The Stars and the Cookie Jar

*hugs*

I'd say that that person is either an idiot or woefully uninformed or both, and this may be true, but it probably doesn't help.

I internet-hug anyway.

I would like to share with you a thought I had the other day. It's a bit rambly, but trust me, it's getting to a relevant point.

You know the old brain-teaser about the kid who's in a car accident with his father, and the father's killed and the kid is rushed to the hospital, and the doctor says "I can't operate on this boy, he's my son"? It's one of the old find-the-hidden-assumption-and-that's-the-solution puzzles, because the answer is: the doctor's his mother. Yes, *shockgasp!*, the doctor's a woman.

I tell brain-teasers to kids a lot, and I've noticed something heartening: over the past few years, no child under the age of fifteen has been puzzled by that for a second. Several have asked what the point of the puzzle is. The hidden assumption is slowly but surely disappearing.

The relevant point is as follows: the next step is a change in the solution to the puzzle. The doctor is married to the boy's father, and the doctor's gender is irrelevant.