Lateral Thinking Questions

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ANSWER: L.T.Q. #37  !
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Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 10:22:00

As this was a Lateral Thinking Exercise, I was a little disappointed in the number of responses I got. Or didn't get.

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.

CREATIVE RESPONSES:

Ross replied fastest (R:960325,113730), and said:
  1. You eat the banana.
  2. You pick up the bowl with the rest of the fruit and start dancing, chicka-boom, chicka-boom, chicka-boom a la Carmen Miranda.
  3. You start teaching everyone at the table how to defend themselves against someone attacking you with a banana. (Yeah, but what about a pointed stick....?)
  4. You hold two bananas to the top of your head and you pretend you are the devil.
  5. You get two oranges stuff them into your shirt and pretend they are breasts. (This one always appeals to the kids)
  6. You juggle as many different fruits that you can. This is always a crowd pleaser.
  7. Eat the banana and throw the peel onto the floor and wait for someone to step on it and fall. The Bugs Bunny fans love this one (especially if you can do it near a cliff).
  8. Pretend to have a phone conversation with the first person. This will bring polite laffs and chuckles. (zzzzzz)
  9. Look at the first person and yell at them "Hey are you some kind of weirdo?" This will hopefully embarrass the hell out of them and they won't accost you again.
  10. Attempt to pull the tablecloth out from under all of the dishes on the table. I know this involves more than the fruit, but it's always a laff riot, especially when everyone's dinner plates fall on their laps.

Craig (R:960325,113900) said: I point it at the host and say "go ahead, make me stay"

Gord was next (R:960325,134900) with the following:

  1. Talk for a while, pause, and say "It's my Great Ape ancestor." and continue on.
  2. The alt.tv answer: "Well hello George. Haven't heard from you for a while. Yes, it is quite a jungle here too."
  3. The Politically Incorrect Answer: "No thanks, I don't talk through Fruits."

Dave (R:960325,134945) said: "Of course you reply that you're fed up and ask them to take a message."

The crso.com!postmaster (R:960325,161930) said:
> A copy of your message
> message-id: <MS-MAILG-3.00-Note-ngrocers-Mjourar-0827773275>
> is being returned to you as undeliverable for the following reason:
> Unknown user 'crs1842@inforamp.net' at 'inforamp.net'
 which is really strange because I never sent it to them!

Tigger (R:960326,151515) said: "What do I do? What a silly question. I get homesick, of course. Don't you think it's time for another round? I could certainly use it. Shall we start planning now?"

And finally, Jamie (R:960329,094530) replied: "I would say "It's for you..." and pass it back to her."

Also, I'm going to continue with this idea for another three or four weeks. Get those ThinkingCaps™ fired up! We're back at the Dinner Table next week.

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