DISTRACTION

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If you already know the answer to this puzzle, pass on, this post is not for you.

If not, let me explain the puzzle.

The boatman needs to get the fox, the goose, and the grain, across the river. He can only take one at a time in the boat. He cannot leave the fox and the goose together or the fox would eat the goose. He cannot leave the goose and the grain together or the goose would eat the grain.

The solution is at the bottom of this post and the intervening text is just so it's well off your screen at this point if you choose to take up the challenge.

Enjoy.

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These are difficult times and many people will be going stir crazy at home. When you're just trying to kill time it can be very difficult, for example, to read a book. You sort of know you're fooling yourself.

For me, the best example was when I was scared of flying & trying to read a book on a plane. I seldom got beyond the first page before the fear set in and I totally lost concentration. Despite starting over, I seldom got as far as figuring out what the page was about.

However, I found puzzles much more engaging & distracting, and it is in this spirit I am offering this post.

I knew this puzzle of old and it is one of my favourites for illustrating thinking outside the box.

To distract myself yesterday I just thought I'd try and illustrate the solution from scratch and this killed a morning for me.

I had first to think out how I'd present it, then scour the internet for appropriate images, and then whack them into shape. (And thanks to all from whom I "borrowed" them.)

That done I painstakingly constructed the full illustration of the solution below.

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