The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

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Topical Guide 379

peterleroy.substack.com
A Topical Guide to the Personal History

Topical Guide 379

Mark Dorset

Eric Kraft
Nov 9, 2022
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Games and Puzzles

     Lorna began concocting her own mathematics problems and logical puzzles. … Here’s an example. I think that Lorna based this one on a similar puzzle devised by Lewis Carroll.

     Two homely sisters were on their way to school one day and suddenly realized that they had forgotten what day of the week it was.
     “We’ll be laughingstocks,” wailed the younger of the homely sisters.
     “Oh, be quiet,” said the older of the homely sisters. “We can decide what day this is if we just stop and think.” She sat down on a stone wall and thought. “Let’s see,” she said, thinking aloud. “What day was yesterday? What day will tomorrow be?”
     Just then, the homely sisters’ quick-witted and pretty younger sister came skipping along, whistling a happy tune.
     “Oh, help us, sister,” wailed the younger of the homely sisters. “We’ve forgotten what day of the week this is, and when we get to school we’re sure to be laughingstocks for having forgotten.”
     “Well,” said the quick-witted and pretty sister with a twinkle in her eye, “when you can call the day after tomorrow ‘yesterday,’ then the day that you call ‘today’ will be as many days away from Wednesday as was the day that you called ‘today’ on the day when you called the day before yesterday ‘tomorrow.’ ”
     Off she skipped, trying very hard not to giggle, leaving her sisters with their mouths agape.

Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 17

Try as I might (and, believe me, I have tried) I cannot find a similar puzzle in Lewis Carroll’s works. Can you? MD

Issue Number 4 of The Babbington Review is now on Substack.

Have you missed an episode or two or several?

  • You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archiveor consulting the index to the Topical Guide.

  • You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed.

  • You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)

  • At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of “My Mother Takes a Tumble,” “Do Clams Bite?,” “Life on the Bolotomy,” “The Static of the Spheres,” “The Fox and the Clam,” “The Girl with the White Fur Muff,” “Take the Long Way Home,” “Call Me Larry,” and “The Young Tars,” the nine novellas in Little Follies, and Little Follies itself, which will give you all the novellas in one handy package.

  • You’ll find overviews of the entire work in  An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy (a pdf document) and at Encyclopedia.com.

The serialization of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy is supported by its readers. I sometimes earn affiliate fees when you click through the affiliate links in a post. EK
The illustration in the banner that opens each episode is from an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions.
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