Futility Closet

Here are eight new lateral thinking puzzles -- play along with us as we try to untangle some perplexing situations using yes-or-no questions. Intro: In 1940, the Venezuelan post office was said to deliver love letters at half price. In 1890 Mark Twain composed a holiday message for the New York World. The sources for this week's puzzles are below. In a few places we've included links to further information -- these contain spoilers, so don't click until you've listened to the episode: Puzzle #1 is from Agnes Rogers' 1953 book How Come? A Book of Riddles, sent to us by listener Jon Jerome. Puzzle #2 is from listener Cheryl Jensen, who sent this link. Puzzle #3 is from listener Neil de Carteret and his cat Nala. Puzzle #4 is from listener Ananth Viswanathan. Puzzle #5 is from Dan Lewis' Now I Know e-newsletter. Here are two links. Puzzle #6 is from Greg. Here's a link. Puzzle #7 is from Sharon. Here are two links. Puzzle #8 is from Greg. Here's a link. You can listen using the player above, download this