Post by Salzmank on Jun 10, 2017 2:52:10 GMT
OK, fellas (tarathian123 , jervistetch , BATouttaheck ), sorry about the "man shot to death" puzzle, but I think that last clue will do it. I hope the solution will satisfy.
Correct on the "club password" puzzle, brimfin !
Ah, and Brimfin ...
The mean old Barnaby Weste puzzle:
As I wrote, this is an excellent solution, Brimfin. It's very satisfying in its ironies and nuances, especially to my mind, which loves those kinds of things. With that said, I'll be somewhat mean (though not as much so as old Barnaby Weste, I hope!) and note some nitpicks I had (not really major criticisms, I hasten to add, but real nitpicks, to be honest).
Again, apologies if I come off as nitpicking too much, especially as your solution is so brilliant, but its brilliance is exactly why I've been so deeply thinking about it. Many thanks, Brimfin.
Correct on the "club password" puzzle, brimfin !
Ah, and Brimfin ...
We know 2 things from the setup for this puzzle:
1. Barnaby Weste is mean.
2. Billy Weste is a gambler, and a bad one if he owes $100,000.
Therefore, my theory is this: Contrary to what people thought - that Barnaby did one nice thing in his life by willing his money to Billy Weste to pay his gambling debts - he wasn't being nice at all. He set up this choice between taking the money or a seemingly empty envelope. Most people would go for the safe bet, the money. But Billy, the gambler, does not. He sees it's an empty and blank envelope with no stamps or writing, but bad gamblers take chances all the time. He figures his mean grandpa would want him to take the money only to then have the attorney reveal that the envelope was more valuable - perhaps with instructions written in invisible ink to a goldmine or something like that. (You said there was no invisible ink on it, but that wouldn't mean he couldn't think that there was.) So he takes the envelope. After hearing nothing from the attorney, he takes the letter home and checks it for invisible ink, has it x-rayed, maybe even examined by a scientist, before he realizes he traded away enough money to pay off his gambling debts for a worthless, empty envelope.
So, Barnaby scores one more wicked deed from the grave. But wait, it gets better. Now there is no one to claim the money. So, as predicted, the other heirs fight it out in court for years to get their hands on the money - with the one assurance that the man who needs it most, Billy Weste, won't be able to get a dime because he legally forfeited his claim to it. Barnably Weste was a mean man, but no one could say he wasn't clever. Oh, and what if Billy had taken the money instead? What difference would it make to a dead man? Barnaby was the one with nothing to lose in that deal.
1. Barnaby Weste is mean.
2. Billy Weste is a gambler, and a bad one if he owes $100,000.
Therefore, my theory is this: Contrary to what people thought - that Barnaby did one nice thing in his life by willing his money to Billy Weste to pay his gambling debts - he wasn't being nice at all. He set up this choice between taking the money or a seemingly empty envelope. Most people would go for the safe bet, the money. But Billy, the gambler, does not. He sees it's an empty and blank envelope with no stamps or writing, but bad gamblers take chances all the time. He figures his mean grandpa would want him to take the money only to then have the attorney reveal that the envelope was more valuable - perhaps with instructions written in invisible ink to a goldmine or something like that. (You said there was no invisible ink on it, but that wouldn't mean he couldn't think that there was.) So he takes the envelope. After hearing nothing from the attorney, he takes the letter home and checks it for invisible ink, has it x-rayed, maybe even examined by a scientist, before he realizes he traded away enough money to pay off his gambling debts for a worthless, empty envelope.
So, Barnaby scores one more wicked deed from the grave. But wait, it gets better. Now there is no one to claim the money. So, as predicted, the other heirs fight it out in court for years to get their hands on the money - with the one assurance that the man who needs it most, Billy Weste, won't be able to get a dime because he legally forfeited his claim to it. Barnably Weste was a mean man, but no one could say he wasn't clever. Oh, and what if Billy had taken the money instead? What difference would it make to a dead man? Barnaby was the one with nothing to lose in that deal.
