Wednesday, April 4, 2012

9. Puzzle

The gate is are guarded by three brothers:
Pierre, who plays to win; Misere, who plays to lose;
and Ivan, who does as he pleases.

The brother who says “da” for yes
or no—you've forgotten—challenges you
to checkers, nim, or a dance competition.

Your move.

5 comments:

  1. gosh, you are so far ahead! I'm still struggling with today's. *sigh* that last line made me chuckle, and nice sounds here. (drawback - you can't edit your comments - grrrr!! had to delete and rewrite, *sigh* I miss PFFA.

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  2. Thank you for stopping by to fluff, even though the comment editing is annoying. (Which Bugs Bunny are you, by the way?) Don't worry: I am just laying by for the inevitable moment when I keel over from exhaustion.

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  3. I bet that was Cookala, she usually grrrrs here :-)

    Rachael, is that a philosopher's puzzle like the Indians who lie and tell the truth, and did you give up halfway? :-) Wonderfully surreal!

    Welcome back from your hols, or are you posting on the road :-0

    Sorella

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    1. It's a parody of those kinds of puzzles. Jee posted a poem about Reversi, and in the process of looking up information about whether Reversi is solved (it is mostly not), I was reminded of my old heroes Martin Gardner and Raymond Smullyan, who are full of these kinds of puzzles and games. See also George Boolos's hardest logic puzzle ever.

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  4. oh gosh, you posted 9 way ahead... I see now I need to go to your Deadly Sevenlings, the want hate is indeed a killer! Bravo!

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