How about a category title,
"Problems which require absolutely no critical thought at all"?

This would contain problems such as Old MacDonald Had a Sequence, Words in Common 5, The Famous Horse, and Metaphysics...

And perhaps we could even "push" problems to this category on a separate schedule, so as not to impact the rate at which problems, which require a modicum of actual thought, actually get posted.

Any thoughts (sarcastic or otherwise)?

--- SK

LOL.... Brian you crack me up.

BTW, I think the title exactly describes the theme that they all share.

An interesting point... but no I was not referring to the difficulty rating of the problems. As I mentioned in a thread on one of those problems:
I can come up with an equally difficult problem of sequencing.... such as the third letter of the prime numbers starting from 13 and going up. But really... is that worth while?

...very difficult, virtually impossible to solve, and definitely not worth the attention it might get on this site.

SK, I admit that Old MacDonald Had a Sequence is not a very good puzzle. I suppose I submitted it out of amusement that the sequence (derived from a sequence of numbers less esoteric as your proposed "third letter of primes starting at 13", but I see what you mean) resembled the children's song.

However, your criticism of WIC 5 as requiring no critical thought is demonstrably false. I included "horizontal" to help puzzlers look beyond simple letter substitutions, which are often the key to solving such puzzles, and in fact Happy used the word "midday" to figure out the solution, resulting in an "AHA!" experience. This is definitely not a you-either-get-it-or-you-don't puzzle.

If you find such problems "very difficult, virtually impossible to solve", maybe you will be happier sticking to puzzles that are more obviously left-brained. You'll be happy to know my next submission is more analytical in nature. However, it must be obvious to you from the comments of others that some people enjoy these problems, so I ask you kindly not to be a spoilsport.

BTW, love your avatar -- very aggro.

Other than "absolutely no critical thought at all", what would the problems in this new category have in common?

In my opinion, we can always stick one of those problems in another catergory. It seems only problems that don't have a catergory and are piling up would do well to find a new catergory.

I don't think comparing flooble problems to lateral-thinking problems is a good idea because lateral-thinking problems aren't allowed here.

Sam: LOL!

P.S. The cabin one is ON FLOOBLE and so is the the "George and Gracie"problem. And this cops and robbers is another perfect example...

And Sam... here's an ice one, and here's <A HREF=\"http://flooble.com/perplexus/show.php?pid=429\"another ice
Gamer... what do you mean these aren't allowed here?

Oh, I forgot, you aren't a journeyman so you might not know about the reasons I heard there recently.

We haven't passed many new lateral-thinking problems recently because they don't qualify as the sort of problems we want. (Sam's two reasons are approximately why) I don't know how the old problems were passed, not being a journeyman at the time they were passed (maybe some knowledgible scholar like TomM knows why) but I have seen that the consensus of these problems (including the severed arm one) was that they got TD because they were lateral thinking problems. If you look at the pid of them, you will notice they were submitted early on to the site. Over 500 problems were submitted between when the last lateral thinking problem you listed went on the site and now.

I don't think people think the lateral-thinking problems (some of them at least) are bad problems, but they are just not what flooble is after.

SK, are you sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful? 8)

The Old MacDonald sequence makes sense. Sure, you could come up with another sequence, but you would still have to match it up with a song, wouldn't you?

There was another sequences puzzle submitted a week ago which featured letter-to-numbers (still isn't solved by the way). Why does this one require more critical thought than the Old MacDonald? I'm not implying that the latter puzzle is bad. Personally, I enjoyed both of them.
The only problem I have with Old MacDonald is, that it's not a difficulty-4-problem.

SK I don't care if you're sarcastic ro what not. Just stop beoing an asshole. seriously. I might as well come out and say it. Let me say this ONE simple thing. If you don't like the way this site is being run leave. Plain and simple. If you want to continue to act this way then I'm sure levik will be more than happy to ban your I.P and any accounts you open and this one to. O yeah In case you say this.
silverknight said "I hope no one takes me so seriously that he gets offended or interprets it as disrespect.... (Of course... if one does... eh)"
you think that clears you from calling us motherfukkers? No it doesn't. You can either shape up or shut up.

Alan,

In context, I called you guys PC (as in politically correct). The "muther#$@#~@#" was added for emphasis.

Of course, in the future, I will definitely refrain from referring to you as PC.

As far as your assumption that I don't like the way the site is run, you couldn't be more wrong. The site is well run, and (from what I've seen) the best of its kind on the net--by far. I appreciate Levik's comments and quick responses very much, and he has been very helpful.

And frankly, so have most of the journeymen (and other community members).

Of course Levik can ban my IP or my account or any such thing... he could always do that... to anyone. Is there any other obviousness you wish to spout?

(Gamer, point taken, and I hope you'll continue to forgive my lapses into coarseness.)

Alan, I make my attempts to provide helpful suggestions, and I do so, often sarcastically. I generally do so to see of whom I can easily get a rise. Enough said ;-)