I THOUGHT I POSTED THIS! I came to add something in the comments, and found it wasn't posted - must've blown a fuse or something.
Riddle: A traveller comes to a fork in the road. One leads to the town of Helle, full of wicked people who always tell lies, the other leads to the town of Paradise, a prosperous town full of honest folk. A man is standing at the fork. The traveller does not know which fork to take. He can ask the man only one question to wind up in Paradise. What is the question?
On Thursday, April 18, at 6:30 pm, I and other Minnesota authors will gather at the Lake Elmo Public Library, located at 3537 Lake Elmo Avenue, a block south of Highway 5, just north of the Lake Elmo Inn on the east side of the street. Some of us, or maybe all of us, will have our books for sale. Come and see me in an amazing hat!
On Monday I got my March issue of Ricardian Bulletin, a magazine put out by the British branch of the Richard III Society, which I joined a couple of months ago. With this issue came a lengthy letter, updating some of the ongoing issues with the interment of the bones of the late king (d. 1485). It appears Leicester has won the argument and the bones are to be laid under the floor of Leicester Cathedral or perhaps in a magnificent carved-stone tomb already designed and paid for (they raised 30,000 pounds!) by the Society – but not gratefully received by the Cathedral, for reasons not altogether clear to me. But also in the letter was a firm request that members cease writing angry, even threatening, letters to the Queen, to the Dean of Yorkminster, to Members of Parliament and to various officials in Leicester because Yorkminster is not to be the site of the interment. (I am not guilty of writing a letter, angry or otherwise, but I did sign the petition asking Yorkminster to be chosen. I have almost persuaded myself that I am merely amused at this heated and very typically English quarrel – but I really do think Yorkminster would be far more appropriate a resting place for the bones, dammit!) If you want more information about Richard III or the quarrel, I will gladly talk your ear off about it (or correspond with you about it to your heart’s content). Contact me through my web site Monica-Ferris.com.
Today I am going to have lunch with a hospital pharmacist to discuss the various medications he keeps in stock with an eye toward using one as a poison. I never fail to be gratefully surprised at the people who will gleefully help me set up a murder. What I came back to post is that my appointment was cancelled, my pharmacist got awfully busy and wasn't going to be able to take a lunch break. Maybe later this week . . .
Answer: Ask him, “Which fork will lead me to your home town?” The wicked liar will point to Paradise – and so will the honest man.
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3 comments:
I always figure that if anyone ever monitors the research I do on the Internet, Monica, they'd better know I'm a mystery writer or they'll think I'm a scary person! Although... maybe I really am both. Have fun questioning your pharmacist about poisons.
Maybe you could do a book about a pharmacist who either gets poisoned or is a poisoner.
One of the reasons I like going to the Writers Police Academy is to get those kind of questions that could get you in trouble answered.
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