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Mary-Ellen has mastered the art of being in three places at the same time.
How does she do this?

Is Mary-Ellen H/A/F? Is her job relevant? Zoom/Skype/videoconferencing relevant?

Is Mary-Ellen H/A/F? Yes, but gender n/r. Is her job relevant? Yessish/yope Zoom/Skype/videoconferencing relevant? No
Doriana

Three geographically different places? if so: are they more than 100 yards away from each other? more than 1 mile? more than 100 miles?
Or places in a more general meaning, like at home, at work and at school (for a teacher who is giving classes at home)?

Is she standing at the point where the borders of three areas meet? Or more generally, are different parts of her body in each of the three places?
Is she in a place that can be considered to be part of three different larger areas?
Time zones relevant? Is she travelling west at a rate of one time zone per hour, thus being in each place at the same local time?

Is she "in" a place as a representation of herself? e.g. - a reflection, a painting, a photograph, a live stream?

Is Mary-Ellen a triplet?

Three geographically different places? if so: are they more than 100 yards away from each other? more than 1 mile? more than 100 miles? Yes to all.
Or places in a more general meaning, like at home, at work and at school (for a teacher who is giving classes at home)? No. She is (in one sense or another) in three geographical areas.
Sundowner

Is she standing at the point where the borders of three areas meet? Or more generally, are different parts of her body in each of the three places?
Is she in a place that can be considered to be part of three different larger areas? No or n.r. to both.
Time zones relevant? Is she travelling west at a rate of one time zone per hour, thus being in each place at the same local time? Hmmm! Very lateral thinking, but n.r. here. However 'travelling' is relevant in a general sense.
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wunderland

Is she "in" a place as a representation of herself? e.g. - a reflection, a painting, a photograph, a live stream? No to all, but a photograph of herself is sort of relevant at one point - although this may be misleading.

Does Mary-Ellen need help from others to accomplish this, or is she able to do this by herself?
Does Mary-Ellen require the internet or telecommunications to do this?
Could this puzzle take place in North America? Europe? Asia? Australia?

Does Mary-Ellen need help from others to accomplish this, or is she able to do this by herself? Others are involved, but are not aware of being involved, so it cannot be said that they are actively 'helping' her.
Does Mary-Ellen require the internet or telecommunications to do this? No. It could have happened in the 1940s, for example, but probably not the 1870s. Could this puzzle take place in North America? Europe? Asia? Australia? Could take place in any modern society, but probably more likely in the USA, for various reasons, including political. It does happen in the USA.
Tiger

Is she in one or more of the places only "legally speaking" (i.e. she is governed by the law of a particular country even though physically located within the boundaries of another)?

Is she in one or more of the places only "legally speaking" (i.e. she is governed by the law of a particular country even though physically located within the boundaries of another)? She is in one country - the USA - throughout, but in a sense, she is 'governed' by different entities within the same country.

Is she a US citizen? relevant?
Passports relevant? Other documents?

Is she a US citizen? relevant? Yes and yes.
Passports relevant?No. Other documents? Yes.
Doriana

The other relevant documents: driver's license? birth certificate? marriage certificate? death certificate?
Is Mary-Ellen alive at the time of the puzzle statement?

The other relevant documents: driver's license? This, mainly.birth certificate? marriage certificate? death certificate? No or n.r. to all these.
Is Mary-Ellen alive at the time of the puzzle statement? Yes, and still is. She is now in only 2 places at once, and will soon be in only one. But as of a couple of weeks ago, the puzzle statement was true.
Doriana

Are traffic cameras relevant? Or radar? Is identity theft relevant?

Are traffic cameras relevant? Or radar? Not really, though they could be. As indicated above, her driver's liscence says she is in one state (IL) when she is physically in another (TX). If she had been on a traffic camera, it would show that she was in TX. So how can she be in still a 3rd one? Is identity theft relevant? No.

Does she have an old/expired license from a third state? Does she share her name with someone with a license from a third state?

Does she have an old/expired license from a third state? No. Her current license expired on her birthday in December, but she was given an automatic 6-month extension because of Covid. So her driver's license, car registration, and cell phone all indicated she was in IL, while she was actually, physically, in TX. She was in still a 3rd state for another reason. Does she share her name with someone with a license from a third state? No.
Doriana

Does the notion that she was in a third state also emerge from the driving license? Was there an error in the license document? Was there erroneously a wrong place mentioned? (Springfield, MO instead of Springfield, IL) or a place that used to belong to a third state before?
Was she already physically in TX when she was in the third state?
Did her presence in the third state end by something she did? Did she change her residence or any other official document?

Does the notion that she was in a third state also emerge from the driving license? Was there an error in the license document? Was there erroneously a wrong place mentioned? (Springfield, MO instead of Springfield, IL) or a place that used to belong to a third state before?
Was she already physically in TX when she was in the third state?
Did her presence in the third state end by something she did? Did she change her residence or any other official document?No or n.r. to everything except the last sentence. She changed her residence before she actually changed her residence How?

Was her car stolen, or driven by anyone else?

Does she live (or is she visiting) near a border? For example, Texarkana, but on the Arkansas side?

Is it relevant that her cell phone indicates she’s in Illinois? Does this involve GPS? Triangulating her position another way? Does the third way involve an IP address? Email address?

Did she update her address with the USPS prior to making a move? (Or with some other government agency?)

Does she live (or is she visiting) near a border? For example, Texarkana, but on the Arkansas side? No to both.
JenBurdoo

Is it relevant that her cell phone indicates she’s in Illinois? N.r. Her cell phone # still shows an IL number, but this is true of a great many people. I have friends whose numbers shows that they are in Oregon and Idaho and Missouri, but they live in my area. Does this involve GPS? Triangulating her position another way? Does the third way involve an IP address? Email address? None of this relevant.

Did she update her address with the USPS prior to making a move? (Or with some other government agency?) YES.
****************SPOILER**********************
When Mary Ellen's husband, Frank, retired a couple of years ago, they decided to move to California, where he has family. One one of her visits out there, they bought a condo, but she returned to work in Il until she retired, and also to sell their house there. This was accomplished last year, and then Covid struck, and also their daughter, who lived nearby, got transferred to Houston. So Mary Ellen stayed on to help her daughter & son-in-law get their house ready for sale, and moved with them to their new city. So she was still in IL, according to her car registration and driver's licence, but actually in Texas. However, after she sold the house and was no longer getting bills for it, she changed her mailing address to the one in California.

All three of her are now in California, and she has her new DL, registration, and licence tags, so all is well.
trebor

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