Einstein's Riddle

[Brian {Hamilton Kelly}]

In article <7z9r6.2576$54.2837 at www.newsranger.com>
           gregj at pobox.com "Gregory Jorgense" writes:

> Clearly my statement that the puzzle can't be solved puts me in a minority. If
> you assume that SOMEONE keeps fish the puzzle can be solved with a little bit of> logic. Perhaps the intent of the riddle is to show how few people can devise a
> useful and logical methodology.

There is (or was) a British monthly (possibly bi-monthly) magazine
published under the title Logic Problems.  This had about fifty of this
genre of puzzle in every issue.  It is bought by a wide range of people,
not many of whom are likely to belong in the upper two-percentile of
intelligence, but all of whom (presumably, otherwise the magazine
wouldn't sell) have the right mindset to solve the problems.

Incidentally, I first saw a puzzle of this nature in McCall's Magazine in
the 1950s, when I was still at primary school.  That particular one was
*entitled* "Who owns the zebra", which was the only mention of that
particular species in the whole exposition of the puzzle.  It IS
"information" that is required for the puzzle to be soluble, however.

Isn't it about time this stupid thread came to a halt?  It was needlessly
cross-posted (perhaps also multiply to other groups than appear in the
headers of this post?) and has excited "interest" beyond all rationality.

IOW, YHBT.

-- 
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}                                          bhk at dsl.co.uk
    "We have gone from a world of concentrated knowledge and wisdom to one of
    distributed ignorance.  And we know and understand less while being incr-
    easingly capable."                          Prof. Peter Cochrane, BT Labs