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Hell is where a little old lady named Mrs. Dunham lives.
Mrs. Dunham is a very old-fashioned lady.
Mrs. Dunham has a bit of a drinking problem.
Three times a day, every day, she drinks.
What times of the day does she drink, and what does she drink?

 (thanks for viewing my first puzzle! I promise you, everything you need to solve it is here, have fun!)

Notes: The drink is not water, and Mrs. Dunham is surprisingly healthy for an old lady and does not take any medicine nor need any vitamins. The drink in question is in addition to any drinks served at breakfast, lunch, and dinner (or whatever terms you use for regular meals). There are no hospitals in Hell, that I know of, so you can safely count that out of your potential answers.

Okay, to add to the riddle to help it not be too "broad" (I hope that term isn't being used to disparage poor Mrs. Dunham), let me say this:

Mrs. Dunham is a bit used to warmer climates and has to have her drink imported because it's not as popular in Hell as it was in her hometown.

The three times of the day are directly linked to the drink, for very old reasons

The drink in question is much more popular in this southern state where it is made

Kingrames
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    I hope it was only water, because of how thirsty the heat would make her...(I have the same problem) – Mark N Jun 24 '15 at 13:14
  • Is this one of those puzzles where it is usually played by asking yes / no questions to find the solution? Similar to the man and the block of ice, the man pushing his car, and the man in the elevator? – Engineer Toast Jun 24 '15 at 13:39
  • You could ask, but I intend to avoid giving out clues that would make it too obvious. – Kingrames Jun 24 '15 at 13:41
  • @Kingrames, you may wish to limit down some of the answers, because there is a broad amount of answers that will fit. (i.e she takes medicine, she drinks with her meals, she is in a hospital and forcefully given the drinks etc.) – Mark N Jun 24 '15 at 13:42
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    @Kingrames To add to Mark N's warning, you have thrown on the lateral-thinking tag. That tends to attract every answer imaginable under (and sometimes not so under) the sun. – Aggie Kidd Jun 24 '15 at 13:44
  • I won't fault anyone for being creative, but I do rather enjoy seeing those crazy responses pop up. I've added some restrictions and will add more as necessary. – Kingrames Jun 24 '15 at 13:50
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    I wonder, who will be the first person to read the mind of the OP and post the answer he expects, rather than all the possible answers which will fit the clues. – Prem Jun 24 '15 at 14:11
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    My point in asking if it's a yes / no game is that those are, by design, extremely open-ended. Therefore, they are best suited as car games and not the strictly question / answer format of SE. As others have warned, this is awfully broad. Why don't you try adding some additional information? Don't just create a list of "it's not these things". Rather, try to add to the riddle to narrow down the possible answers. – Engineer Toast Jun 24 '15 at 14:15
  • I've changed the tense of certain words in the riddle; This doesn't actually change the riddle or its answer, but I felt like I'd mention it. My intent was to make the riddle and the hints consistent. The comments that I've left on the posted answers so far also contain some hints, in case y'all desperately need more help. – Kingrames Jun 24 '15 at 14:32
  • f'' has successfully deduced that Hell refers to a city, not the biblical plane of existence or a metaphorical area. – Kingrames Jun 24 '15 at 15:15
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    @Kingrames , you say somebody has "deduced" that Hell refers to a city. Can you elaborate on the "clues" which lead to the "Deduction" ? Maybe you mean , somebody has correctly & accidentally "guessed" what was on your mind ? – Prem Jun 24 '15 at 19:00
  • I said that "I'm not certain if that Singaporean company ships their products all the way to Hell", and f" noticed that Hell was capitalized, as though it were a proper noun, such as the name of a city, and probably noticed that I implied that a Singaporean company might be able to ship their products to Hell. It's possible, of course, that it was a lucky guess, but the clues were there to be found, even if they weren't treated that way. – Kingrames Jun 24 '15 at 19:27
  • I kind of figured Hell was actually a place since the first line says that she "lives" there. – zfrisch Jun 24 '15 at 23:23
  • I kinda assumed Hell, Michigan or Norway as those would be cold places (used to warmer climates) - or that Hell was taken in a Divine Comedy light – LinkBerest Jun 24 '15 at 23:27
  • @Kingrames , you replied to my earlier comment with two "clues" , but (1) Singapore is not mentioned in your question (2) Capitalisation of Hell in your question was due to starting the sentence with that word , "Hell is where ...." So I think you are implying that this question is "incomplete" and we have to read all comments and responses to get your expected answer. Comments & responses are limiting the broadness of this question. In other words, this question is broad. – Prem Jun 25 '15 at 05:48
  • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucking_Hell – Debanjan Basu Jun 25 '15 at 09:26
  • I'll go ahead and add a slight bit more to the riddle, hopefully this won't make it too obvious. – Kingrames Jun 25 '15 at 11:54

5 Answers5

10

Mrs. Dunham drinks:

an Old Fashioned because Mrs. Dunham is a very old-fashioned lady

And she drinks it at :

Midnight, 1 am, 1 pm because Mrs. Dunham has a bit of a drinking problem. And a bit is most commonly represented as either a 0 or 1. So 0 is midnight and 1 is 1 am and 1 pm.

