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Topic: The name of the Song (Read 570 times) |
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BNC
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The name of the Song
« on: Aug 6th, 2006, 8:55am » |
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Henry met his friend John at their local bar. John congratulated Henry on his latest win of the trivia contest (similar to "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"). Henry won 10,000$, and could have won more, had he known the lyrics of the Rolling Stones song "Let's Spend the Night Together".
John then told Henry: "I would have known this question. You see, I know the lyrics of every song ever written."
Henry, naturally, expressed his disbelief of this statement. John reacted by suggesting (surprise, surprise) a bet. He told Henry "I'll bet you $1000 that I can sing a song for you -- a genuine song, not one I made up -- that includes the name of any woman you want."
Henry happily agreed, and asked for a song including the name "Isabelle Montgomery-Smith". Later, he went home minus 1,000$.
What did John sing?
[e]Correctd typo pointer by Icarus[/e]
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| « Last Edit: Aug 6th, 2006, 11:56pm by BNC » |
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Grimbal
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #1 on: Aug 6th, 2006, 2:50pm » |
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Ah, yes. How old is that song already?
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Icarus
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #2 on: Aug 6th, 2006, 4:19pm » |
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I have to assume that Henry is generous and is allowing John to share in his largesse without it seeming like charity, in order for him to let John get away with that one.
I especially find it hard to believe that Henry would fall for this 10 times in the night!
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| « Last Edit: Aug 6th, 2006, 4:30pm by Icarus » |
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BNC
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #3 on: Aug 6th, 2006, 11:56pm » |
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on Aug 6th, 2006, 4:19pm, Icarus wrote:
I especially find it hard to believe that Henry would fall for this 10 times in the night! |
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Corrected typo requiring 10 bets...
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BNC
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #4 on: Aug 7th, 2006, 7:54am » |
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Grimbal did get it...
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cchris
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #5 on: Aug 9th, 2006, 8:32am » |
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[lost]
uhhh?
[/lost]
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BNC
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #6 on: Aug 9th, 2006, 9:26am » |
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on Aug 9th, 2006, 8:32am, cchris wrote:
I'm sure you know this song!
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Death
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #7 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 12:11pm » |
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errr.... could someone enlighten me as to this rather expensive (from Henry's point of view at least) song.
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BNC
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #8 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 12:22pm » |
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John was right in stating he could sing a song with any name in it. in fact it would have been the same song. Grimbal gave a rather firm hint.
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towr
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #9 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 12:56pm » |
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I could find a song with any name in it that's not like that one.. Of course it'd literally have "any name" in it, so wouldn't fit the riddle as it's written
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graphia
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #10 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 4:50pm » |
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on Aug 10th, 2006, 12:22pm, BNC wrote:| John was right in stating he could sing a song with any name in it. in fact it would have been the same song. Grimbal gave a rather firm hint. |
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So...what is the answer? 
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Icarus
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #11 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 5:07pm » |
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The song in question is one that you are aware of, at least for all of us who grew up speaking Western European languages, which should be a fairly broad hint. Some others:
(1) Clearly, no song you know actually directly includes the name of every woman. So there has to be a trick.
(2) In what other way could a song be considered to contain a word, if it doesn't have the word itself?
(3) Though one could make a passable claim that names in some other languages (for example, Russian or Chinese) are covered, there are a number of less well known languages for which this is definitely false. *lhasa is perhaps the widest known. John is lucky that Morris has never spent much time in southern Africa.
(4) While I may have mispelled the name of that language (I'm not sure of the spelling), there are no typos in or around it. And if you can't figure it out from this hint, I just have to spell it out for you!.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 10th, 2006, 5:12pm by Icarus » |
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graphia
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #12 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 6:57pm » |
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Um...the letters aren't actually in conjunction? I'm going to feel very silly once the answer's revealed, I can just tell.
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cchris
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #13 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 6:59pm » |
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I didn't grow up speaking Western European languages, sorry. I still have no idea, it's probably about as familiar to me as "Get Crunk" by Lil' Jon is to you.
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towr
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #14 on: Aug 11th, 2006, 1:18am » |
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The song is "Happy birthday", and anyone's name can be included in it. As long as it's pronounceable
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BNC
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #15 on: Aug 11th, 2006, 1:38am » |
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Icarus,
From your hints, I think the solution you thought of is not the one I (and Grimbal for that matter) thought of.
[e] and that Towr gave. I assume you refered to something like A-B-C-D... to "spell" the name (wouldn't work IMHO[/e]
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| « Last Edit: Aug 11th, 2006, 1:52am by BNC » |
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cchris
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #16 on: Aug 11th, 2006, 12:57pm » |
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Oh, well that makes sense now, I wish someone would've said it long ago. If you just said "Michael Jackson owns the rights to it", that would've done it for me.
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Icarus
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Re: The name of the Song
« Reply #17 on: Aug 11th, 2006, 4:34pm » |
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Yeah. I was thinking of the alphabet song, which could be said to "contain" any name with a roman spelling. Since all major languages and many not-so-major ones have roman spellings as well as ones in their native script, this would include most of the world, but not all of it.
However, I see that I missed a much better answer. 
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