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Comments on Puzzle #4036: Ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch
By Joseph Jessen (gijoex2)

peek at solution       solve puzzle
  quality:   difficulty:   solvability: line logic only  

Puzzle Description Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers

#1: Adam Nielson (monkeyboy) on Nov 15, 2008

Been done at least 2 times before.
#2: Jane Doe (telly) on Nov 15, 2008
fun to do, though I've done this one before.
#3: Paige Porter (paigep) on Nov 16, 2008
This is cool






#4: JoDeen Mozena (ozymoe) on Nov 16, 2008
I still want to tell you, Joseph...don't give away the joke with the title. lol
#5: Jane Doe (telly) on Nov 16, 2008
totally agree with #4
#6: Levi Ross (rhodyboy888) on Nov 19, 2008
Technically, a witch cannot drown.
#7: Jane Doe (telly) on Nov 19, 2008
she melts?
#8: Levi Ross (rhodyboy888) on Nov 19, 2008
No. I seem to remember learning how witches were tried during the witch hunts. The test was toss them into a lake. If they drowned, they were not a witch and proclaimed innocent (even though they died). If they floated, it was the witchcraft keeping them afloat and then they were killed.
#9: Nancy Snyder (naneki) on Nov 19, 2008
sounds like a no-win situation
#10: Jane Doe (telly) on Nov 19, 2008
I remember that from Monty Python.
#11: Jan Wolter (jan) on Nov 20, 2008
Which is not necessarily a completely reliable source of medieval history.
#12: Levi Ross (rhodyboy888) on Nov 20, 2008
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Trial by drowning is a medieval ordeal allegedly used on women suspected of witchcraft. The idea was that witches would float. As part of the trial the accused was thrown into a lake or river. If the accused sank, she was innocent and presumed not to be a witch. If the accused floated, she was presumed to be a witch and could be hanged or executed by burning. Either way, the accused faced death, and a no-win situation.
According to Frederick G. Kempin's Historical Introduction to Anglo-American Law in a Nutshell, a West legal text, the actual practice was to hurl the tied-up accused into a body of water. If the water received the accused, she was innocent and hopefully pulled out of the water and freed. Kempin notes that the historical record indicates a preponderance of acquittals. Also per Kempin, this was not a method of trial exclusive to charges of witchcraft, but was for villeins and other "unfree" people in medieval England. Kempin's description of the practice is congruent with a trial by ordeal of cold water.
#13: Kristen Vognild (kristen) on Jul 27, 2011
It made me chuckle. :)
#14: karl (keicher) on Feb 18, 2012
this puzzle is a no-win situation.

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