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Post by alfromni on Oct 1, 2017 23:11:41 GMT
Salzmank
An old term for a finished bottle of booze is a "dead man". No?
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 1, 2017 23:14:23 GMT
Salzmank
An old term for a finished bottle of booze is a "dead man". No?
I'd not heard of that, but it makes sense.  You and brimfin have been thinking of the right kind of idea, but no... The three men really are human males. The dead body there after they leave is also human and male. No equivocation about that... |
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Post by alfromni on Oct 2, 2017 0:28:41 GMT
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 2, 2017 0:33:27 GMT
No trap doors, secret passageways, hidden compartments, etc. Perfectly ordinary room. |
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Post by alfromni on Oct 2, 2017 0:56:39 GMT
SalzmankThe old locked door mystery with a difference.
"Three men walk into an empty room."
You didn't say that only three men walked into an empty room. A fourth man walked in behind them before the room was sealed.
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 2, 2017 1:03:42 GMT
Salzmank The old locked door mystery with a difference.
"Three men walk into an empty room."
You didn't say that only three men walked into an empty room. A fourth man walked in behind them before the room was sealed.
Very close, but it was immediately sealed after they entered (implied, if not outright stated, by the puzzle, I think...). Well, yes and no, perhaps. No grand John Dickson Carr-esque tricks, sadly (  ), just riddling... |
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Post by alfromni on Oct 2, 2017 1:22:49 GMT
SalzmankThe words of the puzzle were: But then...
...if the fourth man was immediately behind them, the first three would be entering an empty room, but the fourth man would also be able to enter the room before it was sealed. A death occurred in some way and there it is.
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 2, 2017 1:25:56 GMT
Salzmank The words of the puzzle were: But then...
...if the fourth man was immediately behind them, the first three would be entering an empty room, but the fourth man would also be able to enter the room before it was sealed. A death occurred in some way and there it is.
Well, true, it's not directly stated that everything completely sealed up the moment that the third man entered. But it is stated that during that two-hour period from when they entered to when they left, all doors and windows are locked and closed. Let us stipulate that all doors and windows were locked and closed from the very minute the third man entered to the moment that all three walked out. No one followed them in. There is another way. |
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Post by alfromni on Oct 2, 2017 1:34:06 GMT
SalzmankThe only other answer I have is...
that the three men carry the dead man into the room and leave him there when they walk out. Or carry an unconscious guy who they kill in the room. Same difference.
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 2, 2017 1:36:06 GMT
Salzmank The only other answer I have is...
that the three men carry the dead man into the room and leave him there when they walk out. Or carry an unconscious guy who they kill in the room. Same difference.
Correct! The point of the puzzle is that it's only stipulated that three men walk into the room. They carry the fourth man--who, obviously, hasn't walked--into the room. Exactement, mon ami. |
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Post by alfromni on Oct 2, 2017 1:42:28 GMT
SalzmankWhenever I come across a locked door mystery, my mind always flashes to the classic The Mystery of the Yellow Room.
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 2, 2017 1:43:47 GMT
alfromni It's a good one--though oft-criticized nowadays, which I've never quite understood. Leroux's solution to the locked-room puzzle is much better than Poe's (and I say this as a huge Poe fan), to say the least. The writing isn't incredible, but it's workable. A good little puzzler-melodrama, with a surprising murderer.
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Post by alfromni on Oct 2, 2017 1:54:21 GMT
SalzmankA good variation of the locked door mystery was presented in a Jonathan Creek episode called "The Scented Room".
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 2, 2017 1:56:00 GMT
alfromniYes, that's very good indeed, though I think my favorite Creeks are "Jack-in-the-Box" (brilliant variation on the premise) and The Black Canary (though this last is not a strict "locked-room"--certainly seemingly impossible, though).
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Post by alfromni on Oct 2, 2017 2:02:21 GMT
SalzmankI have every JC episode. A pity about the last series. They should have left it and gone out on a high.
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Post by brimfin on Oct 3, 2017 0:35:01 GMT
Roast mules maelstroms - as in Edgar Allan Poe's "Descent into the Maelstrom." But there's no u in maelstrom, right? Right. When I was writing the letters out to spin them around, I accidentally converted the "u" into another "m". I was leery of the solution anyway, since it was plural and why would you have made mules plural just to add an unnecessary "s"?
No matter. I have since figured out the word. It is.... somersault - and I've known that word since I was a kid. |
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 3, 2017 1:02:31 GMT
brimfinCorrect! Are you still working on the "three men walk into a room..." one? And did you happen to see the answers to the other ones about which you asked?
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Post by brimfin on Oct 3, 2017 1:05:58 GMT
The birthday puzzle As you said, it didn’t really work. Even if it had, it was just a variation on everybody being in on a joke, similar to the premise you had said wasn’t the case. I’m happy with my solution.
The teacher puzzle. I was planning to write in and make some suggestions based on your clues, but I didn’t have the time. One of them probably would have been that they tried to make the teacher think they’d already given the presentations; but I would have tried to slough that off. The idea that students would try to con their teacher, especially a young, conscientious one, into believing they had already given their presentations and she’d lost her notes was patently ridiculous. How could she be expected to give them a grade on something she didn’t remember? She’d be more inclined to think it was totally forgettable and give it a bad grade anyway. Why would other students back their story up when they had to stand up and do their own presentation while these lazy people avoided it – not to mention they could get in trouble if the truth ever came out? I might see them trying this on an older teacher who was showing signs of forgetfulness but not a young teacher. They deserved the “F”s they got for just being stupid.
The locked room The three men were doctors and carried a dead body into the room. They feared it had a contagious disease, so they quarantined themselves with it. Fortunately it was not what they thought and they were able to leave the room healthy after the two hour fatality window had passed. This fits all the clues – three men walk in (you never said they were empty-handed), the room is sealed and they walk out leaving a fourth man behind. I’ve been really busy the last week and it looks like that condition will continue for quite some time. I’ll try to peek in when I can. But if you don’t hear from me, I’m not avoiding you. I’m just really busy. |
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 3, 2017 1:19:03 GMT
brimfinFor #2: well, gee whiz. As you once told me, "I frankly can't think of any explanation that anyone could come up with that wouldn't have flaws in it. I just did it for the fun and the challenge. If I were writing a novel or short story with this premise, then I'd want to delve into how I could change the narrative until it was something as plausible as I could get." It's just a puzzle, and all puzzles ask for some degree of suspension of disbelief, especially in solution; certainly, every single one posted on here has done so. And, by the by, I've worked with kids that age, and--in my experience--they would try something very similar. They've certainly tried it before on me. "Oh, no, we never did that... You've gotta be remembering it wrong." I didn't do what the teacher did, of course, but the point stands. Correct on #3.
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Post by Salzmank on Oct 3, 2017 16:53:26 GMT
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), just riddling... 
