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1.1. A man goes into a restaurant, orders abalone, eats one bite, and kills himself. (TeM and JM wording) 1.1 answer: The man was in a ship that was wrecked on a desert island. When there was no food left, another passenger brought what he said was abalone but was really part of the man’s […]
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1.10. He was killed by breakfast. (JM original) 1.10 answer: A man is camping in the mountains. He makes breakfast, then puts pepper on his food (eggs, perhaps). The pepper makes him sneeze loudly, which starts an avalanche, which kills him. 1.10a. A man lay dead in a field. Next to him was a gun. […]
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1.11. Two brothers are involved in a murder. Though it’s clear that one of them actually committed the crime, neither can be punished. (This is different from #1.78.) (from “Unreasonable Doubt,” by Stanley Ellin) 1.11 answer: One of the brothers (A) confesses to the murder. At his trial, his brother (B) is called as the […]
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1.12. A woman in France in 1959 is waiting in her room, with all the doors locked from the inside, for her husband to come home. When he arrives, the house has burned to the ground and she’s dead. (JM, originally from How Come — Again?) 1.12 answer: This is apparently a true story. The […]
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1.13. A man lies dead next to a cactus. Stuck to the cactus is a slip of paper. (TO) 1.13 answer: The man was lost in the desert for days. He couldn’t find any landmarks, so he started sticking slips of paper to cactuses he passed. After another day of walking, with almost no water […]
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1.14. Passing by a window, you see two dead men in a room, with a gun and a deck of cards. (KK2) 1.14 answer: You’re a diver, going past a window of a sunken submarine (or ship). The two men were in a sinking vessel; they had a gun but only one bullet. Neither wanted […]
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1.15. There are a carrot, a pile of pebbles, and a pipe lying together in the middle of a field. (PRO; partial JM wording) 1.15 answer: They’re the remains of a melted snowman.
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1.16. Two dead people sit in their cars on a street. (AG) 1.16 answer: Because there was a heavy fog, two people driving in opposite directions on the same road both stuck their heads out of their windows to better see the road’s center line. Their heads hit each other at high speed, killing them […]
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1.17. A man is found shot to death in the front seat of his car; a gun lies out of his reach in the back seat. All the windows are closed and the doors are locked; there are no bullet holes anywhere in the car. (SP, from The Next Book of OMNI Games; partial AC […]
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1.18. A man is sitting in a room. Another person enters, carrying a closed cardboard box, and sits down nearby. Though the first man can’t see, hear, or smell the box’s contents, he knows what’s in the box. (ES original) 1.18 answer: The man is allergic to cats, and feels the allergy symptoms coming on, […]
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1.19. There is blood on the ceiling of my bedroom. (MI original) 1.19 answer: A mosquito bit me, and I swatted it when it later landed on my ceiling (so the blood is my own as well as the mosquito’s).
1.2.html
1.2. A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator — or if it was raining that day — he goes back […]