1st Dec 2011 Spagetti Bush? Or Is It A Pasta Tree?

Where does Spaghetti come from? Apparently, in 1957 the BBC, no lesser source, informed that Spaghetti came from bushes. My guess is that you could resurrect this April Fool's day stunt for the next April fool's day. Today's children are more sophisticated in many ways, for example, they would not believe that a radio programme purporting that Martians had landed in America was true. However today, children are notoriously ignorant on the sources of food. All they know is that if they want food, they just open a tin or raid the freezer.

My favoured try-on to hoax older children is to substitute Tagliatelle for Spaghetti. While, for younger children the idea of a plain pasta tree may work better.

The original 1957 BBC hoax succeed because it was shown on the prestigious Panorama Programme. In true reverential, BBC documentary tone on the radio, Richard Dimbleby explained how Spaghetti was harvested from bushes, dried, then processed into strands of spaghetti.

Don't forget there were no TV at the time, and people, children especially, had to rely on friends repeating the tale. Also, the radio audience lapped it up, a few people even phoned in asking where they could buy a Spaghetti bush!

As an aside, what I like about a good spoof is that it not only fools people, but also someone else gets mad, in this case staff in the BBC got upset because they felt that the BBC had wasted a Panorama slot on a mere hoax.

Well this Programme went out on April 1st 1957, three months before Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was to announce: "most of our people have never had it so good". It's up to you to decide if he was talking about Spaghetti bushes or Tagliatelle Trees!

Tags: spagettibush

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1st Dec 2011 Lateral Thinking - Fun Puzzles & Tests

13) The Broken Match

A man is found dead in a field. He is clutching a broken match. What happened?

Solution:

He and a number of other passengers were making a balloon trip in a desperate attempt to flee a country. The balloon had to lose weight to stop it from crashing. He drew the short match and had to jump.

14) The Music Stopped

The music stopped. She died. Explain.

Solution:

She was a circus tight-rope walker who walked blindfolded over a high wire. The band played as she crossed and when the music stopped it was the signal that she had reached the end of the walk and could safely alight. One day the conductor was taken ill and the stand-in conductor ended the piece of music too early. She stepped off to her death.

15) Swimmer in the Forest

Deep in the forest was found the body of a man who was wearing only swimming trunks, snorkel and facemask. The nearest lake was 8 miles away and the sea was 100 miles away. How had he died?

This is supposedly based on a true incident. Does this make it an urban legend? Many urban legends can be restated as lateral thinking puzzles. This is a very good one of this type.

Solution:

During a forest fire, a fire-fighting plane had scooped up some water from the lake to drop on the fire. The plane had accidentally picked up the unfortunate swimmer.

16) The Elder Twin

One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. How come?

Solution:

At the time she went into labour, the mother of the twins was travelling by boat. The older twin, Terry, was born first early on March 1st. The boat then crossed the International Date line (or any time zone line) and Kerry, the younger twin, was born on February the 28th. In a leap year the younger twin celebrates her birthday two days before her older
brother.

This puzzle was submitted to Games Magazine's 'How Come' competition in 1992 by Judy Dean. It won.

Tags: pazzles&tests 4

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1st Dec 2011 Lateral Thinking - Fun Puzzles & Tests

10) The Deadly Dish

 

Two men went into a restaurant. They both ordered the same dish from the menu. After they tasted it, one of the men went outside the restaurant and shot himself. Why? 

Solution: 

The dish that the two men ordered was albatross. They had been stranded many years earlier on a desert island. When the man tasted albatross he realized that he had never tasted it before. This meant that the meat he had been given on the island was not albatross as he had been told. He correctly deduced that he had eaten the flesh of his son who had died when they first reached the island. 

This has something in common with No. 9 above but is in my opinion even better. It is fiendishly difficult to figure out from a standing start. A beautiful aspect of this problem is the subtle fact that he shot himself because he did not recognise the taste of the dish!

11) The Realization

 

A man was walking downstairs in a building when he suddenly realized that his wife had just died. How? 

Solution:

The man had visited his wife in hospital. She was on a life-support machine. As he was walking down the stairs all the lights went out. There had been a power cut and the emergency back-up systems had failed. He knew that she had died. 

12) The Blind Beggar

 

A blind beggar had a brother who died. What relation was the blind beggar to the brother who died? (Brother is not the answer). 

Solution:

The blind beggar was the sister of her brother who died. 

This puzzle is one of a type that depends on the listener making implicit assumptions about gender - in this case that a blind beggar is a man. Similar puzzles involve surgeons who refuse to operate on their sons etc. This is probably the best of the class because it is very simply stated and yet which has the power to baffle those who have not heard it before. 

 

Tags: pazzles&tests 3

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