The Japanese owns the zebra

I hope you enjoyed and had success with the puzzle. The answers are below.

House 1: yellow, Norwegian, fox, water, Kools

House 2: blue, Urkanian, horse, tea, Chesterfields

House 3: red, English, snails, milk, Old Gold

House 4: ivory, Spanish, dog, orange juice, Lucky Strike

House 5: green, Japanese, zebra, coffee, Parliament

Who was able to solve it?

Who Owns the Zebra?

A few nights ago, I dug out the 1962 classic logic problem, 'Who Owns the Zebra'. So, for my fellow logical thinkers out there, I'm posting the clues. I know it is possible to find the answers on the Internet, but for the love of puzzles, I challenge you to figure it out on your own, using only the clues provided, paper and pencil, and your own noggin. I've solved it two or three times and can attest that it can be done. I'll post the answers next week. (Please don't post answers in comments!)

1. There are five houses.

2. The Englishman lives in the red house.

3. The Spaniard owns the dog.

4. Coffee is drunk in the green house.

5. The Ukrainian drinks tea.

6. The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house.

7. The Old Gold smoker owns snails.

8. Kools are smoked in the yellow house.

9. Milk is drunk in the middle house.

10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.

11. The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox.

12. Kools are smoked in a house next to the house where the horse is kept.

13. The Lucky Strike smoker drinks orange juice.

14. The Japanese smokes Parliaments.

15. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

Now, who drinks water? Who owns the zebra?

*For clarity, each house is painted a different color, their inhabitants are different nationalities, own different pets, drink different beverages, and smoke different brands. 'Right' in clue 6 means the readers' right.

Happy puzzling!!

Graduation

Friday, May 15, I graduated with my Masters degree from Texas A&M University. Wow! It doesn't seem possibly or real and it was a very fast two years. My parents camp up from Houston for the day. The day started with typical Kate excitement. Thursday, the bottom three apartments in my little efficiency flooded and my landlord turned the water off without telling me, and did not tell me when it would be turned back on. I spent the night at a friend's and showered and brushed my teeth there so I would not offend those I sat next to during graduation. I came home about an hour before my parents arrived, and there was still no water. Our first stop on campus was Francis Hall, my building. And who was the first person we ran into?!?! Lavell!! Lavell Merritt and I have shared an office for the past two years and have become good friends. I was thrilled for him and my parents to finally meet. Below is a picture of us outside the main office in Francis.
There was a reception for all graduating Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences (RPTS) students. It was held in the Recreation Center on campus. My dad was quite taken with the building. It's really nice and one of the few things I will truly miss when I leave College Station. The reception was compared to the graduation reception at Utah State, and USU's won. (In almost all contests where I peg TAMU against USU, USU almost always wins.) Next, it was over to Reed Arena for the ceremony. It was all the PhD, Masters, and Bachelors students from the Colleges of Agriculture and Architecture. We got all lined up, then marched in. I sat on the third row on the right side of the floor. The university president, Elsa Murano, said there were about 5,600 students graduating this weekend. Every student graduating is given the opportunity to have his or her name called and to walk across the stage. Thankfully, they do this in five different ceremonies. Regardless, ours lasted about two and a half hours. They were very efficient though.

We took a picture as a family outside Reed. That long maroon thing that looks like a track and field relay baton holds my diploma. I pulled it out last night to make sure it had my name on it. As a masters student, we had to wear these incredibly confusing hoods. The last picture is showing off the hood outside my building. My parents, my friend Ruth, and I all went to dinner to celebrate, and stopped at the cutest little ice cream shack for dessert. It was a great day and I can't believe I'm officially done.

Don't worry, I don't have a job lined up yet. I'm busy applying, but nothing yet.

Pond Hopping

While I have not participated nor wanted to participate in many of the Texas A&M traditions, there was one I wanted to complete before I graduated. I successfully fulfilled all requirements Wednesday afternoon. The tradition is called Pond Hopping. There are 6 fountains on campus, and you're supposed to get in/splash around in all of them. We started with the "hidden" fountain at the Memorial Student Center (MSC). We were very sad to find it didn't have water in it. However, we had a grand time climbing on the structure. Below is myself, Ruth Ashurst, and Rachel Condie.

Next, we traveled south to the to a part of campus I'd never been to before. I had driven by, but never actually walked there. Again, to our great disappointment, there was no water in it. It is a really lovely fountain when it's on. However, there were some areas that had been recently painted; notice the caution and blue tape in the lower right corner. We did one quick pose, then went across the street. (Ruth, Rachel, and Kate)

Our last four fountains were successful in terms of water. The next one was rather sunken. The granite was extremely slippery when it got wet, which made for some interesting maneuvering. Don't worry, we did take a picture of us sitting in the middle. (Rachel, Ruth, Kate)

Fountain #4 was the H2O fountain. Behind us is the chemistry building and apparently this fountain is supposed to look like a water molecule. You can't see it, but just beyond the Chemistry building is Francis Hall, my building where my office is. I pass the water-water fountain everyday. This was especially entertaining to play in because of the many levels and types of spraying water. A Chinese family whose son is graduating came to take pictures of the fountain too. They wanted pictures with us as well. Just think, they return to China to show their friends what crazy American college students do.

This fountain is called the Fish Pond. It is by a lot of the freshman dorms, and the freshman dining hall, Sbisa, is the building behind us. The fountain had water in it, but was not running. We decided it was high time to do our Grecian Urn pose, and I think it turned out really well. Also in this picture is Cari Cotogno, our photographer.

Our last fountain was in Rudder plaza. It's a lovely fountain, simple in design, always clean, always on, and at night they light the water and spray with different colors. It's quite lovely. I realize I did not get a picture of the spray itself and I apologize.

Up to this point I had managed to stay somewhat dry. I wasn't soaked, but in this last fountain we found it very conducive to floating, and well, we did.

Glorious Action

I work in the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) liaison's office on Texas A&M campus. The current liaison is Dr. Louise Hose. She has her pilot's license. She has her own plane. Do you see where this is going?

I was able to engage today in one hour of life filled with glorious action. Louise took me flying! It was grand. She told me she had a little plane. I thought I can do little. I did little when I skydived. Her plane is really little. As we were walking on the tarmac to where the private planes were parked, there was a somewhat uniform type of plane except for one that looked like it was something you'd fly by remote control. That was her plane. I wish I had gotten a picture of her plane against some of the other ones for size comparison. Anyway, we did the pre-flight inspection, I climbed in, and off we went, into the wild blue yonder!

Louise did a very thorough inspection before we took off. I learned some plane terminology and technology. One thing that was cool about her plane, and you can see in the photo above, is that the third wheel is in the back. All the other planes around hers had the "tricycle" type wheels, where the three wheels are under the main body/wings of the plane.

You really can fit two people, side-by-side, in there.

We flew around campus a couple times before heading farther northeast. It was a bit cloudy and rather smoggy but the view and the feeling of freedom was grand. Above is a picture of Kyle Field and the sports training complex (white roofs).

I even got to try my hand at flying. (Notice the broken sunglasses that I balance on my right ear.) It was a very sensitive plane. Louise said it is the type that is often used for stunts, and that her plane was capable of stunts. She had me try to maneuver a 180 degree turn while maintaining altitude, and once hitting 180, fly straight at altitude. It was really hard! There were a lot of dials and gages to watch all at once and took serious concentration.

I did get slightly queasy as we headed back to the airport, but it passed. In all, it was a glorious hour of life!