Long Pig BBQ ( was RE: [UA] Silly Epideromancy Rules question )

[Hammons, Jade]

God, I love lateral thinking puzzles. They were a regular activity in my
graphic design classes. I think that one took me about 45 questions. I
think I lucked out, my frist two questions were "Did what he eat lead to
his decision to kill himself", and "Was what he ate what he expected it
to be?". I dug around religious taboos for far too long...

Jade Hammons

"It is ridiculous claiming that video games influence children. For
instance, if Pac-man affected kids born in the eighties, we should by
now have a bunch of teenagers who run around in darkened rooms and eat
pills while listening to monotonous electronic music." 




-----Original Message-----
From: ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com
[mailto:ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com]On Behalf Of Tim Toner
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 10:16 PM
To: 'The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: Long Pig BBQ ( was RE: [UA] Silly Epideromancy Rules
question )




If you believe that your thoughts originate inside your brain -- do you
also
believe that television shows are made inside your television set? -
Warren
Ellis 

> I based the height of unintentional cannibalism on the myth of Atreus.
I
> also gauged it to be a pretty strong taboo based on historical
stuff...
> didn't some members of the Donner party starve to death rather than
eat
> human flesh?  Or am I thinking of that Andes plane crash?
> 

There was a great Discover Magazine article from 1992 that went into the
'why they survived' argument.  Some fascinating insights into human
nature.
For instance, a disproportional amount of women and children survived
(given
that biologically they have less reserves to go ton) because the big
strapping men were more likely to engage in behaviors that would allow
exposure to get the better of them.  I've located a PDF copy of the
article
and placed it here:

http://www.vonsteuben.org/~tonert/donner.pdf

Also, this whole conversation reminds me of one of my favorite lateral
thinking puzzles.  The idea is to present a scenario that seems
straightforward, if a little vague, and the players have to interrogate
the
questioner with questions that can only be answered with "yes" or "no".
Slowly, the true story unravels.  In this case, the proposition is "A
man
walks into a restaurant, orders the special, takes a bite, walks out of
the
restaurant and kills himself."


The solution (rather convoluted as these things tend to get) is that the
diner was once a castaway with two other men on a large island with
fresh
water but no food.  All attempts to catch fish failed.  The only source
of
food (besides the obvious long pig) were albatross that always managed
to
fly off before the castaways, in their weakened condition, could catch
them.
One castaway slips and hits his head on a rock, killing him.  The diner
refuses all overtures to dine on their hapless friend, and gets more and
more weak.  Finally, his companion shows up with a delicious stew made
from
albatross.  The diner scarfs it down, and comments on how delicious it
is.
They feed off of albatross for a week, giving them enough time to be
found
and rescued.  The two men went their separate ways.  A while later, the
diner notices an upscale restaurant is serving roasted albatross.
Recalling
how delicious it seemed then, he places the order.  In a single bite, he
realizes that what he ate tastes NOTHING like this, and promptly kills
himself.

I got it in about 75 questions.


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