Lateral Thinking Questions - #31 to #40

Lateral Thinking: The ability to test your powers of questioning, deduction and persistence. If at first the direct approach leads nowhere, try coming at the problem from the side; in other words, lateral thinking.

Jump to: Question #31. Question #32. Question #33. Question #34. Question #35. Question #36. Question #37. Question #38. Question #39. Question #40.

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L.T.Q. #31 Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 16:11:00

It has been a "long week," and quite frankly I feel like poop because I'm tired and fighting a minor bug (not the computer variety). But I'm going to be O.K, because...

I'm going on vacation!

Here is this week's question:

Every Tuesday evening Hardy Pyle drives up to his cottage to visit his wife. On these weekly visits he drops off the clean clothes and picks up the dirty laundry. Since Mrs. Pyle changes her underwear each morning, what is the minimum number of underwear she can own?

I'll be out of the office until February 12th, so this question will have to keep you.

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L.T.Q. #32 Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 16:45:00

Well, I'm back in the office again, and here's a Valentine's Day question for you.

Here is this week's question:

When Clara Clatter was purchasing her new parrot, the salesman assured her that it would repeat any word it heard. About a week later, Clara returned the parrot complaining it hadn't uttered a single word. Given that the salesman had spoken the truth about the parrot's abilities, why wouldn't the bird talk?

Ridley and Orson will tell you the answer later...

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L.T.Q. #33 Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 20:40:07

I'm at home this week, so I have a wider variety of puzzle sources to choose from. I hope this one is tough enough to keep John going!

Here is this week's question:

During army maneuvers in Norway it was so cold one morning that only one truck out of some 100 to be used would start. While several mechanics stood around with hands in pockets, one ingenious individual thought of a way to start the other trucks. What do you think it was?

This one is from You Can Learn to Think Creatively by Blake Clark, by way of a Reader's Digest book from 1967.

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L.T.Q. #34 Date: Tue, 05 Mar 1996 10:54:00

It seems that the Question #33 never made it out from my home e-mail address. So let's take us back to those days of old in the times before the Internet...

Here is this week's question:

While on vacation in Europe, Shadow was touring some of the ancient castles. The tour went up a long flight of stairs, until they came upon a huge wooden door. The guide pulled the door open and shone a light inside. There was a long shaft with four walls ending some 40 meters below. The guide explained that this room had served as a disposal system for those who were out of favour with the castle lord. As the group made their way back down the stairs, they heard a loud scream and a thud. Shadow and the guide ran back to find a suicide note pinned to the large wooden door. They swung the door open and shone a light down the shaft. A woman from the tour lay dead at the bottom. "This was no suicide," declared Shadow, "this was murder." How could he be so certain?

One of the problems with the Internet is that there isn't really a way to determine if your e-mail was delivered correctly. Sometimes Cause-and-Effect is the only way to tell if your mail got through, like when you send someone an e-mail saying there is a spelling mistake on one of their web pages, and the next time you look it has been corrected!

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L.T.Q. #35 Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 11:02:00

This question comes to us from Bill Perry, where, as part of his "Thanks for the Warm Welcome," he will share with us one of life's many answers:

Here is this week's question:

How do they get the caramel centres into the Caramilk chocolate bar?

This is definitely a question short and sweet!

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L.T.Q. #36 Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 10:28:16

These questions were originally published in Liberty Magazine feature called "Twenty Questions." I won't give you all 20, but since most of them are so simple, I've decided to give you a bunch of them.

Here is this week's question:

16. Can a bird fly backward?
2. Is the rainbow ever seen as a complete circle?
1. The letters in the name "Anzac" stand for what group of words?
3. What bird can outrun a horse and roar like a lion, but cannot fly?
8. What do the letters S O S, used as the radio distress dignal, stand for?
4. What famous landmark in the United States moves backward constantly?
12. What is shivering for?
20. Why are they called the "high seas?"

Bonus Question: What is the significance of the order of the questions above?

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L.T.Q. #37 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 10:56:00

This is not so much a Lateral Thinking Question as it is a Lateral Thinking Exercise.

Here is this week's question:

You are sitting at dinner with family and/or friends. It has been a scrumptious dinner, with all of the best of your favourite dishes. You've been sampling each of the foods, but not pigging out, so you aren't stuffed to the gills, bloated and falling asleep. In the centre of the table there is a bowl of fruit. Someone picks up a banana, holds it to her ear, and says, "Hello?" She then passes the banana to you. What do you do?
P.S. You are free to take additional banana(s) or other fruit as you see fit.

There is no "Answer" to this. I will publish as many of the most creative responses as I can. Duplicate responses will be awarded to the earliest received, and I will be time-stamping them as I receive them, so you get no points for back-dating your computer clock!

Also, I'm going to continue with this idea for another three or four weeks. Get those ThinkingCaps™ fired up!

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L.T.Q. #38 Date: Sun, 31 Mar 96 23:41 EST

This week we have another Lateral Thinking Exercise.

Here is this week's question:

You are preparing to host a Fabulous Fantasy Dinner Party. It will be a scrumptious dinner, with all of the best of your favourite dishes. Name three people (living or otherwise) who have been invited, and why you invited them. Name three of the foods you will be serving, and why you chose them.

As with last week, there is no "Answer" to this. Put on your ThinkingCaps™ and send me your lists. After Easter, I will publish as many of the most creative responses as I can.

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L.T.Q. #39 Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 11:05:00

This week we have another Lateral Thinking Exercise, the last in the trilogy. There don't seem to be many ThinkingCaps™ out there; I only received two replies to last week's exercise!

Here is this week's question:

You are shipwrecked on a dessert island with your three best friends. There is an abundant supply of food, fresh water, and an Entertainment Centre, so you will be able to survive until you can be rescued. Unfortunately, when the ship went down, you were only able to salvage three videos and three CDs from the collection. What are they, and why did you choose them?

Hey, if the Professor can make a radio out of coconut shells and banana fronds, why can't you have a CD/video player on your dessert island?

And yes, I did spell it "dessert" and not "desert"! So there.

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L.T.Q. #40 Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 12:40:02

Well, after a long hiatus for reasons beyond my control, I can now resume these Lateral Thinking Questions. This question is dedicated to my nephew Matthew, and his friend, the Very Hungry Caterpiller.

Here is this week's question:

A man walked into a take-away pizza parlour. He ordered one deep-pan pizza with cheese, tomatoes, and double anchovies, one crispy pizza with asparagus, cheese and tuna, one house special with extra cheese, two portions of onion rings, a diet cola with ice, a diet cola without ice, a water, and an orange juice. The woman behind the counter served him and then said, "You are a plainclothes police officer, aren't you?" The man was indeed a plainclothes officer. He had never been in the pizza parlour before, and the woman didn't know him and had never seen him before, so how did she know what he did?

A special "Thank You" to my sister for the wonderful birthday present of the Lateral Thinking books, which will be one source for future questions. (The books are by Paul Sloane if any of you want to rush out to the bookstores so you can cheat on these questions!)

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