23:28Z")
Is there any trickiness in the phrase “turned her down”? ---
**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:** [May 30, 2026, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/15 "2026-05-30T20:29:26Z")
Is the reason why you turned her down relevant? At the time you turned her down, would you, in fact, have been interested in dating her? At the time you found out, months later, would you have been interested in dating her? Is any other romantic partner (of either of you) relevant? Is the age of either of you relevant? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/16 "2026-05-30T20:37:54Z")
> [@Ana\_Byrd](#): > > Is there any trickiness in the phrase “turned her down”? No, I mean I refused the offer to go out on a date. ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/17 "2026-05-30T20:38:45Z")
Did the date actually happen? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/18 "2026-05-30T20:42:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Is the reason why you turned her down relevant? In light of your followup question — maybe? So: > [@](#): > > Is any other romantic partner (of either of you) relevant? I was coming off a bad breakup, and so wasn’t ready to date _anyone._ Which brings me to this: > [@](#): > > At the time you turned her down, would you, in fact, have been interested in dating her? > At the time you found out, months later, would you have been interested in dating her? No to the first, and yes to the second. > [@](#): > > Is the age of either of you relevant? We were both high schoolers. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/19 "2026-05-30T20:43:48Z")
> [@Ana\_Byrd](#): > > Did the date actually happen? No. Again, I have it on good authority that I was an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468/20 "2026-05-30T20:47:04Z")
Did you respond with an ill-timed joke? Or with something that was mistaken for a joke? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-fourthcoming-mysteries/1030468.md?page=2)