TroyAndAbed
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  • Very clever! Not at all what I was expecting, and not the intended answer, but I'll give you an upvote for your efforts nonetheless! er, um, I guess I'll have to upvote you later, it won't let me yet because I only have a guest account. – Kingrames Jun 24 '15 at 15:19
10

Mrs. Dunham drinks a Dr. Pepper every day at 10:00 am, 2:00 pm, and 4:00 pm. Mrs. Dunham's hometown is Waco, Texas, where Dr. Pepper was created. Its old slogan was: "It's good at ten, two, and four." Since those are the times when it's good, those are the times when Mrs. Dunham drinks it. enter image description here

dennisdeems
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  • Correct! Feel free to add a picture so that everyone can see the old logo. – Kingrames Jun 25 '15 at 15:22
  • I'll add one this evening, unless someone else wants to. – dennisdeems Jun 25 '15 at 15:26
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    @Kingrames , Puzzle would have been better if it had somehow referred to Waco, not Hell, which is unrelated to the final answer. "Deducing" that Hell is a city is of no use. Initially, it was not said that she moved cities. "Import" is used for items bought from a "foreign" country, not from other cities of the same country. Reading the first 5 lines of your Puzzle, this answer does not really make sense. It was your first attempt at making Puzzles, so it is okay & you got useful feedback. Refer http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/5880/what-are-the-features-of-a-well-written-puzzle – Prem Jun 25 '15 at 16:41
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    Yeah, Hell was a bit of a red herring, I wanted to establish that it was a real world location but didn't want it to be too obvious. Waco specifically might have even confused some people because Dr. Pepper is a drink popular throughout Texas, with it almost being a stereotype that people here tend to addiction. It's difficult to hint without giving away too much, especially when you're talking about a brand name that advertises heavily. Sorry if you felt cheated. I tried! – Kingrames Jun 25 '15 at 17:07
5

I get the distinct impression that Mrs. Dunham drinks

Tea, which she obviously drinks at the three teatimes throughout the day (afternoon tea, high tea and evening tea).

Reasoning:

Hell is where a little old lady named Mrs. Dunham lives.

As others have mentioned, there are cities/towns named Hell throughout the world so this likely refers to one of those. I don't it matters which one. Dunham is also a traditionally British surname, implying that Mrs. Dunham is British. At the very least, she is married to a British man and it is not too far a stretch to assume she may have adopted some of his habits.

Mrs. Dunham is a very old-fashioned lady.

I know this is a racial stereotype but it also happens to be generally true that most old-fashioned British folk drink tea regularly throughout the day. At the very least, it implies that she observes older customs and drinking tea would certainly fall into that category.

Mrs. Dunham has a bit of a drinking problem.

I got nothing of value from this statement so I'm assuming it's thrown in as misdirection to make people think she's drinking alcohol.

Three times a day, every day, she drinks.

There are three teatimes during the day: afternoon tea, high tea and evening tea. Being old-fashioned, she probably observes all of these.

Mrs. Dunham is a bit used to warmer climates and has to have her drink imported because it's not as popular in Hell as it was in her hometown.

Teatime is not nearly as popular outside the UK as it is in it so wherever Hell is, chances are the locals don't drink tea as religiously as she does. It's not unreasonable to conclude that her variety of choice is not produced locally and would need to be imported.

Other reasons:

Tea is generally considered to be quite healthy and I'm not aware of any health issues that would arise from drinking it frequently. This fits with the clue that she is surprisingly healthy.

aleppke
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  • bit of a drinking problem can mean tea if she is having a hot toddy. (also "hot today" for warmer climates) and tea was my first thought as well – LinkBerest Jun 24 '15 at 23:22
  • I honestly did not know there were three teatimes over the course of a day, that's an interesting observation. I can say with certainty that tea is quite popular here in America, though. Not quite as popular as other drinks, except in certain circles. Enjoy an upvote for your answer. It's not quite what I'm looking for though. – Kingrames Jun 25 '15 at 11:53
1

Just for the hell of it:

Mrs. Dunham is an imp in hell.
She drinks human blood 3 times a day as a snack [once between breakfast and lunch, between lunch and dinner, and once before going to sleep]. She also eats pie twice a day at 3:14 while everyone else would have to watch.
(She would of course freshly bake each pie as most old imp ladies would)

Notes:
Mrs. Dunham is old-fashioned because not many imps in hell still drink human blood.
The problem with her drinking is that she can run out of people!
(Mrs. Dunham also always puts raisins in her cookies and cinnamon buns)

Mark N
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1

Three times a day, every day, she would drink.
What times of the day did she drink, and what did she drink?

... with the tag.

She drinks

at three o'clock every day ("three times" is a weird way of saying three o'clock).

She drinks

products from Everyday.

Thus, at three a day, Everyday she would drink. Just like it says on the tin.

Rand al'Thor
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