Crisis Averted

Mistaken reports received by the SPCA on the British island of Guernsey:

A call to a sick seal on a beach was in fact a duvet
Also a possible dead dog on a beach was another duvet
An injured crow was a black bag
A stray pug was called in and was in fact a frog
A dead gull hanging from a fence was a carrier bag
An injured bird was a blonde wig
Birds of prey often turn out to be pigeons
A hedgehog rescue once turned out to be a pine cone
A pregnant cat turned out to be a neutered male
A call for a shark in trouble was a fish

In June 2016 a member of the public brought in a “dead cat” that turned out to be a dog puppet (“a very muddy, wet, insect covered, cold, collapsed small dog with an injured nose”).

“Both the finder and I were extremely relieved and where an air of sadness had been at the GSPCA it soon turned to laughter,” said SPCA manager Steve Byrne.

They advertised for the owner on Facebook, but I don’t know that anyone ever responded.

May 10, 2018 | Oddities

Two by Two

In poker, suppose you’re dealt a pair. Is the probability that your opponent also holds a pair higher, lower, or the same as it would be if you held nothing?

	Select Click for Answer
It’s higher. If you’re holding a pair then you’ve left more pair combinations in the remaining deck than if you were holding a non-pair. A simple way to see this is to consider a deck of only 8 cards, four 2s and four 3s. If we remove a 2 and a 3, the remaining deck of 6 cards contains three pair combinations of 2s and three pair combinations of 3s, for a total of 6. But if we remove a pair of 2s, the remaining deck contains 7 pair combinations, one pair combination of 2s and six pair combinations of 3s. Here’s a more rigorous analysis of the effect in a real game — it’s small, but it’s there. (Thanks, John.)

Click for Answer

May 10, 2018May 9, 2018 | Puzzles · Science & Math

A Private Affair

For his 2004 book Tell Me Another!, Jack Aspinwall asked members of Parliament to tell him jokes and stories. Richard Ottaway told him this:

The Duchess returned to the Manor one evening and encountered her butler in her boudoir. She looked the butler straight in the eye and said:

“James, take off my dress.” James took off her dress.

“James, take off my petticoat.” James took off her petticoat.

“James, take off my bra.” James took off her bra.

“James, take off my panties.” James took off her panties. The Duchess turned, faced her butler again and in a soft but firm voice said:

“Now then, James, never let me catch you wearing my clothes again.”

May 9, 2018 | Humor

Black and White

The English occultist Aleister Crowley, “the wickedest man in the world,” was a skilled chess player. In 1894 he published several problems in the Eastbourne Gazette under the pseudonym Ta Dhuibh. This one appeared on Feb. 21. How can White mate in two moves?

	Select Click for Answer
White wins with the craziest move on the board, 1. Qd4!, offering the queen. If Black captures her then 2. Nxd4 is mate, but other options are no better: If Black moves his knight to any other square, then 2. Qa1#. (If 1. … Nxd2 then 2. Nxd2#.) If he moves his bishop then the queen mates from b2. If the king captures the knight then 2. Qd3#. If the a-pawn captures the knight then 2. Qa1#. The following year Crowley began a three-year course at Cambridge, where he later claimed to have beaten the president of the university chess club in his first year. He considering a professional career in chess and practiced two hours a day, but he gave up the idea when occultism captured his interest.

Click for Answer

May 9, 2018May 8, 2018 | Puzzles

The Better Man

Catcher Harry Chiti pulled a sort of ontological sleight in 1962.

On April 25, while playing for the Cleveland Indians, he was acquired by the expansion New York Mets for a player to be named later.

Seven weeks later, on June 15, he was sent back to the Indians as the “player to be named later” — he’d been traded for himself.

Three other players have since achieved the same feat: Dickie Noles, Brad Gulden, and John McDonald.

(Thanks, Tom.)

May 8, 2018May 8, 2018 | Entertainment · Oddities

Epigram

Midas, they say, possessed the art of old
Of turning whatsoe’er he touch’d to gold;
This modern statesmen can reverse with ease —
Touch them with gold, they’ll turn to what you please.

— John Wolcot (1738-1819)

May 8, 2018May 7, 2018 | Poems · Society

Robinson Tiles

Berkeley mathematician Raphael Robinson discovered this remarkable set of aperiodic tiles in 1978. The six shapes will neatly tile a plane, as shown below, and though the pattern cannot be regular, it reliably produces a hierarchical design: Each small orange square sits at the corner of a larger orange square, which sits at the corner of a still larger one, and so on ad infinitum. This is because subgroups of tiles form “supertiles” with similar properties — see here.

(Thanks, Jacob.)

May 7, 2018 | Science & Math

Podcast Episode 199: The Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering

In 1921 a schooner ran aground on the treacherous shoals off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. When rescuers climbed aboard, they found signs of a strange drama in the ship’s last moments — and no trace of the 11-man crew. In this week’s episode of the Futility Closet podcast we’ll examine the curious case of the Carroll A. Deering, which has been called “one of the enduring mysteries of maritime history.”

We’ll also experiment with yellow fever and puzzle over a disputed time of death.

See full show notes …

May 7, 2018May 21, 2018 | History · Oddities · Podcast

Fair’s Fair

Pavia once had an upside-down tower, the “Torre del Pizzo in giù.” According to legend, Andreotto del Maino, head of the del Maino family in the 15th century, was so fed up with his son Giasone’s unpromising academic career that he vowed to build an inverted tower if only he graduated. Giasone not only took his degree but became one of the most esteemed jurists of his age, so Andreotto fulfilled his promise.

The tower was demolished in the 18th century, “destroyed through stupid timidity,” writes the Irish historian Kenelm Henry Digby, “when it was too late discovered that it had been built with such skill that it might have stood for many ages.”

More images here.

(Thanks, Daniele.)

May 6, 2018 | Oddities

A Moveable Feast

When does Sherlock Holmes eat breakfast?

In A Study in Scarlet we are told that Holmes “had invariably breakfasted and gone out” before Watson rose in the morning.
But just over a year later, in early April 1883, Watson describes himself as “regular in my habits” and says Holmes is “a late riser as a rule.”
In 1889, in “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb,” Watson receives a visitor just before 7 a.m. and takes him to visit Holmes, remarking that they will “just be in time to have a little breakfast with him.”
In The Hound of the Baskervilles Holmes is “usually very late in the mornings.”
In “The Adventure of Black Peter” Inspector Stanley Hopkins is invited to breakfast at 9:30 a.m.
In The Valley of Fear Holmes is found sitting before “his untasted breakfast” at about 10.
In “The Five Orange Pips” “Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came down.”
In “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder” the two breakfast together.
In “The Problem of Thor Bridge” Watson descends to breakfast with his friend and finds “that he had nearly finished his meal, and that his mood was particularly bright and joyous.”

In Sherlock Holmes Detected, Ian McQueen writes, “There are so many contradictions about breakfast-time that one hesitates to express a certain view; save possibly one, that Watson, ready as always to submit to his very human failings, was not very good at getting up in the mornings.” He quotes Ronald Knox: “Both in A Study in Scarlet and in The Adventures, we hear that Watson breakfasted after Holmes: in The Hound we are told that Holmes breakfasted late. But then, the true inference from this is that Watson breakfasted very late indeed.”

By the time of Holmes’ retirement, McQueen notes, Watson pays Holmes no more than “an occasional week-end visit,” since the detective now takes only an “early cup of tea” and favors clifftop walks and sea-bathing before breakfast. “Watson kept out of the way!”

May 5, 2018 | Literature