enigma me this

[terble]

Rules:
1.whoever gets the answer to the last enigma gets to post their own
2.must be lateral thinking puzzles, no riddles
3.questions can be asked but answers may only be 'yes', 'no' or 'irrelevant'

Here's mine:
The principal players in this puzzle are Jack, his wife Jess and her sister Gertrude. It helps if you know this is set in frontier times. Jack and Jess are looking forward to a special day. When the day arrives Jack isn't with Jess. Jess is with her sister and their friend John. Jack waits for a while then hears a sound so goes looking for Jess. He discovers that Jess is dead, John stands beside her with blood all over his hands and Gertrude has blood on her hands too, she is holding something. Another man besides Jack and John is in the room and the man's father stands nearby. What is the name of the mystery man's father and why?

[This message has been edited by terble (edited 02-19-2002 03:22 PM).]

[Suspence]

Did Jess die during childbirth?
Is Gertrude holding a baby?
Is the baby a boy, making it the mystery man?
Is Jack's the baby's father, making him the mystery man's father?
------------------
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[This message has been edited by Suspence13 (edited 02-19-2002 04:43 PM).]

[too_simple]

It seems very obvious - unless I am assuming too much or missing something !!!

Jess died during childbirth. Jon is probably the doctor...The mystery man's (which is the child just born) father is "Jack".

[stoatboy]

You are all wrong. In fact the mystery man is the Great Russian Yahtzee champion Anton Chilonovski. His father is well-known French literary theorist Michel Foucault. Foucault proposes a discourse in which 'Jess' (not her real name, or indeed her actual identity) is overlooking the all-determining centrality of Being-in-the-World and therefore viewing the everyday actualities of her inhabiting as various and seemingly banal. Chilonovski counter-proposes a re-construction of dominant cultural paradigms and rolls all five dice, going for the full house but instead rolling a one, a six, and three fours, salvaging 350 bonus points. The blood on the hands is the metaphorical sin of the raping of the virgin frontier of post-colonial America, which, while only appearing phantasmically upon the hands of a few people, blemish the hands of us all.

[Tahnan]

OK, stoatboy's post just made this puzzle worthwhile.

[terble]

Did Jess die during childbirth? yes
Is Gertrude holding a baby? yes
Is the baby a boy, making it the mystery man? yes
Is Jack's the baby's father, making him the mystery man's father? No

[terble]

You are all wrong. In fact the mystery man is the Great Russian Yahtzee champion Anton Chilonovski. <snip>

now I just wish that was the right answer

[This message has been edited by terble (edited 02-20-2002 03:05 AM).]

[groza528]

Is John the father, since he's the only other man named in the lateral?
edit: changed 'mentioned' to 'named'

[This message has been edited by groza528 (edited 02-20-2002 04:02 AM).]

[terble]

Is John the father, since he's the only other man named in the lateral?

Yes, of course. Had to be one or the other. You got lucky so you get the reigns.

edit: none of your goldarned business

[This message has been edited by terble (edited 02-20-2002 04:08 PM).]

[groza528]

oh, great. Here goes:
A black man killed a king. Rather than being punished, he became a king himself. Explain.

[ZutAlors!]

Does this have anything to do with chess?

[oxford student]

Or maybe draughts (checkers in American I think)

[groza528]

ding oxford student. I knew that would go quickly.
And btw: I, as an American, call it draughts too.

[mtc32]

It looks more like a game of checkers. One black checker jumped over a kinged red checker and landed on the red end and got kinged itself.

[groza528]

I was considering that Oxford student had solved it, that's why I didn't clearly answer 'No, Yes' but now I see that his question was actually 'did it have anything to do with draughts?' He had probably solved it, but he didn't really post the answer so I guess it's mtc's turn. Sorry OS.

[mtc32]

From the railroad, I moved my car 4 blocks to a hotel. The cost was $2000 and I went bankrupt.

[HappyMutant]

Monopoly?

[mtc32]

That took you 5 minutes! Wow!