Brain Teasers
Grateful for Poor Service
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
A man saw something advertised at a certain price and went to buy it. An official refused to sell it to him even though the man could pay and other men and women were sold it. Later the man was very glad he had been refused. Why was he refused and why was he glad?
Hint
Hint 1: It was a service rather than a product.Hint 2: It happened in 1912
Answer
The man wanted to buy a first class ticket on the SS Titanic in 1912. He was refused because he was black. He was glad because the Titanic sank with great loss of life.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
history and racial politics all in one teaser. Excellent, well thought out.
this was a great teaser that made me think. i did get it thogu, but still it took some time. well done
it should say though. my apologies for any incovenience
May 11, 2002
it could also be an alcoholic drink he wanted to buy that he saw advertised and he was refused it cos he was drunk and he was glad the next day cos he aready had a hangover and would have been worse if he'd bought another drink? just an answer moore related to us now!
May 11, 2002
although I guess officials dont usually sell alcohol! anyway it was a very good teaser anyway!
I knew it had something to do with death, and then the hint about 1912 gave it away
good but can't be solved without hint.
So he was glad because of the great loss of life? A little bitter, huh?
no, he was glad that he was still alive.
I thought it was alchohol, and he was underage, and there were cops outside...
Wow!!!!!! magisastar if u made that up then well done!!! it's a really gd1!! too hard me tho!!
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These "puzzels" are getting to be trivia questions, and they can't be solved logically
That's the thing about the Situation teasers -- not necessarily meant to be solved by the clues alone. A fun bit is to use them in a group of friends, have them try to guess using yes/no questions.
Fun teaser but i agree that you need the hints to get the answer otherwise there are too many possible choices. (Hindenburg ticket, buying stock before a market crash, plane ticket out of Logan Airport in Boston to L.A. on the morning of 9-11-01, etc.) Plus many, many other possible reasons not to sell to the man like they were sold out or he was to late to make the flight or whatever.
I have the book that this teaser was taken from word for word.
if u had the hint of the time in it it would be better... i mean there could be TONS of answers for this... I think
quite interesting, this one. but i didn't know the titanic set sail in 1912. a lot of history is needed.
After I read the hint, it was smooth sailing (pun intended). =) I love that movie.
Tiggy, I think that Prohibition was still going on then. But I don't know...maybe it was after 1912....but you have to admit, if you were related to someone on the Titanic, you'd probably be visiting speakeasies.
The answer is wrong
How is the answer wrong? Titanic was one of the most saddest times and It still breaks my heart just to see the movie.
He was lucky.
"Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions."
When i saw 1912, i though of Titanic.
I saw 1912 and I thought yellow fever? No, 1792. Then thought of the 1912 overture, then I realized that it was 1812. I was stumped. Then I realized, TITANIC! This is when I blame my blonde hair.
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