# Lateral Thinking Puzzles. Let's do it again! **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [October 23, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193 "2019-10-23T21:32:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 273
**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:** [November 20, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5448 "2022-11-20T02:31:35Z")
Fall isn’t significant. The same theme could just as well work in any season. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2022, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5449 "2022-11-20T02:33:43Z")
Does the wordplay involve Anagrams? Homophones? Abbreviations? Rhymes? Acronyms? Rebus? Palindromes? Oronym? ---
**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:** [November 20, 2022, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5450 "2022-11-20T02:34:42Z")
Slightly oronym. Which incidentally I had to look up. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2022, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5451 "2022-11-20T02:48:08Z")
Do the costumes represent individual theme words or phrases? If so, are the individual theme words all parts of a whole theme word or phrase? ---
**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:** [November 20, 2022, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5452 "2022-11-20T06:23:15Z")
Did the theme have to do with the name of the school? Something else specific to that school? The name of the city/state/region where the school is located? Something else specific to that place? ---
**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:** [November 20, 2022, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5453 "2022-11-20T09:06:50Z")
Is it salad dressings? Say, French, Italian, Ranch, and, maybe, Thousand Island? (No, wait: Polynesian?) ---
**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:** [November 20, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5454 "2022-11-20T14:17:14Z")
Ding ding ding! @The_Other_Waldo_Pepper got it. And I think @SurrenderDorothy might have as well, but she was coy about it. (except the seniors were actually Caesar dressing, not Italian, but close enough) ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5455 "2023-01-21T17:26:41Z")
OK, I’m going next. I have no idea if this is too easy, or too boring, or whatever. I’ve never done this before, so please bear with me. **A man urgently tries to send an important message. He is too late and misses a deadline. At first this looks like a failure, but as a consequence, the man makes a lot of people happy at a later time.** ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5456 "2023-01-21T17:34:20Z")
Did this really happen? Was the message abot some sort of conveyance? ---
**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:** [January 21, 2023, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5457 "2023-01-21T17:39:39Z")
Was something invented or discovered as a result of the missed deadline? Did the man suffer any negative consequences as a result of being unable to send the message on time? If yes, did they involve losing a job? Being demoted to a position with less responsibility? Would anything bad have happened if the message had gone through on time? If yes: to the man? To other people? Did the message ultimately reach its destination? ---
**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:** [January 21, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5458 "2023-01-21T17:41:14Z")
Would the message, had it gone through, have made a potentially bad event more likely to occur? Would the message, had it gone through, have made a good event unlikely to have occurred? ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5459 "2023-01-21T17:46:19Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > Did this really happen? YES > > Was the message abot some sort of conveyance? NO (if you mean “conveyance” in the sense of a property transaction) See answers above ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5460 "2023-01-21T17:51:12Z")
Apparently I don’t know what conveyance means. I meant a form of transportation, like cars, trains, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5461 "2023-01-21T17:52:27Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Was something invented or discovered as a result of the missed deadline? **Yes** > > Did the man suffer any negative consequences as a result of being unable to send the message on time? If yes, did they involve losing a job? Being demoted to a position with less responsibility? **No, the man did not suffer negative consequences as a result of his failure to send the message in time** > > Would anything bad have happened if the message had gone through on time? If yes: to the man? To other people? **No - If the message had gone through on time, nothing bad would have happened (at least nothing objectively bad, although some people might have disliked that outcome)** > > Did the message ultimately reach its destination? **The intended recipient ultimately received the information, but it was of no use then** Answers above ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5462 "2023-01-21T17:54:21Z")
Or maybe I don’t know what conveyance means, perhaps it can mean transportation just as well as property transfer. Anyway, I guess some form of transportation would have been involved in delivering the message, but the content of the message was not about a means of transportation. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5463 "2023-01-21T17:58:59Z")
The message had no bearing on events that were objectively good or bad, in the sense of averting a disaster or otherwise saving people’s lives. Some people, at the time, would have preferred the message to go through and others were quite happy that it didn’t. In the longer run, however, it’s fair to say that many more people were happy as a result of what the man did after the message had failed to go through. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2023, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5464 "2023-01-21T18:07:57Z")
Was the reason the message failed the cause that lead to the discovery? Was the discovery made because an alternative to the message information had to be found? ---
**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:** [January 21, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5465 "2023-01-21T18:08:46Z")
Did this happen in wartime? Did it happen in the nineteenth century? Twentieth? Twenty-first? Earlier? Would it help to know the format of the message? If yes: – Written on paper? – Spoken message delivered in person? – Spoken message delivered via technology (radio, telephone, audiotape, etc.) – Telegram? – E-mail / text / other electronic communication? Was the thing that was invented or discovered a creative work, like a song or movie? ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5466 "2023-01-21T18:09:25Z")
Was the message late because the sender experienced a delay in sending it? Was it late because the messenger and/or delivery service experienced a delay in transit? Was it late because the recipient was not available to take delivery in a timely manner? Was the message sent via the postal service (of whatever country or countries)? ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193/5467 "2023-01-21T18:11:10Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Was the reason the message failed the cause that lead to the discovery? **I think you can say that. If the message had gone through as intended, the discovery or invention would not have been made (at least not at the time it was made - perhaps someone else would ultimately have made it after all)** > > Was the discovery made because an alternative to the message information had to be found? **No** See above. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193.md?page=272) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-lets-do-it-again/842193.md?page=274)