Chewing gum for the mind

Tony Deyal

SIR ALEX Ferguson is the coach of the hugely successful Manchester United, a team considered the most professional in English football and again winners of the English League. Previously he was a very successful manager in Scotland. He would be a very successful manager of a soccer team anywhere in the world, except Singapore. Why is that? Before you say, "and Trinidad, too, because of Jack Warner", you have to appreciate that you are dealing with a "lateral thinking puzzle".

The phrase "lateral thinking" was coined by Edward de Bono to describe a process of thinking that is different from the linear or the "one-step to the next" process that we normally use. For instance, when the South American Indians first saw a man riding a horse they thought that it was some new creature with two arms and four legs. What they did is what most of us do. We fall back on prior experiences and form quick but incorrect judgments by assuming too much, asking too few questions and using the challenge of exercising our minds by jumping to the wrong conclusions.

So what about Sir Alex? Singapore's moral code would not

allow him to hire Dwight Yorke to play for Singapore United? Or he might run into, or be run into by, Russell Latapy? Maybe in Trinidad or in Scotland. But the reason is one that would also create problems for Viv Richards and most of the present West Indies team. Alex Ferguson chews gum incessantly during soccer games. The sale and use of chewing gum are illegal in Singapore.

Lateral thinking is the mental equivalent of walking, chewing gum, scratching your head and wiggling your ears at the same time. In lateral thinking you have to eliminate pre-suppositions, built in prejudices and inhibitions and try to solve problems in different, lateral or random ways. In Trinidad these days, the conscientious citizen is faced with questions like "What's insulting and what's an insult to the Chair?" "Is that the same thing as disrespect for the Speaker?" "Does it warrant suspension?"

"And is that a saturated or super-saturated suspension, a half-baked solution or just a trifle precipitate?" Alex Ferguson's gum chewing might be as important as Dwight Yorke's late arrival in Miami for a Panama flight. However, as a lateral thinking puzzle, there are better.

Before I provide a sampling, there is one important piece of advice, and it comes from Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four. He says, "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Staying with football, here's one to try. One day, in a crowded room, a supporter of the Brazilian soccer team saw a supporter of his team's great rivals, Argentina. The Brazilian fan walked over to the Argentinian fan and struck him a fierce blow. The Argentinian fan, who had been knocked flat, got up from the floor, turned around, and then thanked the man who had hit him. Why? The two men were in a restaurant. The Argentinian fan had a fishbone stuck in his throat and was choking. The other man was quick-witted enough to give him a strong blow on the back, thereby dislodging the bone and saving his life. If it was the Brazilian coach, he didn't need to have a fishbone in his throat to be knocked down by a Brazilian fan.

This next one is a little less far-fetched. There were six apples in a basket and six girls in the room. Each girl took one apple, yet one apple remained in the basket. How come? The first five girls each took an apple. The sixth girl took the basket as well as the apple in it.

Here's one that is easier to figure out. A kidnapper sent a ransom note. He prepared it carefully and ensured that it contained no fingerprints. Yet it was used to prove his guilt. How? The police were able to get a DNA trace from the saliva on the back of the stamp. This matched the suspect's DNA.

Talking about the police, this is one that might apply to our policemen here. A policeman shot a dead man.

He was not acting illegally. Why did he do it? This puzzle is based on an incident in the film The Untouchables. There had been a shoot-out at a house and the police had captured a gangster who refused to give them the information they wanted. Sean Connery went outside and propped up the body of another gangster, who had died earlier, against a window.

Pretending the man was alive, he threatened him and then shot him. The prisoner was then convinced that Connery would stop at nothing to get the information he wanted. The prisoner talked.

And if dead men don't talk, what about this one? A man lay dead in a field. Next to him was a gun. One shot had been fired and because of that shot the man had died. Yet he had not been shot. In fact, there was no wound or mark on his body. How had he died?

The man died through suffocation. He was covered by an avalanche of snow which had been started by the sound of his gunshot as he stood at the foot of a snow-covered mountain.

Here's a final one for the road. If you like these Lateral Thinking Puzzles, send me an e-mail at tony@tstt.net.tt and we can try some more. What took 19 years to get into itself? The Guinness Book of Records, after 19 years of publication, became the second-best-selling book of all time and therefore got into itself.

Tony Deyal was last seen complaining that he had called his wife from the office to say that he would be home at around eight o'clock. He got in at two minutes past eight. His wife was extremely angry at his late arrival. What he didn't say was he had promised to be home at 8:00 p.m. He arrived the following morning at 8:02 a.m.

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