Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: hoey@aic.nrl.navy.mil (Dan Hoey)
Date: 08 Dec 1994 17:28:07 GMT
Subject: Re: Dogs Mead

Ken_Duisenb...@qmgate.arc.nasa.gov (Ken Duisenberg) writes:

> [Wei-Hwa made many changes to the following, basically creating a
> different puzzle.]

Wei-Hwa Huang attributed his version to James Fixx's _Games for the
Superintelligent_, so I would assume the changes are Fixx's.  Or
perhaps the changes were David Wells's (Where did you get the
puzzle?).  Or perhaps the _Strand_ updated and reissued the puzzle
four years after the original.

> [The year is 1935, see title.  This could perhaps be determined, but
> I didn't work it that way.]

It can be determined if you assume that the current year is the sum of
a person's birth-year and age.  That's dubious, since in reality you
may get the previous year (unless this was a New-Year's Eve puzzle.

I'm not sure whether they intend it that way.  On the one hand,
determining Mrs. Grooby's age doesn't require the assumption; on the
other hand, you can't complete the puzzle diagram without it.

Dan
Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.MIl