Thursday, 16 October 2014

odd one out

I’ll be setting off back to Hong Kong early tomorrow morning, which means that I’ll be offline for a couple of days. As usual, here is one of my convoluted little puzzles to amuse (or frustrate) you while I’m incommunicado.
What connects the following?
• A TV hospital drama.
• A literary detective.
• Fluff.
• A type of comic verse.
• A nineteenth-century English poet.
Having established the connection, you then have to determine which is the odd one out, and why. This is probably the easier part of the question.

If you haven’t seen this kind of puzzle before, you need to turn what are general clues into specific answers. For example, is the English poet Wordsworth? Coleridge? Keats? Tennyson? Or someone else? The right overall answer can only be found by comparing lists of answers for the individual clues, but once you have a match between two clues, the rest should fall into place quite easily.

As usual, I will acknowledge all correct answers, but I won’t actually publish an answer for a few weeks, to give other readers a chance to work it out for themselves. Can anyone come up with the answer before I get back online?

spoiler alert
Correct solution submitted below.

similar puzzles
A Hard Question
What’s the Connection?

10 comments:

  1. Hi Dennis,
    I am not sure if my comment successfully went the last time I tried to send it
    Cork, Kildare, Clare, Limerick, Down (Odd Man Out)
    Best
    Keith

    ReplyDelete
  2. Almost correct Keith. You were certainly thinking along the right lines.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How about if I withdraw Cork and replace it with Wexford?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I must admit to being totally lost.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not only do you need a warped mind to solve puzzles like this Pat, it has to be warped in a particular way.

      Delete
    2. Pat the clues were all related to counties of Ireland.
      The comic verse Limerick - was the one I homed in first followed by Kildare The odd one out is in the North
      I will take Dennis' comment about having a warped mind as a compliment
      I think...

      Delete
  5. OK Dennis, here is one for you
    What connects these US Presidents?

    Grant
    Roosevelt
    Hayes
    Lincoln
    Washington
    Obama

    Clue:The link is musical

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Their wives all had names that appear in the titles of Beatles songs: Grant (Julia); Roosevelt (Eleanor Rigby); Rutherford (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds); Washington (Martha My Dear); Obama (Michelle).

      I would exclude Lincoln from this list, because his wife was called Mary, and I consider Mary Jane to be an ‘unofficial’ release (defining ‘unofficial’ as anything not released while the band remained together).

      Delete

Please leave a comment if you have time, even if you disagree with the opinions expressed in this post, although you must expect a robust defence of those opinions if you choose to challenge them. Anonymous comments may not be accepted.