Anyone want to play a game?

I’m in the mood for something different. How about a lateral thinking puzzle? Brain Food describes lateral thinking puzzles as follows:

Lateral Thinking Puzzles, unlike most puzzles, are inexact. In a sense, they are a hybrid between puzzles and storytelling. In each puzzle, some clues to a scenario are given, but the clues don’t tell the full story. Your job is to fill in the details and complete the story. Obviously, there is usually more than one answer to any given puzzle, but, in general, only one solution is truly satisfying.

These can be a lot of fun in a group. One person describes the scenario, and everyone else asks questions that can be answered with yes, no, or doesn’t matter in an effort to figure out the full story.

For instance, the scenario might be, “The music stops, and a woman dies.” You would ask things like

• was her death a result of the music stopping? (yes)
• was she dancing to the music? (no)
• were there other people there? (yes)

until you eventually figure out that she was a blindfolded tightrope walker who relied on the music to know when to step off of the rope. A substitute conductor stopped the music too soon, the woman stepped off, and died.

So, here’s the puzzle for today:
Two men enter a bar. They are served identical drinks. One lives; the other dies.

Leave a comment with a yes/no/doesn’t matter question, and I’ll answer it. If enough people play, you should be able to figure out the story before too long

And just a reminder, if you want to keep track of how the game progresses, be sure to use the checkbox when you make your comment, and subscribe to the thread! You can also subscribe to comments via RSS, but that may not update as instantly as the email option.

QUESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED
(I’m moving them here periodically to keep the comments from getting out of control)

• Do the two men enter the same bar? YES
• do they both drink their drinks? YES
• Are they in the bar at the same time? DOESN’T MATTER
• Are there relevant differences between the two men themselves before one of them dies? NO
• Did the man die while in the bar? DOESN’T MATTER
• Where they alone while drinking their drinks? DOESN’T MATTER
• Was the man who died allergic to something in the drink? NO
• did the dead man fall off his stool when drinking his drink? NO
• Was one of the men shot? NO
• Did the drink have anything to do with his death? YES
• Was there something in the drink beside liquid that caused his death? YES
• did the man choke on an olive or other froo froo added to the drink? NO
• Did he slip on an ice cube from the drink? NO
• Did either of the men know the server? DOESN’T MATTER
• do the two men know each other? DOESN’T MATTER
• did he swallow a toothpick and end up with gastric puncture and die of an evil gangrenous death? NO
• did he choke on an ice cube? NO
• Was the glass the cause of death, not the stuff inside? NO
• Was there an outside influence that caused him to choke on the liquid, like someone made him laugh and then choke? NO
• Did he eat anything while drinking his drink? DOESN’T MATTER
• was the drink alcoholic? DOESN’T MATTER
• Was one a creature of Babylon 5? lol DOESN’T MATTER
• Were both drinks poisoned? YES
• Was there only one antidote? NO
• Was the other guy immune to the poison? NO
• Did they drink the drinks at the same speed? NO
• Did the guy who died drink his drink first? NO