The Case of the Missing Newspaper

I have the Omaha newspaper delivered every morning. (I think the Lincoln paper is about worthless.) The paperboy is pretty good about keeping it within a foot or two of my front door. I got up this morning to discover two things. One was that it had iced and snowed for the first time of the season. That was predicted so I was not surprised. 

The surprising thing was that the newspaper was not to be found. The snow was on my porch, and the indentation in the snow where the paper had been was there. The paper however was not to be seen. There were no other footprints or marks in the snow which a paper snatcher would have made. 

Curious. 

I pondered this for a moment, and as I had not had my morning cup of coffee yet, I could not figure it out. I walked out on the porch and looked around. Newspaper imprint right in front of the door but no paper nor any sign of how the paper would have been removed. 

Most curious. 

My wife stuck her head out the door and inquired about my befuddlement. I explained the situation, and she asked if it had blown off the porch, as it was windy. 

I suppose Sherlock Holmes was right. "Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

I checked a second time, and sure enough,  the paper had blown off behind one of the bushes. It must have been a right large gust of wind that picked up the newspaper, blown it over the rail of the porch, and deposited it cleanly behind the bush some 5 feet away, without leaving any sort of trail in the snow. 

Most curious indeed.