Tomorrow’s Conundrum will be a new genre of puzzle for the blog, and I just wanted to lay out the rules ahead of time and offer a sample puzzle to make it clear for everyone how a Venn Diagram puzzle works.

In a Venn Diagram puzzle, there are three overlapping circles, marked A, B, and C. Each circle has a different rule about who or what can go inside. The challenge is to guess the rule for each circle by looking at the items inside and outside of that circle. Think of it as three mini-picnic puzzles. Whenever I can, I’ll make the three rules vary in difficulty, for a three-layered challenge.

All four of the items inside each circle will have something in common, but the four items outside of that circle do not necessarily have anything in common, other than not belonging in the circle. Some items will be in more than one circle, and so, fit the rules of all of the circles they’re in. In the example below, Bill Clinton fits all three rules, while William Shakespeare fits none of the three rules. Sir Ian McKellen fits the rule for Circle A, but not for Circle B or Circle C, and so on.

Have you figured out one of the rules? Two? All three? Feel free to post whatever you’ve got in the comments below. Just tell us which circle you’re solving, and what the rule is.

Remember, this is a sample puzzle to get you familiar with the genre. The real Conundrum for the week, another Venn Diagram puzzle, will posted tomorrow.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Cirlces A, B, and C solved by Kenneth W. Davis. See comments for answers.

Well, it’s Oscar week once again. If you have any opinions about which of the nominees are going to win, which ones you’d like to win, or who should have been nominated that wasn’t, feel free to post them here. But that’s not the Question of the Week.

This year, the ad campaign for the Oscars centers around great movie lines. I may not agree with all of their choices, but I love the idea.

What are your favorite lines from the movies? What movies are they from? Which lines made you smile in the theatre, and which lines made you gasp? Which lines do you find yourself quoting when just the right situation arises, and which lines do you quote for no reason at all? Which of your favorite lines are from your favorite movies, and which of your favorite lines are from movies that were otherwise ordinary? Which lines are so famous that they are even larger than the movies themselves, and which lines bring us back to their original movies again and again?

My personal favorite may be this one, from Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of the Lambs:

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

How about you?

What’s your favorite line from a movie?