Post #180,645
10/23/04 4:06:24 PM
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very well, then. the sequence completed
The younger brother, no slouch, was by last night, and he didn't get it, so I am persuaded that I was being impossibly obscure. Accordingly, the last two names in column A are: Harry S Truman
Franklin D. Roosevelt* *This was me attempting to be too clever. The presence or absence of this name on the list is for the next several days co-resident on a common plane with the health of Shroedinger's cat (hence, also, a double meaning for "justify your answer"). It's pretty likely, however, that if FDR doesn't join column A this time out, he never will. cordially, Cthulhu for President. Why vote for a lesser evil?
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Post #180,650
10/23/04 4:17:18 PM
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Well said
But WHY do they complete the sequence? Are they last two streets you cross on the way to work or is it something those living outside of your skin might know.?
-----------------------------------------
How do you convince a Washington Journalist that you're not slapping him in the face?
Tell him you're not.
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Post #180,662
10/23/04 8:09:40 PM
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Re: Well said
McKinley was born during Tyler's presidency. TR and Taft were both born in the Buchanan administration. Extrapolate. Note that the interregnum between election and inauguration used to be longer.
cordially,
Cthulhu for President. Why vote for a lesser evil?
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Post #180,670
10/23/04 9:28:32 PM
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Re: very well, then. the sequence completed
And the rule is?
This was *not* fun. A puzzle has to be difficult *and* clever.
-drl
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Post #180,699
10/23/04 11:14:48 PM
10/23/04 11:16:17 PM
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not fun
The presidents in the invisible (see above) column B—a chronological sequence from McKinley forward—were born during the terms of the presidents in column A. I thought it was cleverer than it was difficult, but since I appear to be the only person holding this opinion I am persuaded that I am wrong in this instance, and apologize to anyone who feels his energies were ill-applied in the exercise.
cordially,
Cthulhu for President. Why vote for a lesser evil?
Edited by rcareaga
Oct. 23, 2004, 11:16:17 PM EDT
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Post #180,700
10/23/04 11:15:42 PM
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Re: not fun
You penance is to construct a solvable puzzle involving presidents!
-drl
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Post #180,702
10/23/04 11:27:26 PM
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Please confess.
You didn't have their terms and birthdates in your head, and you had to look that stuff up. Didn't you?!?
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #180,711
10/24/04 12:29:55 AM
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split the difference
Well, I could have told you all the terms of the 20th century presidents. I'd also long known, just by way of a random bit of historic trivia, that Eisenhower was born in the Harrison administration. I knew as well the birth years of the presidents from Kennedy forward, so it was easy to correlate these with the relevant administrations. It helped to remember that Nixon was born in January, which put him under Taft rather than Wilson (presidents used to take office in March). I did have to doublecheck on Gerald Ford, whom I remembered to have been born in 1913, but whose sign I did not (Leo, with Wilson rising), and I had to consult the same almanac for the birth years of Truman back to McKinley.
I should perhaps mention that since very early childhood I have tended to maintain these internal chronologies—enough that it was remarked upon by bemused adults within a year or two of my starting school—in a freakish yet somehow endearing sort of, you know, high-functioning autistic kinda way.
cordially,
Cthulhu for President. Why vote for a lesser evil?
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Post #180,739
10/24/04 10:56:45 AM
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My older brother has mild Autism or Asperger's syndrome
or something similar. (Like much of mental health, those are not really hard-and-fast diagnoses.) He remembers things like "it snowed today in 1973". Freaky, but entertaining at times. :-)
Thanks for the explanation.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #180,745
10/24/04 12:39:13 PM
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Re: split the difference
At one point I thought the idea might be like
Woodrow Wilson Pickett
William George Clinton
Richard Nixon Hell
Boy George Washington
etc.
-drl
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