This puzzle makes fun of the LSAT (U.S. law schools' admission exam) Logic Games section which many lawyers have been subjected to as part of their law school application process. LSAT logic games provide abstract logic puzzles based on determining what would or would not satisfy a set of conditions, which are not formally conceptually difficult but which have be completed under tremendous time pressure. In this case, the problem is dramatically larger than normal and involves an expanded version of the fable of the Three Little Pigs (here, the Twenty-Four Little Pigs) and the Big Bad Wolf.
After matching the unusual house-building materials with the pigs' names, the solver should be able to eliminate all of the incorrect answers: each incorrect answer directly contradicts one or more of the given conditions about which houses could or could not be destroyed at the same time.
The valid (possible) combinations turn out to be
- B. Quentin, Liam, Uriah, Rianna, Albert, Maria, Susannah
- B. Uriah, Bob, Kimberley, Delilah, Charlie, Timothy, Peder
- D. Engelbert, Francine, Rianna, Charlie, Quentin, Timothy, Hugh
- E. Indila, Rianna, Timothy, Yumi, Susannah, Jackson, Xavier
The corresponding materials of the destroyed houses in each of these scenarios are
- plastic, lacquer, uranium, rayon, adobe, lead, straw
- uranium, brick, Jell-O™ brand gelatin dessert, eggshell, concrete, tennessine, opal
- foil, formica, rayon, concrete, plastic, tennessine, hemp
- iridium, rayon, tennessine, yucca, straw, iron, xanthoconite
The initial letters of these materials spell out
- plurals
- ubjecto
- ffrcpth
- irtysix
which together forms the clue phrase PLURALSUBJECTOFFRCPTHIRTYSIX, or PLURAL SUBJECT OF FRCP THIRTY-SIX. This refers to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 36, the plural of whose subject should be REQUESTS FOR ADMISSIONS—something which could also conceivably refer to the wolf's desire to get into the pigs' houses, or to law students' desire to get into law school.