Einstein's Riddle

[Tim Rowe]

In article <98glrd$1si1a$1 at ID-75892.news.dfncis.de>, 
no-spam-popov at bigserver.com (Boris Popov) wrote:

<snip>

> house         1 2 3 4 5
> color            yellow blue red green white
> nationality   norweigian dane brit german swede
> drink            water tea milk coffee beer
> smoke        dunhill blend pall mall prince bluemaster
> pet              cats horse birds fish dogs

Nope. Because each person keeps a certain pet (singular), but the person 
who smokes Pall Mall rears birds (plural). So they can't be his pets, 
presumably he does it professionally (poultry farmer?) 

And you also assumed the first house is the one on the left.

Formal notations are the only way to go :-)

BTW, did Einstein mean that only 2% of the population could be /bothered/ 
to solve it?