As I wrote, this is an excellent solution, Brimfin. It's very satisfying in its ironies and nuances, especially to my mind, which loves those kinds of things. With that said, I'll be somewhat mean (though not as much so as old Barnaby Weste, I hope!) and note some nitpicks I had (not really major criticisms, I hasten to add, but real nitpicks, to be honest).
1. While the fact that Billy Weste is a bad gambler is a given, is he so much a gambler that he would rather take that chance than be sure about paying off his debts? To be sure, we may claim that he let the concept of the gamble override his rational instinct. But is that consistent with what we've set forth before? We know that Bill Weste checked the envelope and was able to find nothing--but the very act of checking seems to indicate some level of care and, indeed, rational thought on his part. I can see Weste, the bad gambler, taking the chance if he definitely got something out of the exchange, even if it were less than the $100,000. But it seems unlikely, based on the (admittedly limited) information we have in the set-up, that he is that bad of a gambler.
1a. With that said, you seem to pre-empt this objection by adding, "...perhaps with instructions...to a goldmine or something..." That is another means by which I can see Bill Weste's gambling impulses overriding his rational ones: that Barnaby Weste had, in the past, hinted [falsely] to his grand-nephew that there was a map to a goldmine or something, in the form of that envelope.
1b. Either way, the point is this: why did Bill assume that the envelope was a map/code/secret/etc.? It seems quite a leap in logic. Given that he's a gambler, he's also probably greedy, and in that small amount of time in the set-up, there is little opportunity for him to come up with the assumption required.
2. While Barnaby Weste's meanness and nastiness is--again--a given, there must be a motive for his torture in this manner other than "he was mean"--a motive that may work for his post mortem torture of all his heirs, but why of Billy in particular? Did he really hate gambling or something?
3. While Bill's gaining the money would indeed "make no difference to a dead man," we know that Barnaby wants to "...score one more wicked deed from the grave." If Barnaby set this whole complicated plan in motion (not that I have any animus against complicated plans, let me add!), he definitely wanted to inflict some kind of psychological torture on his nephew (for reasons unknown, as noted in 2). But he couldn't be sure that, after his death, Billy would choose the envelope--which would make a difference to his setting up the plan before his death! Was he so much of a gambler, too, that he went to his grave hoping that Bill would choose the envelope?
1a. With that said, you seem to pre-empt this objection by adding, "...perhaps with instructions...to a goldmine or something..." That is another means by which I can see Bill Weste's gambling impulses overriding his rational ones: that Barnaby Weste had, in the past, hinted [falsely] to his grand-nephew that there was a map to a goldmine or something, in the form of that envelope.
1b. Either way, the point is this: why did Bill assume that the envelope was a map/code/secret/etc.? It seems quite a leap in logic. Given that he's a gambler, he's also probably greedy, and in that small amount of time in the set-up, there is little opportunity for him to come up with the assumption required.
2. While Barnaby Weste's meanness and nastiness is--again--a given, there must be a motive for his torture in this manner other than "he was mean"--a motive that may work for his post mortem torture of all his heirs, but why of Billy in particular? Did he really hate gambling or something?
3. While Bill's gaining the money would indeed "make no difference to a dead man," we know that Barnaby wants to "...score one more wicked deed from the grave." If Barnaby set this whole complicated plan in motion (not that I have any animus against complicated plans, let me add!), he definitely wanted to inflict some kind of psychological torture on his nephew (for reasons unknown, as noted in 2). But he couldn't be sure that, after his death, Billy would choose the envelope--which would make a difference to his setting up the plan before his death! Was he so much of a gambler, too, that he went to his grave hoping that Bill would choose the envelope?
Again, apologies if I come off as nitpicking too much, especially as your solution is so brilliant, but its brilliance is exactly why I've been so deeply thinking about it. Many thanks, Brimfin.