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Along her journey, the chicken asked an indecisive donkey, “Can I do it?” After a long deliberation, the donkey finally answered: “Seek the Still Green Desert. The skeleton upon the dune has your answer.”

So she went.

After many miles, she found the dune and the silent figure upon it. Once more she asked, carefully this time, ready to take notes “Can I do it?” But the skeleton only stayed still and did not answer.

Frustrated, she made a mock sketch of the skeleton (chickens are not known for having good drawing skills):

Image

Still unsure, she whispered a Christian prayer, “Can I do it?” But again there was no reply.

Wandering onward through curvy, winding, and all kinds of mathematically twisty paths, the chicken eventually reached the place where the answer truly lived.

And at last, she understood whether she could or could not cross the road.

Question Where in the world is the chicken?

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3 Answers 3

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Can the chicken cross the road?

Sure, she can.

Where in the world is the chicken?

She's in Eastern Germany.

More specifically, she's ...

... waiting at a pedestrian crossing with a traffic light:

A typical stubby "Ampelmännchen"

The skeleton ...

... is a topological skeleton of the shape of the walking figure.

A sketched skeleton of the walking man

Not a perfect fit, but I thought the low position of the arm fits quite well. This design of the hat-wearing and long-strided "Ampelmännchen" of former East Germany is still common in that area.

And, of course, the skeleton is found in the "Green Desert". It is silent, because it communicates via colour and stance.

I guess the "mathematically twisty paths" are the steps taken to recreate the original figure from the skeleton.

What are you waiting for, chicken? The green light is on. You can cross the road!

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OK, with no other answers to date I will take a "crack" at it.

The chicken is

in Antarctica.

The skeleton image is

cracks in the ice,

and the presence of this surface means

the chicken can cross from the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern one by passing over or by the South Pole.

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    $\begingroup$ That’s a really cool idea, but it doesn’t survive the desert heat and it leaves other features unaccounted for. Although... Hint: reveal spoilerthe pattern can emerge from a physical process that plays out over time $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ Technically, Antarctica is a desert with an ice rather than sand surface. Anyway we await a complete answer. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
  • $\begingroup$ TIL Antartica is a desert :D $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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I have not fully figured out the clues, but my answer is

The chicken is in the egg.
She must cross the road (break out of the shell).
The drawing is the crack she has made in the shell – the exoskeleton.

But how to explain the narrative and clues?

Since what the nascent chicken is seeing is red, I suspected there is an anagram in "Still Green Desert" somehow to do with removing redness. I found a lot of many-word anagrams, but none that were credible.

I then supposed that the antithesis of the red confines of the egg are a green desert. Not very convincing.

Perhaps someone can expand on this.

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  • $\begingroup$ Another inventive response. The chicken has already hatched and is on the move, but reveal spoilercolor plays a role . The real answer is straightforward except reveal spoilerfrom the curves issue and reveal spoilerrequires no anagrams or wordplay. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday

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