arvind@utcsri.UUCP (11/23/87)
Date: 18 Nov 1987 11:50:34-EST (Wednesday)
From: Vladislav Rutenburg <RUTENBURG@score.stanford.edu>
Subject: Re: Sanitary surgeons and safe sex.
A small correction. The problem has been in existence long before 1978. In
particular, I had learned it in 1986 from a friend who had known it for
another 5 to 10 years from the Odessa, USSR math olympiad circles. In fact,
he first told me the safe sex version of it and immediately added: ''But, of
course, the Olympiad people phrazed it in the surgeon form for decency reasons.
". i am sure, there is somebody from Odessa who can trace how the problem got
to Odessa in the first place. I would not be surprized if it were more than
30 years old and had appeared in some earlier puzzle book.
--Vlad