h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Brown Furby's right

The complete solution:

Brit RED HORSES beer RIGHT BLUEMASTER
Swede yellow dog MILK centre dunhill
Dane WHITE BIRDS tea LAST pall mall
Norwegian green NONE COFFEE first blends
German BLUE CATS water LEFT prince


So the German owns the cats.
Marjin

So the German's cats ate his fish?

~j~

I think I was troubled by two different things in solving it.

1. The only reference to 'fish' is in the question, so I didn't copy it and replaced it by 'none'.
2. The way the relative places of the housed are named.
I called them 'first', 'left', 'centre' (or middle), 'right' and 'last'.

Is it possible to get the clues more clear on these points?

Of course I may also have made a mistake somewhere.

thats where i got confused 2. dint know how d houses were lables/numberd. i called em 1,2,3,4,5 (1 on left, 5 on right). but gave up cuz food was more interestin!

And to think I've got a pen and paper with me this time.

Well I glued all my pentagrams and pentagons together and came up with the bottom bit of a very colourful geodesic dome.. but I don't know who lives there and I don't think they're allowed pets.

~j~

ooh, pretty!

can i live em? wiv ALL d pets?!

Has nobody guessed the question yet then?

I got a different solution to the one Marjin posted there, could this be a puzzle which has more than one solution?

Well according to Post 901, Mycroft said 'Brown Furby's right!'

So, BF it's up to you to either demand full disclosure from Myc or post the next question or expand on the whole issue including the supplementary question raised by Marjin or all of the above.


~j~

I agree with jwf, the baton is in the hands of Brown Furby.

Solving this kind of puzzle takes hours of hard work, and I probably made a mistake somewhere with the location of the houses.

As Greebo asked the same question here http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F51431?thread=155035 , I could not resist and started all over. There is a complete answer by March Hare in Greebo's thread, this is mine (they are the same now) Brit red birds milk center pallmall Swede white dog beer last bluemaster Dane blue horses tea left blends Norwegian yellow cats water first dunhill German green fish coffee right Prince This time I checked with the clues. The houses go: first left center right last. Marjin

no offence bt that seems really odd way 2 lable the houses! 12345 wud b soooo much easier!

Marijn, I think your mistake before was not realising that "The green house is on the left of the white house," meant they were adjacent. Other than that your original answer seems to work to me. Given that BF asked who kept cats, I think you've just de facto answered it.

..'n each town looksa sameta me
d'movies and de facto rees

..'n echoed in the wells of Silence

'other', I know it is an odd way, but those names were used in the clues, so I decided to keep them, and add some to get five.

Bagpuss, this was indeed my problem. There was another error also, but it seems that I corrected that completely.
Alas the answer as I gave it, was wrong, and the question was not how to derive it.
So as usual, we wait...

*taps foot and *

*waits patiently*

*waves to everyone*

*taps foot and *

But didn't BF warn us he was working at a place with no access and he might not be able to post if he won? Mind you, he did seem to post several times thereafter.
Ah well, if we don't hear from him soon, we can flip a coin, start in alphabetical order, give it to Marjin who seems to have put the most effort into the last one or call on Mycroft who posed that most complex question yet and see if he's got a simpler one.
Or... [insert suggestions here]


jwf