September 1, 2024
It turns out that this is a pretty slow day for blogging something of interest, so I turn to my friends Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, for a puzzler from the old NPR radio show Car Talk.
Here’s the question:
Two girls are born of the same parents in Boston, Massachusetts, but not at the same time. They are not twins.
One of them is a citizen of the United States, and the other is not. And the second one has not given up her citizenship to the United States, she did not renounce her citizenship or anything like that.
How could this be?
I’ll give you a moment to ponder.
Time’s up.
The answer, according to Click and Clack is as follows: “One of the girls was born before the United States was the United States, when Boston, Massachusetts was still just a colony, and one was born after the colony became the country of the United States. So they were born in the same place. One in 1775, and one a few years after that. One would be a citizen, and one was born in the colonies.”
On the other hand — and Click and Clack didn’t mention this — when the U.S. constitution was ratified in 1787, citizenship status was bestowed retroactively to 1776 (unless, of course, you were enslaved). So the puzzler answer would only have been valid between 1776 and 1787.
I TOLD you it was a slow day.