Brain Teasers
His Widow's Sister
It was reported in the paper that Jim Jones had married his widow's sister. How did he do this?
Answer
Jim Jones married Ella in 1820; she died in 1830. In 1840 he married Ella's sister, Mary. She became his widow when he died in 1850, so in 1820 he married his widow's sister.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Was it cloudy or fine the day he married in 1830? Surely this a retrospective question; how does one know what the future holds?
Had to reread this a couple times to get it.
I agree. How can anyone foretell the future?
This is a very good puzzle of the sort that stimulates thought. It rises quite interesting questions about time and language.
Language: Usually (e.g. in a biography of the husband) we would say that he "married the sister of his future widow". You quite often see e.g. "she met her future husband in Paris..." i.e. looking back we know that he was the husband, but only looking back. (Can it be true now, but not true then?) The usage in the puzzle is counter-intuitive and unidiomatic, but is it illogical?
Time: There's an old superstition that when you suddenly shudder for no reason "someone is walking over your grave". The idea is that there must be a place where you will be buried, and that place already exists. But since there is supposedly an effect on you now, it implies that the future could in principle be foreseen. This has some similarities to the puzzle. Perhaps our fate is fixed. Or perhaps, as in traditional Christian thought, our fate isn't fixed but God is outside time and sees all times at once.
Congratulations on a really subtle one!
Language: Usually (e.g. in a biography of the husband) we would say that he "married the sister of his future widow". You quite often see e.g. "she met her future husband in Paris..." i.e. looking back we know that he was the husband, but only looking back. (Can it be true now, but not true then?) The usage in the puzzle is counter-intuitive and unidiomatic, but is it illogical?
Time: There's an old superstition that when you suddenly shudder for no reason "someone is walking over your grave". The idea is that there must be a place where you will be buried, and that place already exists. But since there is supposedly an effect on you now, it implies that the future could in principle be foreseen. This has some similarities to the puzzle. Perhaps our fate is fixed. Or perhaps, as in traditional Christian thought, our fate isn't fixed but God is outside time and sees all times at once.
Congratulations on a really subtle one!
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