Thaw Sue's cold dog

Question

Start with the phrase Thaw Sue's cold dog and perform the following steps in some order to find a famous question:

Add one letter
Add one letter
Change one letter
Rearrange the letters of one word
Rearrange the letters of one word
Rearrange the words
Remove one letter

Note: You can ignore punctuation, and add/remove punctuation as required, at any point. Thus, Sue’s is one word.

If we publicise this question enough, I've got an answer that's more efficient than any currently posted. (I am going by the definition of "famous question" used in the Gold Badge). — wizzwizz4, Mar 05 '17 at 19:16

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 05 '17 at 16:49

15

Start with the phrase

Thaw Sue’s cold dog

and perform the following steps:

Add one letter:

Thaw Sue’s could dog

Add one letter

Thaw jSue’s could dog

Change one letter

Thaw jSue’s would dog

Rearrange the letters of one word

What jSue’s would dog

Rearrange the letters of one word

What Jesu’s would dog
Note: adding/removing punctuation is not included in the steps. → What Jesus would dog?

Rearrange the words

What would Jesus dog?

Remove one letter

What would Jesus do?

answered Mar 05 '17 at 16:49

Peregrine Rook

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Spoiler Warning:  I saw the first word almost immediately, but I expected that the fourth word would be rearranged (spelled backwards), and so I spun my wheels for a few minutes trying to get “hath wrought” out of the other two words. (And, in fact, you can also get “hath” from “thaw”.) :-) ⁠ – Peregrine Rook Mar 05 '17 at 17:03
3

It is funny that I tried God in my answer, but the correct answer is not God, it is Jesus. – Victor Stafusa - BozoNaCadeia Mar 05 '17 at 18:29
2

@VictorStafusa I noticed that, too. Spooky! – rybo111 Mar 05 '17 at 20:58
OK, so we’re not even trying to keep the words that are in the answer hidden any more? (I guess it’s not really necessary, in the comments.) As long as the answer contains a word that is one letter different from “God”, it’s hard to avoid having a word in the puzzle that’s equally close to “God”. But you could have avoided making it a simple permutation by making the puzzle “Thaw Sue’s cold cod” (a frozen fish!), “Thaw Sue’s cold doe”, “Thaw old cold Seuss”, “Sue’s bold math duo” or “Chat: Sue’s cold? Nod.” :-) ⁠ – Peregrine Rook Mar 05 '17 at 22:18

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '17 at 15:12

7

Original:

Thaw Sue's cold dog

Add one letter:

Thaw Sue's could dog

Change one letter:

Thow Sue's could dog

Rearrange the letters of one word

Thow Sue's could God

Rearrange the letters of one word

Thow uses could God

Rearrange the words

Thow could God uses?

Remove one letter

How could God uses?

Remove one letter

How could God use?

answered Mar 05 '17 at 15:12

Victor Stafusa - BozoNaCadeia

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I'm finding that Thaw is an anagram of what – Beastly Gerbil Mar 05 '17 at 15:16
4

Is that really a famous question? – Ankoganit Mar 05 '17 at 15:16
1

Apologies, I made an error in the question. Now fixed. – rybo111 Mar 05 '17 at 16:35
Three of you were put to good use :) – m4n0 Mar 06 '17 at 05:48

Thaw Sue's cold dog

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