December 4, 2008
Tuesday Teaser photo verification
I tried to get you to rethink all of the answers for the Tuesday Teaser this week. I told you that there might be an answer that was close, but needed to be re-thought. Alas, none of you picked up on that and brought it home. You see at the top of this post a pry bar. It’s not a crow bar, though a crow bar can be used for prying. The very first answer to the Tuesday Teaser this week was so close, but so far off that it couldn’t be accepted as correct. A cell signal booster is an amplifier, but you wouldn’t mistake it for the ones used by your favorite rock band, right? In the same vein, a simple pry bar is not a crow bar. Sorry! That means we don’t have a winner this week. Do you hate it as much as I do when we start the month that way? We’ll make up for it next week, I hope.
Mahalo to all of you for playing Tuesday Teasers this week. May I suggest that you go work on some logic problems or spend some time perusing modern art between now and next Tuesday? That’s good brain food to help you prepare for whatever I come up with next!
[tags]contest, hand tools, photo puzzle, pry bar, Tuesday Teaser[/tags]
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December 4th, 2008 at 1:20 pm, Megan Reed Says:
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun 1. pry bar - a heavy iron lever with one end forged into a wedge
crowbar, pry, wrecking bar
jim crow - a crowbar fitted with a claw for pulling nails
jemmy, jimmy - a short crowbar; “in Britain they call a jimmy and jemmy”
lever - a rigid bar pivoted about a fulcrum
I think my winning these so much is starting to hurt me, I may have to use a different alias next time. I think I was a whole lot closer than the person who won with deadbolt two weeks ago but oh well. I’ll press on next week.
December 4th, 2008 at 3:54 pm, skeet Says:
Megan, the validity of any answer is not based on how often someone has played or won. I consider you and everyone who plays TT regularly to be a friend as well as an asset to my blog. My judgement in this case or any other is not impacted by whether or not you’ve won before.
The problem here is this: a crow bar is a pry bar. The type of pry bar pictured, a flattened pry bar, though, is never referred to as a crow bar, which is not flattened: The least expensive, most common crowbars are forged from hexagonal or sometimes cylindrical stock. More advanced, expensive designs often are forged with an I shaped cross sectional shaft similar to an I-beam. per Wikipedia.
We would probably never run out of sources, each worded a little differently from the next, but in actuality, I rely most on the common vernacular. Three different experts, without knowing why the question was asked or being given any clue as to whether I favored some particular answer stated: “No, a flat pry bar like that is never called a crow bar.”
A crow bar is a pry bar, but not every pry bar is a crow bar. The one shown for the puzzle is a pry bar but not a crow bar. Sorry! I try to be scrupulously fair in these puzzles and I believe my judgement in this case fits that criteria.