My Winter Vacation
It sounded like one of those old vaudeville type jokes. I mean, who smokes cigars in this day and age?
Or maybe it's my mother's fault I'm laid up here. Yeah, that's it - the doc was right! After all, she was the one that told me I was a "genius," the smartest kid in town. Am I in the top 2%, mom? Oh yes, son, definitely. Well, if so, figuring out a riddle Einstein said could be solved only by the cream of the IQ crop should have been a piece of cake!
But that puzzle is easy, compared to the real goods - Einstein 2.0, the computerized version of the puzzle. Einstein's verbal puzzle takes on new and frightening dimensions when translated to the big PC screen. Now, you don't just have to figure out who ate or smoked what; this is a whole new world of letters, numbers, Roman numerals, and all sorts of squiggly things.
The key to the puzzle, according to Einstein 2.0's help file, is to figure out the relationships between the different cards, and position them appropriately. There is a relationship between each card, where it belongs on the board, and what spot it should be in. There are all sort of hints on the board, and what you don't know is as important as what you do.
So, I played. And played some more. After looking at the written version of the puzzle - no fewer than three times, I'll have you know - I thought I was ready, having understood the logic behind the solution. But this graphic version - it's just not the same. Even though Einstein 2.0 gives you all sorts of hints that can help you solve the thing, and generously allows you to redo the puzzle, I just couldn't hack it. Can you?
Until you find yourself one day in a place like this. It's not too bad, really. They promised to make me all better, maybe run a little operation to fix things up just right. I hear they even let you keep the part of the brain they take out!. Maybe I won't keep mine, though - after falling apart on the Einstein puzzle, I don't think I'm in any mood for the mysteries of the human brain!