mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
I received several (kind) favorable comments to our last logic game, so I decided to try my hand at another. This time, instead of the Monkees, it’s I Love Lucy. The diagram below shows the table at which Ricky & Lucy Ricardo and best friends Fred & Ethel Mertz enjoyed a nice New York meal. Can you figure out who ate what dish?
NOTE: I spent way too long working on this puzzle last night,
and could not conclude whether clue #4 was necessary
with the existence of clue #2. I decided it wasn’t, but many
Brain Gamers pointed out in the early comments that I was wrong.
Anyway, the puzzle is now ready to go, with only one
possible answer. And here are your FOUR CLUES:1. Ricky got a tomato sauce stain on his necktie.
2. Everyone sat next to his/her spouse and his/her best friend.
3. Fred ordered a dish that began with the letter “P.”
4. Ethel is sitting at Lucy’s left-hand side.
HERE’s the answer!
Comments (17)
Comment
Maybe ricky was trying to get a piece of pizza from someone and got a stain :)
posted by jason on 7-23-2008 at 6:46 am
Fred could have eaten the Pizza And Lucy the Pork Chops. They would still be sitting next to their best friend.
posted by DJ on 7-23-2008 at 6:57 am
“….we know Ethel was sitting to the left of Lucy, not to the left of Fred.”
How do we know this? I believe you can put Fred at the Pork Chop or the pizza and fulfill your criteria.
posted by Bob on 7-23-2008 at 7:02 am
Ricky=Spaghetti
Lucy=Pork Chops
Ethel=Steak
Fred=Pizza
Also works
posted by DJ on 7-23-2008 at 7:02 am
I don’t understand why we “know” that Ethyl was sitting to the left of Lucy and couldn’t sit to the left of Fred.
What did I miss?
I got that Ricky ate Spaghetti, Lucy had the Pork Chop, Ethyl the Steak and Fred the Pizza.
posted by Brad on 7-23-2008 at 7:14 am
So I got Ricki eating spaghetti and Ethel eating steak, but I switched fred and lucy and it still works with the rules. Everyone’s sitting next their spouse and best friend and fred’s got the P, and Ricki has the spaghetti. The clue doesn’t say specifically WHICH side people are sitting on, so Lucy and Fred are interchangable aren’t they?
posted by Tricia on 7-23-2008 at 7:21 am
I got two possible answers.
1) Based on the 1st and 3rd clues, there are 3 possible seating arrangments: Ricky - Spag and Fred - Pork / Ricky - Pizza and Fred - Pork / Ricky - Spag and Fred - Pizza. Ricky and Fred can’t both be at the pizza plate.
2) Based on the 2nd clue about seating next to your spouse/friend, Ricky - Pizza and Fred - Pork doesn’t work because they are not next to each other. That leaves two viable alternatives, each fitting the clues given. Ricky and Ethel sit across from each other and Lucy and Fred sit across from each other.
posted by KJ on 7-23-2008 at 7:25 am
Where do you get “We know that Ethel was sitting to the left of Lucy.” It doesn’t specify which directions anyone was sitting relative to another, just that certain people must be sitting next to each other.
posted by Dan on 7-23-2008 at 7:38 am
NOTE: My bad, folks. I left the final clue off of the puzzle while leaving it in the explanation. It’s fixed now.
My apologies; I’m fairly new to the coming-up-with-logic-games scenario. It was never my favorite puzzle type, but I’m learning!
posted by Sandy on 7-23-2008 at 7:44 am
With the full clues it’s a fun logic game. I haven’t had a chance to do one of those in a while. Thanks!
posted by Amy S. on 7-23-2008 at 8:04 am
Thanks, Amy, I appreciate that. Frankly, while I have “testers” who go over most of my other puzzles, I had a hard time finding anyone who enjoyed logic puzzles enough to test them.
And, as I’ve said many times since starting with mental_floss nearly six years ago, even though our goal is to help readers “feel smart again,” as often as not, we’re the ones who get the education!
posted by Sandy on 7-23-2008 at 8:30 am
Sandy, I LOVE Logic puzzles. Keep ‘em coming.
posted by KJ on 7-23-2008 at 8:54 am
I love the idea of daily puzzles, but the fact that most of these don’t take much longer than just reading them to solve kind of takes the fun out of it
posted by nightstraveler on 7-23-2008 at 11:06 am
Took me all of 10 seconds to get but it was 10 seconds of fun anyway. :)
posted by Steve S on 7-23-2008 at 12:38 pm
It took me longer than 10 seconds but these are still my favorite ones! How would you feel about leaving all the word puzzles and replacing all the math ones with logic games? Just something to chew on…
posted by Caitlin on 7-23-2008 at 1:02 pm
Logic puzzles are favorite favorite! Keep ‘em coming!
posted by Orange on 7-23-2008 at 1:05 pm
i enjoy all your puzzles regardless of whether i get the answer or not.
posted by maliu on 7-23-2008 at 9:33 pm