"RIDDLE ME THIS"

I discovered riddles when I was in the fourth grade. Riddles joined crossword puzzles as indoor hobbies.  In my school years I never did assigned homework. Instead, I would work on puzzles. Consider this classic:

Legend has it that the nasty sphinx (a lion's body with a man's head and maybe a couple of wings) once laid siege on the Greek city of Thebes.

Horrified citizens tried to escape.  The sphinx told them that they could leave if they answered a certain riddle.  If they got it wrong Mr. Sphinx would gobble them up for lunch.

1. The riddle was:

"What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?"

(If needed, this answer and others are shown at the end of this blog entry.)

Over the years the Readers Digest and Parade magazines were filled with riddles that nourished my mind.  I also fed on the riddles section of the Complete Book of Insults, Boasts, and Riddles by William H. Roylance.  I can't find a reliable birth date for this author but let me tell you what the book cover blurb says about him.

"He has driven motor scooters around the world, earned money by selling jokes and writing humorous pieces, invented new products and conceived ideas for unusual businesses ..."

I would have liked to have known more about this unusual guy.

Here are a few riddles from my files.  Most come from the magazines and book mentioned.

2.  If an animal weighs two pounds plus 3/4ths of its own weight, how much does it weigh?

3.  You are in a race and you pass the person who is in second place, what place are you in now?

4.  Name three consecutive days without naming the seven days of the week.

5.  I have two American coins in my hand.  Together they add up to 55 cents.  Yet, one of them is not a nickel.  How is that possible?

6.  What weighs most? A ton of feathers or a ton of steel?

7.  O,T,T,F,F,S,S,  What comes next?

8.  There is a remarkable invention that allows people to see through brick walls.  What is it?

9.  What four letter word can be written foreword, backwards, or upside down and still be read from left to right?

10. If when trying to count sheep so you can sleep, you find it hard to keep count.  What is a "surefire" way to get the total number?

ANSWERS

1. Man.  

As a baby he crawls on all four legs;

As a man he walks upright on two legs;

In old age he uses a cane, which serves as an extra leg.

2.  Eight pounds.

(Is this a guess or Algebra 101?)

3.  Second place.

4.  Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

5.  The other coin is a nickel.

6.  They weigh the same.

7.   E,N,T

Eight, nine and ten.

8.   A window.

9.   NOON

10.  As each goes by, count the legs and divide by four.

I hope you like riddles as much as I do.

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