You find yourself half way between Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro; about as far from Mexico City as from Moscow.

Albert Einstein waits to the left, ready to explain his theory of relativity. A short distance to your right James Watt hopes to recount his development of the steam engine to you. John Steinbeck and Isaac Bashevis Singer crouch over you, vying for your attention.

Your surroundings are conventional and functional. One aspect stands out: A piece of furniture - represented in 2 or 3 specimens in the typical home - recurs here hundreds of times.

What are the two common names for this item of furniture?

All comments were well reasoned, and immediately homed in on the intent.

Strangely, no one except Steve gave much thought to the question, which was to identify an item of furniture with two common names.

As Steve pointed out, the distance to place and author names is to be understood alphabetically. It was a slight distortion to mix literature and geography sections, and I'm sorry that that confused some people.

Edited on May 13, 2008, 5:59 am

Posted by FrankM on 2008-05-13 05:05:53