whats wrong with this paragraph?

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

How quickly can you find out what is unusual about this paragraph? It looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing was wrong with it at all, and in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual. Why? If you study it and think about it you may find out, but I am not going to assist you in any way. You must do it without coaching. No doubt if you work at it for long, it will dawn on you. I don't know. Now, go to work and try your luck.

[Gruesome]

There are no E's??

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

yes, x and z are also absent

[swansont]

yes, x and z are also absent

But what's unusual about x and z being absent?

[Titana]

Is it the paragraph or the title? The first letter in the title is not capitalized.

Other then that I can't find anything else......I think....:think:

[Lord Jubjub]

Just try to do a paragraph without an assist from a most common symbol.

[RUF]

No apostrophe in the contraction "whats" in the title.

[Roy Batty]

Just try to do a paragraph without an assist from a most common symbol.
Now what non consonant would that ba than?:think:

[ggremlin]

A+ or A-?

[HenrikOlsen]

No e's, caught in about 15 seconds.

Try this one, very much shortened from the original:


Poe, E.
Near a Raven

Midnights so dreary, tired and weary.
Silently pondering volumes extolling all by-now obsolete lore.
During my rather long nap - the weirdest tap!
An ominous vibrating sound disturbing my chamber's antedoor.
"This", I whispered quietly, "I ignore".

Perfectly, the intellect remembers: the ghostly fires, a glittering ember.
Inflamed by lightning's outbursts, windows cast penumbras upon this floor.
Sorrowful, as one mistreated, unhappy thoughts I heeded:
That inimitable lesson in elegance - Lenore -
Is delighting, exciting...nevermore.

Ominously, curtains parted (my serenity outsmarted),
And fear overcame my being - the fear of "forevermore".
Fearful foreboding abided, selfish sentiment confided,
As I said, "Methinks mysterious traveler knocks afore.
A man is visiting, of age threescore."

...

The whole thing's here (http://ibm.mtsac.edu/~sguth/raven.htm).

[Jeff Root]

Got it before I finished reading the second sentence-- between
five and ten seconds, I think. What a dark and stormy paragraph.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Mellow]

noe 'e's ditto, about ten seconds, but I'm not bragging since Clop's puzzle about the prison has me almost stumped.

[Melusine]

"How I need a drink, alcoholic in nature, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics."

This is evermore apt. :rolleyes:

If Lewis Carroll had not been a mathematician, I would agree only with the sentiment and not what's behind it.

[Jeff Root]

"How I need a drink, alcoholic in nature, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics."
I'm amazed at myself. I got this in about a minute. Piece of cake.



This is evermore apt.
I haven't figured out the significance of that comment, though.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Melusine]

I'm amazed at myself. I got this in about a minute. Piece of cake.
Maybe you're the square root of something? :D


I haven't figured out the significance of that comment, though.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
I consider myself innumerate; I speak in tongues, so to speak. Good luck! ;)

[Fram]

I have to admit that I didn't notice the missing e's, as I had already found "the" (in my view, at the time) solution: the unusual thing about that paragraph is that it is about itself (self-referential? Something like that). That doesn't happen very often... It would have been clearer (easier) if you had said something like" what's unusual about the next paragraph", and then giving such a one.

But it's not unusual to miss good solutions by finding a wrong solution. Sorry, I won't do it again.

[Swift]

I have to admit that I didn't notice the missing e's, as I had already found "the" (in my view, at the time) solution: the unusual thing about that paragraph is that it is about itself (self-referential? Something like that). That doesn't happen very often... It would have been clearer (easier) if you had said something like" what's unusual about the next paragraph", and then giving such a one.

But it's not unusual to miss good solutions by finding a wrong solution. Sorry, I won't do it again.
I've been interested in self-referring sentences since reading an article about them in the Metamagical Themes column many years ago. I particularly like the ones that are paradoxes or errors, such as:

This sentence no verb.
This sentence is in Chinese when no one is reading it.
This sentence is in green.
Which question is also its own answer?

[Kootenaistar]

Pardon me if I am too quick, but the last sentence is the only question, the only answer to itself, and the only one that I see as correct.
#1- the "word" verb is in the sentence
#2-the word "Chinese" is in the sentence, but the sentence is written in English and stays so unless translated.
#3-green? on my screen red print on blue background has nothing to do with green
#4 the only question asked (not false statement made) is the only answer to itself!

[jack butler]

How quickly can you find out what is unusual about this paragraph? It looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing was wrong with it at all, and in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual. Why? If you study it and think about it you may find out, but I am not going to assist you in any way. You must do it without coaching. No doubt if you work at it for long, it will dawn on you. I don't know. Now, go to work and try your luck.

No e. 15 seconds.

[tdvance]

Is "no" the answer to this question?

[ThysPF]

Is "no" the answer to this question?
Definitely not.

What is not the answer to this question?

[mike alexander]

Rising from the tomb of 2007, from past musings, it is nothing but an old story again put forth. Must this always occur? No, I think not.

[Buttercup]

It's right justified. :p

(the ends of every line are at the right margin, unlike regular board formatting)