by Bill Graham

British Logic

I “met” Elliott, a clever fellow from England who also enjoys puzzles, via the Internet. He has solved several puzzles of mine and made up several logic problems, which I enjoyed solving. Here is one of his original puzzles. Fair warning — he has a devious mind. I am presenting this to you exactly as I received it complete with British accent.

Three married couples are at a dinner party. They all work in the health service and each husband works with his own wife. The couples are:

• surgeon and theatre nurse
• dentist and dental assistant
• family doctor and doctor’s receptionist

Jan is married to the dentist and is not a mother. Veronica, who is the surgeon’s wife, has her teeth filled by Terry. Between them they have three children. Everyone tries to forget that a long time ago the dental assistant had an affair with the family doctor. Fortunately, no children resulted from the brief liaison — although they do have four children between them. When Simon’s children had chicken pox, he took them to Bill and Olive’s practice.

Who is the father of three and what is his job?