Let's Do Lunch

November 22, 2007 5:12 PM

Let’s Do Lunch. (Previously and previously.)
posted by Soup (26 comments total)

I don't know about all this movie stuff, but person #2, as a double forearm amputee, probably shouldn't lean on the table in that fashion. She'd probably also look better in a darker color. That pale blue kind of washes her out, don't you think?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:33 PM on November 22, 2007

OMG who stole the zebra?

And I wish I still had that Prolog code I wrote in 1992 to solve these things.
posted by GuyZero at 5:38 PM on November 22, 2007

I have caused all productive work in my office to cease simply by forwarding this link.
posted by Foaf at 5:44 PM on November 22, 2007

This is fun. Thanks for the link, Soup. So far I'm pretty sure it was Colonel Mustard, in the conservatory, with the candlestick.
posted by LeLiLo at 5:51 PM on November 22, 2007

GRAB OUR RSS looks funny in a pixel font.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:51 PM on November 22, 2007

I wish I still had that Prolog code I wrote in 1992 to solve these things.

I wish I still had the mind I had in 1992 to solve these things.
posted by ubiquity at 8:02 PM on November 22, 2007

LSAT flashback
posted by dcjd at 8:38 PM on November 22, 2007

all I know is it's eponysterical.
posted by wendell at 10:03 PM on November 22, 2007

So far I'm pretty sure it was Colonel Mustard, in the conservatory, with the candlestick.

Here we go again, with my poor old uncle getting the blame for everything. When will you people learn to look beyond the innocent blue eyes of Miss Scarlet and see the murder that lies behind them?
posted by MrMustard at 10:55 PM on November 22, 2007

Everyone distrusts Colonel Mustard because he's FRENCH('s).
posted by wendell at 11:38 PM on November 22, 2007

I got two possible answers, and they both seem to fit. I must be missing something.
posted by kisch mokusch at 12:12 AM on November 23, 2007

I love these. Thank you Soup. I read the build up for the fish puzzle a few years ago and thought it would be damn near impossible. A little effort and thirty minutes or so produced the answer. That whole bit about only the top x% of intellects can solve this puzzle is such nonsense. Anyone can do it with proper focus. They are fun in part because you have to be a bit creative to find some of the paths to the answer but then as you solve more and more of the information the answer kind of finds itself, like a sodoku.
posted by caddis at 12:40 AM on November 23, 2007

Now it's bugging me. I'm starting to think they haven't given enough information for just one solution. My working out and solutions can be seen here (warning: spoiler).
posted by kisch mokusch at 1:38 AM on November 23, 2007

Likewise, kisch. I see at least five solutions that fit the given instructions. "One possible solution" might actually be one of the constraints, but that doesn't decisively favor any of the answers I see.

And it doesn't help that there's some ambiguity about which names are first names and which are last names. Although that might be part of the problem. My last names were the same as yours, but I'm still not completely sure they're right.
posted by H-Bar at 2:29 AM on November 23, 2007

Man, you gyus made like charts and stuff to solve this thing?

I just reade them out and filled it in.




yeah, right, sure I did. really. But Kisch, your solution convinced me of my solution; go back and read for "York", and you'll see the answer.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:08 AM on November 23, 2007

As I wrote kisch mokusch, and as H-Bar points out, (as I thought I had solved and hadn't) -

There's a big ole 'stumper in there...
posted by From Bklyn at 5:41 AM on November 23, 2007

2 solutions at least. Something is missing.
posted by Free word order! at 6:00 AM on November 23, 2007

From the information provided can you figure out where each person sat, his or her full name, the location he or she had just returned from, and the type of movie each had shot?

The answer is no. I believe there are four different possible seating plans given the information they've provided. Same as kisch mokusch's solutions but the surname of Smith can be swapped between Glory and Robert to give two more solutions.
posted by electricinca at 8:05 AM on November 23, 2007

To clarify my previous comment the location of Ireland would also swap vice versa with the surname Smith to give the two additional solutions that satisfy the clues given.
posted by electricinca at 8:09 AM on November 23, 2007

I'm pretty sure there's only one possible answer. I've currently reduced it to two, but kisch mokusch's chart includes the information I'm missing. Specifically, I'm not seeing how we know anything about Robert beyond his movie type. Once I figure that out, I'll be down to one possibility.
posted by scottreynen at 8:36 AM on November 23, 2007

Nevermind, I realized I currently have four possibilities and would only go down to two with more on Robert. I'm wondering if "there is enough information" (with no mention of where there is enough information) and the note about Googling the answer are subtle suggestions that additional information should be found somewhere else.
posted by scottreynen at 9:22 AM on November 23, 2007

I think not scottreynen. They wrote the same about the Einstein fish puzzle and there really was enough information on that page to solve the puzzle.
posted by electricinca at 10:00 AM on November 23, 2007

Everyone distrusts Colonel Mustard because he's FRENCH('s).

He most certainly is not. He's Colman's.
posted by MrMustard at 12:51 PM on November 23, 2007

And who should know better than MrMustard? Know what I Mean?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:39 PM on November 23, 2007

The actual question is "From the information provided can you figure out where each person sat, his or her full name, the location he or she had just returned from, and the type of movie each had shot?"

Could the answer be "no"? That would be so stupid.
posted by zixyer at 10:57 PM on November 23, 2007

The answer has been posted.

The answer falls apart for me at "Julia is Marks (clue #5)," which doesn't seem like the only possibility. All we know from clue #5 is that Marks is next to Spain; Spain is seat #2 so Marks could be either seat #3, which is Julia, or seat #1, which is either Robert or Glory.
posted by scottreynen at 4:46 PM on December 5, 2007