For Those Who See Marilyn vos Savant as the Final Word on Things

No, wait a minute. Maybe I was wrong about that last one.

Excuse me while I go ask the neighbours for my bananas back.

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Ignored post by newnickname posted

JohnGalt

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Q: "...Which one doesn't belong?"

A: Orange. It is the only one in the list that can't be rhymed with any word in the English Language.

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Ignored post by JohnGalt posted

JohnGalt

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Q: "...Which one doesn't belong?"

A: Lemon. It is the only one with 2 vowels whereas all the others have 3 vowels.

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Ignored post by JohnGalt posted

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There have been many good answers, and very obviously, vos Savant dropped the ball on this one big time. But no one has given the answer that I consider the most obvious. Let's give it another day or so to see if anyone comes up with it.

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Ignored post by DorianGreyed posted

newnickname

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The banana is the only one that can be eaten seductively.

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Ignored post by newnickname posted

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Ignored post by DorianGreyed posted

Karrow

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The tennis ball is the only one that you can't peel the skin off (well not very easily).

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Ignored post by Karrow posted

Fourbrick2

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The banana is a bent cylinder(ish). The others are spherical.

Incidentally I peel my bananas by holding the stalk end. My wife and friends peel them by holding the other end, and peeling with the stalk. Which is the correct way?

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Ignored post by Fourbrick2 posted

frankvan

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quote:
Originally posted by Fourbrick2:
The banana is a bent cylinder(ish). The others are spherical.

Incidentally I peel my bananas by holding the stalk end. My wife and friends peel them by holding the other end, and peeling with the stalk. Which is the correct way?

Your wife and her friends are wrong. Peeling bananas from the stalk causes banana mutilation, and should be outlawed.

Are tennis balls edible ?

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Ignored post by frankvan posted

aminator2002

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You can't eat a tennis ball.

Tennis ball is the only one that bounces.

There is no juice made from tennis balls.

A banana comes in a bunch whereas the rest are never joined together.

Tennis balls can be orange by the way.

A tennis ball has no seeds.

Lemon is the only one that can be a descriptive noun. i.e The car I bought is a real lemon.

Orange seems to be the one that gives me trouble... can't think of anything for it.

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Ignored post by aminator2002 posted

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"You can't eat a tennis ball." - Ami

"The tennis ball is the only one that you can't peel the skin off (well not very easily)." - Karrow

Most people would agree that a tennis ball is inedible, but, apparently, Karrow uses peeled tennis balls in her gruel. But then, that really doesn't change anything, does it?

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Ignored post by DorianGreyed posted

Professor

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More concrete thinking:
Only "tennis ball" contains two words.
Only "banana" contains just one kind of vowel.
Only "lemon" contains consonants in consecutive alphabetical order.

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Ignored post by Professor posted

JohnGalt

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The Tennis Ball is the most obvious answer and probably why vos Savant chose to go another route just to generate letters and comments. With the Tennis Ball, the differences are many. The Tennis Ball is:

The only manmade item
The only item that didn’t exist several hundred years ago
The only hollow item
The only non-food item
And several other unique characteristics already mentioned by others

The tricky (and fun) part is coming up with reasons why each of the 3 different pieces of fruit don't belong on the list:

The Banana doesn't belong because:

The Orange doesn't belong because:

The Lemon doesn't belong because:

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Ignored post by JohnGalt posted

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"Only "tennis ball" contains two words." - Professor

Bingo! I thought that this was the most obvious difference. What could be more obvious than a two-word term grouped in with single words?

No matter which one you may see as the one that "does not belong", it is very obvious that vos Savant was wrong on this one. Each object has several reasons why it "does ot belong."

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Ignored post by DorianGreyed posted

Sarai

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What a fun thread (except the part where I was way wrong

)! I'm curious - did readers write in yet to complain? I'd be curious to hear what Marilyn Von Savant has to say in response to such comments.

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Ignored post by Sarai posted

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It's a weekly column, and the next one will be out this Saturday. I wioll post any comment from the column that pertain to this problem.

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Ignored post by DorianGreyed posted

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There was no mention of any other possible answers in her last column. Either we are much smarter than the rest of her readers, who normally write in a great deal, or she isn't going to post any controversy until she finds a way to explain how she is right and everyone else is wrong. The latter may take a while.

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Ignored post by DorianGreyed posted

dogspit

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quote:
Originally posted by DorianGreyed:

Which of the following does not belong: a lemon, an orange, a bananna, a tennis ball?

"Bananna" as it is the only one misspelled by the person who posted this question.

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Ignored post by dogspit posted

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I used the Macedonian spelling.

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Ignored post by DorianGreyed posted