Aunt Tilly likes butter and jelly, but not peanuts or jam.

language/english/spelling/aunt.tilly New

New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.

Problem

Aunt Tilly likes butter and jelly, but not peanuts or jam.  What is
the rule behind her likes and dislikes?  (And other puzzles of the same
kind.)

Aunt Tilly has peculiar likes and dislikes.  She likes butter and
jelly, but not peanuts or jam.  She likes books but doesn't read.  She
wears boots but not shoes.  She doesn't care for cake or ice cream, but
likes Jello.  Tilly very much likes bookkeeping, as she adds well, but
she can't subtract.  There's a pattern here.  Once you get it, start
saying other sets of things Tilly likes and dislikes.  The tip is in
her name and how it is similar to the things she likes.

[ Editor: "My Aunt Tilly", from a homeschooling web page, as quoted on
  the National Puzzlers' League mailing list in September 2005; the
  parenthetical in the first line is the editor's. ]

Show solution

[ Editor: the NPL thread began with this request: ]

A number of years ago I read a puzzle (in a Games magazine, I think)
that was about a Green Door in a Wall in the Woods by Aunt Sally.  I
use this story in one of my enrichment classes all the time.  The
puzzle involves things that can be taken through the wall (double
letter things only) and things that are left behind (non-double letter
things).  I and the class always have a great time trying to figure the
rule out as I give them multiple examples and what can and can't and
they try to form a rule that will work and allow them through the
door.  [...] I'm looking for some more similar ideas of stories that I
can tell in a classroom setting that would generate similar results.

-- David Burgher <david.burgher@pac.dodea.edu>, Humphreys AES

I'm familiar with the puzzle type--I've also seen it in the form 'X
loves Y and Z but hates W and J'--but I don't recall anything specific
I can point you to.  [...] Have the kids tried making up their own
rules/stories?  That's the usual NPL response to a fun puzzle.  You
might also take a look at the rules of some NPL games at
http://www.puzzlers.org/krewe/gamerules.php .

-- Philip Cohen ("Treesong") <tree.song@verizon.net>

I remember this from when I was much younger, and always loved it.  It
bears a strong resemblance to Rulebreakers, but the only name I ever
knew for it was "Mr. Mystery."  ("Mr. Mystery loves crwths and cwms.
He doesn't care for fleas or totebags, and he hates IOUs.")
Unfortunately, his was part of a broader class of invisible ink-type
games...  I don't remember that one getting its own title.

-- Brian Auriti ("Satyr Eyes")

Here's a version of that, called "My Aunt Tilly" at
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/articles/062402.htm

[ Editor: the Aunt Tilly text given in the problem. ]

-- Myles Callum ("Griddle") <myles@sonic.net>

[ Editor: the rule of the Green Door, as Burgher states it, is double
  letters; Tilly, butter, jelly, books, boots, Jello and bookkeeping
  all have one.  No rule for Mr. Mystery was given in the collected
  postings. ]

> Here's a version of that, called "My Aunt Tilly" at
> http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/articles/062402.htm

And, of course, GAMES used to call them Aunt Hildegarde puzzles.

Aunt Hildegarde has just been to visit Uncle Lloyd, and has come back
with a whole new set of likes and dislikes.  She drinks OOLONG, but
won't touch DARJEELING.  She's buying albums by B.B. KING, and throwing
out her old ERIC CLAPTON....

-- Darren Rigby ("djr") <djrigby@gmail.com>, NPL mailing list,
   September 2005

[ Editor: no rule for Aunt Hildegarde's likes was given in the
collected material. ]