Lateral Thinking Questions

ANSWER: L.T.Q. #64

Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 11:46:28 -0500 (EST)
This marks the end of duck hunting season. Remember to heed the warnings of
the talking duck!
Here is this week's question:
A woman gave a man something to eat. It caused him to die. It was not
poisoned or poisonous. They both knew it was dangerous, because they had
been given warnings by a duck who was sitting in a pond in their garden. Why
did the man die?
ANSWER:
The woman was Eve, who gave Adam the forbidden fruit from the tree
in the Garden of Eden. By breaking God's instruction, Adam became mortal and
died.
Ok, so my copy of the Old Testament doesn't specifically mention the duck's
warning, but if the Serpent could talk, why not a duck? [And here Andrew
would say, "Whya duck? Whya no chicken?" Because it's duck hunting season,
and not chicken hunting season! That's whya fence!]
Bhupinder offered that "they were probably eating fish (as they would have
caught one from the pond), and one of the fish bones got stuck in the man's
throat and he died." He must have gotten my Dad's piece of fish. He always
seems to get the bone, even when served boneless fish!
And now, as promised, the Old Joke. The following is a conversation
overheard in a bar or cocktail party or wherever:
Theresa Russell: Oh, woe is me! I am a three-time widow!
Debra Winger: Three times? What happened?
TR: My first husband? He died from eating poisoned mushrooms.
DW: Really?
TR: Yes, and my second husband? He also died from eating poisoned mushrooms.
DW: How sad. And what about your third husband?
TR: My third husband? He died from a broken skull?
DW: A broken skull?
TR: Yes. He wouldn't eat the mushrooms!
(With apologies to anyone who knows the joke and can tell it better.)
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