# Lateral Thinking Puzzles - third time is best! **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 18, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214 "2023-07-18T13:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 101
**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 3, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2001 "2024-05-03T14:24:28Z")
This will be a pretty major clue, but… **English is relevant in that the system was designed to display titles in English, and that was the problem.** ---
**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:** [May 3, 2024, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2002 "2024-05-03T14:27:06Z")
Did the misrepresentation apply to the book’s original-language market? For example, if it was written in French, would shoppers in France have seen the misrepresentation? Did it apply to a market other than the original language? For example, would US shoppers looking for the French version have seen it misrepresented? Would it help if we could determine the original language? ---
**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 3, 2024, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2003 "2024-05-03T14:29:48Z")
I’m not sure who all was able to see the error, but speakers of the original language would immediately recognize it as an error, while English speakers might not. Knowing the original language is important. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2004 "2024-05-03T14:30:37Z")
So, to be clear, the description contained a sequence of letters in a foreign language that means ‘butt’ in English, is that correct? If correct, was it the book title? The author’s name? The plot summary? ---
**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 3, 2024, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2005 "2024-05-03T14:32:54Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > So, to be clear, the description contained a sequence of letters in a foreign language that means ‘butt’ in English, is that correct? **No, that’s not it.** > > If correct, was it the book title? The author’s name? The plot summary? **The title is the relevant part.** ---
**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:** [May 3, 2024, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2006 "2024-05-03T14:35:09Z")
Does the answer have something to do with a phrase that would be understood as an idiom in one language but not the other? ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2007 "2024-05-03T14:37:01Z")
Was the original non-English title therefore displayed in the description? Was the original title in a language that uses Latin script? If not was the original language Crycllic? ---
**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 3, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2008 "2024-05-03T14:38:59Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Was the original non-English title therefore displayed in the description? **Yes** > Was the original title in a language that uses Latin script? **Yes** > If not was the original language Crycllic? **No** > [@dirtball](#): > > Does the answer have something to do with a phrase that would be understood as an idiom in one language but not the other? **No** ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2009 "2024-05-03T14:45:59Z")
> Was the original title in a language that uses Latin script? **Yes** Okay let’s pull on this thread a little bit more… Was the book title French? Spanish? Italian? Portuguese? German? ---
**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 3, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2010 "2024-05-03T14:55:21Z")
**Spanish** ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2011 "2024-05-03T15:22:48Z")
Was the word in question culata or a variation? Was it colilla and misinterpreted as “rear end”? ---
**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 3, 2024, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2012 "2024-05-03T15:23:39Z")
**No** ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2013 "2024-05-03T15:48:07Z")
Thinking out loud here. So a Spanish title gets misinterpreted due to the system that displays titles in English. But the misinterpretation is not from picking butt-related substrings from the Spanish title, nor does it relate to the English version. I’ve looked back over the clues, and it seems you’ve ruled out the English _version_ of a piece of Spanish literature, but not necessarily the English translation of the Spanish _title_. So is it correct to say that Amazon presented a title of a classic Spanish work in Spanish and in English, but the English title was either mistranslated or ambiguously meant “butts”? ---
**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 3, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2014 "2024-05-03T15:55:53Z")
**No** And I’m starting to think this may be ungettable if you don’t know the specific Spanish-language title, but I’ll offer the following clue: Nothing is actually being translated. A Spanish word is being displayed incorrectly. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2015 "2024-05-03T16:16:28Z")
Did a diacritical mark throw something out of whack? ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2016 "2024-05-03T16:19:50Z")
I had to do some Google Translate, but I see Cólera = Cholera, and Culera = Asshole. Or maybe Google just switched to Corsican. Is the title _El amor en los tiempos del cólera_? ---
**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 3, 2024, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2017 "2024-05-03T16:56:43Z")
_Cien anos de soledad_, without the tilde? ---
**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:** [May 3, 2024, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2018 "2024-05-03T17:19:30Z")
Did the title have some kind of letter configuration that looked like a butt when displayed in a text field? ---
**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 3, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2019 "2024-05-03T17:20:10Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > Did a diacritical mark throw something out of whack? **Yes** > [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > _Cien anos de soledad_, without the tilde? **Yes!** _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ became _One Hundred Anuses of Solitude_, because their early system couldn’t handle diacritical marks. ---
**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:** [June 27, 2024, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2020 "2024-06-27T01:32:49Z")
**Henry was a fine man and definitely a keeper, that’s for sure. However, it is not his life, but the circumstances of his tragic death that were so unique and bizarre, people still talk about them to this day. How exactly did he die?** Just to get this out of the way: True story, don’t Google, happened in the 1700’s, but date not relevant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=100) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=102)