# Pointless, but intriguing

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-but-intriguing/396385>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 18, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-but-intriguing/396385 "2007-03-18T00:20:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![StinkyBurrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@StinkyBurrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StinkyBurrito)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-but-intriguing/396385/81 "2007-03-19T18:16:23Z")

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I did not think of a red hammer. I thought of the color red, and I thought of a tool called a hammer.

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-but-intriguing/396385/82 "2007-03-19T19:11:05Z")

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[QUOTE=ZebraShaSha]  
My immediate reaction was “Venison Jesus” when reading the question. I guess it’s a color and a tool, who knows.  
[/QUOTE]  
Well, _ **I** _ thought of “shoehorn butterhorse”.

Actually – Red shovel. Sometimes when taking one of these the immediate answer does pop into my mind but I discard it, in violation of the instructions. But “hammer” didn’t even enter my mind!

By our results, maybe only 2% of people _did_ think of a red hammer!

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**Author:** ![Dunawake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-but-intriguing/396385/83 "2007-03-19T20:41:08Z")

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Another “red hammer” here, now I have to put on my tin foil cap to prevent the internet from hearing my thoughts… :dubious:

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**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-but-intriguing/396385/84 "2007-03-19T20:50:08Z")

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Red hammer here, too. Interesting.

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**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointless-but-intriguing/396385/85 "2007-03-20T07:10:28Z")

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[QUOTE=Montgomery0]  
Is it wrong that I thought of a purple George Bush?  
[/QUOTE]

My immediate reaction was “green Dick Cheney”  
IIRC Martin Gardner had a ‘clairvoyance quiz’ in one of his books that had a whole series of questions similar to this, based on what people will tend to think of (and a few math tricks that force an answer thrown in)

I think one of the questions was - pick an odd two-digit number where both digits are not the same :

The typical answer is

37

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