Whats mighty curious about the sentence, “Show this bold Prussian that praises slaughter, slaughter brings rout”?
Clue: Try sleeping on it. A. A psychiatrist studying problem-solving during sleep posed this in a newspaper, says A. Alvarez in “Night,” and a day or two later a reader reported a dream in which actor Michael Caine presides over a crazy stage show where a comic Elizabethan figure kneels and puts his head in a guillotine. The figure peers up apprehensively and rolls his eyes. The audience roars with laughter, then the figure struggles to his feet, saying, “Shhhh! Laughter is a capital offence!” More riotous laughter, then the figure doffs his hat and bows. The dreamer glances at Caine for a clue, but he says he must “dash,” waves and exits. The dreamer awoke now with the answer. If the first (or capital) letter of each word is lopped off, the trick sentence becomes, “How his old Russian hat raises laughter, laughter rings out.” It was a remarkable dream, says Alvarez, making its point several ways. Not only is the figure about to be decapitated, but he terms laughter a “capital offence.
