You may have already heard of "lateral thinking" if you're anything like me. But for those of you who don't read pretentious psychology magazines or highbrow humor sites, lateral thinking is finding alternate ways to approach a problem, or so I'm told by the distinguished local transient Dr. Jokemon, who I'm sure has a doctorate in something or other. Anyway, presented for your review are a number of lateral thinking puzzles. Try them with friends!

Q: A man is found lying dead in a room. Some wood chips and sawdust are lying in the corner. What happened?

A: The answer is obvious. The man is a circus midget. In his anguish at his inability to find a less degrading job and his wasted life, he went insane, stole some wood chips and sawdust from a local lumber yard and choked himself to death on them.

Q: A man dies of thirst in his own home. How?

A: If you think about it, there can only be one plausible solution. The man fell and broke his spine, paralyzing him. Unable to get to a faucet, he died of dehydration.

Q: Two men went into a restaurant and ordered albatross. One man, upon eating the first bite, walked out of the restaurant and shot himself. Why?

A: The albatross was served with a whole lot of horseradish. Unable to endure the burning, the man's only recourse was, naturally, suicide.

Q: A man is trying to go home, but he can't because a man in a mask is waiting for him there. Why?

A: Simple. The man in the mask is a chainsaw-wielding serial killer. Would you want to go home if there were a serial killer in your house?

Q: A man is found lying dead in a dead forest. The autopsy reports the cause of death as drowning. What happened?

A: The solution is surprisingly simple. The man was murdered by drowning, and his body was dumped in the dead forest. And so began the reign of the Boston Drowner and Forest-Body-Dumper.

Q: Bob and Bill are in a bar and are served identical drinks. Bob dies. Bill doesn't. How is this possible?

A: You've probably been racking your brain trying to figure out how this drink could kill one man and not another. Well, you'll be shocked to hear that the drinks had nothing to do with Bob's death! What happened is that a man walked in and shot Bob in the back.

Q: A man takes his wife to the movies and shoots her in the middle of the movie. He is able to get her body out of the theater unnoticed. How is this possible?

A: The solution is, again, so surprisingly elementary that you'll be amazed you overlooked it. The movie was Gigli. Nobody else was in the theater.

Q: A naked man is found lying dead in the desert with a broken match in his hand. What happened?

A: This is a pretty basic one; in fact, you may have heard it already. The man was crossing the desert in a hot-air balloon with some other people. Or he would be, if he could get the fuel burning. Unfortunately, he only brought one match, which broke, so his friends said "screw it," killed him and stole his clothes and the balloon.

Q: A married couple is racing through the streets. They stop the car and the man gets out. When he comes back, he finds his wife dead and a stranger in the car. All the windows and doors were closed and locked; in fact, nobody entered the car. What happened?

A: The solution is so obvious you probably overlooked it. The woman was pregnant and they were driving to the hospital. The man left to get a wheelchair for his wife, but before he could come back, an alien burst out of the woman's chest. It was the stranger in the car.