A Fistful of Brain Teasers

Innocent Bystander posted:

Don Atkinson posted:

I

Eoink posted:

Is it a splinter in a toe? So the wood is a piece of wood which you catch with a bare foot, get a splinter in a toe, sit down to try to remove it, then come home still with the splinter under your skin.

I think that will do nicely.................although the official object is a "thorn"

It just goes to show how irritating these Riddles can be !

My challenge, if challenges were allowed, is that you don’ catch a thorn (or splinter), rather it catches you...

I can see it for splinter, because in that case the meaning is that  I "caught the wood with my toe", an idiomatic way of saying I kicked it by mistake.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Don Atkinson posted:

I

Eoink posted:

Is it a splinter in a toe? So the wood is a piece of wood which you catch with a bare foot, get a splinter in a toe, sit down to try to remove it, then come home still with the splinter under your skin.

I think that will do nicely.................although the official object is a "thorn"

It just goes to show how irritating these Riddles can be !

My challenge, if challenges were allowed, is that you don’ catch a thorn (or splinter), rather it catches you...

Of course challenges are allowed, we live in a democracy

However, as I stated at the start of these riddles, there is only one correct answer - mine !

(actually, the riddles that I have here, are 200 to 2,000 years old and the answers have stood the test of that time accordingly.) But you're fee to challenge them nontheless...............

" I scratched myself on a thorn"; "I got a thorn stuck in my finger", "I (accidentally) ripped my jacket on a thorn"

v

"A thorn stuck itself into my leg"; "a thorn tore my jacket to threads in a moment of extreme anger"

The thorn is passive in all this. I (me) am the active participant along with my apparel........

You think thorns are passive eh? Hmmmmmm..........

Innocent Bystander posted:

Don Atkinson posted:

Here's another to fascinate or irritate.........

Before my birth I had a name,

But soon as born I chang'd the same;

And when i'm laid within the tomb,

I shall my father's name assume.

I change my name three days together,

Yet live but one, in any weather.

That’s one I’ve heard before and remember (or at least I think I do, though I don’t recall how weather fits) - so I’ll keep out of it for now

I think "in any weather" could be replaced with "whatever the weather"

I think those three words are only there to maintain the rhythm and to rhyme with "together"

Innocent Bystander posted:

You think thorns are passive eh? Hmmmmmm..........

.....haven't been chased by one this past three years that I can recall.....

Don Atkinson posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

Don Atkinson posted:

Here's another to fascinate or irritate.........

Before my birth I had a name,

But soon as born I chang'd the same;

And when i'm laid within the tomb,

I shall my father's name assume.

I change my name three days together,

Yet live but one, in any weather.

That’s one I’ve heard before and remember (or at least I think I do, though I don’t recall how weather fits) - so I’ll keep out of it for now

I think "in any weather" could be replaced with "whatever the weather"

I think those three words are only there to maintain the rhythm and to rhyme with "together"

It feels like it should be something like a mayfly. So something that lives as a nymph stage, then moults to a subimago, then to the full mayfly with a lifespan of a day in that phase. (I'm pretty sure mayflies live more than a day, but the original belief was one day.)  So it goes through three lifecycle stages over 3 days changing name each time, but the father's name in the tomb doesn't fit.

Innocent Bystander posted:

You think thorns are passive eh? Hmmmmmm..........

Yes, unless you have at least 2 thorns with an active crossover.

Eoink posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

You think thorns are passive eh? Hmmmmmm..........

Yes, unless you have at least 2 thorns with an active crossover.

Eoink posted:

Don Atkinson posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

Don Atkinson posted:

Here's another to fascinate or irritate.........

Before my birth I had a name,

But soon as born I chang'd the same;

And when i'm laid within the tomb,

I shall my father's name assume.

I change my name three days together,

Yet live but one, in any weather.

That’s one I’ve heard before and remember (or at least I think I do, though I don’t recall how weather fits) - so I’ll keep out of it for now

I think "in any weather" could be replaced with "whatever the weather"

I think those three words are only there to maintain the rhythm and to rhyme with "together"

It feels like it should be something like a mayfly. So something that lives as a nymph stage, then moults to a subimago, then to the full mayfly with a lifespan of a day in that phase. (I'm pretty sure mayflies live more than a day, but the original belief was one day.)  So it goes through three lifecycle stages over 3 days changing name each time, but the father's name in the tomb doesn't fit.

If you don't sort this one out today, I'll give you another hint tomorrow..........

Cheers

Don

Hi Eoink,

Yesterday, I said "i'll give you another hint tomorrow".

Well, tomorrow is now here, (only it's now called today !)

So true to my word, you now have another hint. I hope 

Cheers, Don

Ah, so it's days. Today I think is the answer. Before midnight of the previous day "today" is "tomorrow" (that's really hard to make comprehensible, I'll stick with this wording), at my birth I become today and my father (the day before me) becomes yesterday, at my end I become yesterday and thus assume my father's name.

I completely missed the helpful hint yesterday.

Past, present, future?

JRHardee posted:

Past, present, future?

More or less JR. Only.................

"past" = infinite number of days

"Present" = today (at best, more likely "this specific moment" (nano second perhaps ?)

"future" = well, that depends more on Trump and Putin at "the moment" (in this case "the moment" is different from "this specific moment" above)

All rather confusing to me

.....and it was rather nice of IB (who knew the answer) to stand back on this one and let others struggle whilst he innocently stood by.......

Cheers IB

Don

Why is “abbreviated” such a long word ?

"Why is “abbreviated” such a long word ?".

Probably the same reason that "lisp " has an "s" in it, and "dyslexia" is hard to spell correctly!

Time for another riddle......................

What, of all things in the world is

The longest

The shortest

The swiftest

The slowest

The most divisible and

The most extended

Most regretted

Most neglected

Without which nothing can be done and

With which many do nothing

Which destroys all that is little and

Ennobles all that is great ?

I'll have to drop out of this, I know that one.

Eoink posted:

I'll have to drop out of this, I know that one.

Very noble of you Eoin, as was IB with one of the others.

Give it a bit of time and if nobody else posts by say, tomorrow evening, jump in if you wish.

Cheers, Don

Certainly my periodic head scratching hasn’t come up with it by then, I doubt it will at all!

'Time" itself fits many of those.....

Ian G. posted:

'Time" itself fits many of those.....

You may be right, because it can be fitted to all - I have been puzzling over the qualification “of all the things in the world”, which I can’t help feeling is a clue, looking for an anagram from some of the letters in “the world” that might fit.

Hello - I'm looking for a joke that was posted the other day - goes something like at a funeral, somebody went up to the widow and asked if he could say a word.  She said "certainly," and he whispered "plethora."  She said "thank you, that means a lot."  Is that sort of how it goes?  I'd like to pass it along but don't want to look like an idiot.

docmark posted:

Hello - I'm looking for a joke that was posted the other day - goes something like at a funeral, somebody went up to the widow and asked if he could say a word.  She said "certainly," and he whispered "plethora."  She said "thank you, that means a lot."  Is that sort of how it goes?  I'd like to pass it along but don't want to look like an idiot.

On "Best Jokes" thread, current page .  Posted by Rod Smith 14 April.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Ian G. posted:

'Time" itself fits many of those.....

You may be right, because it can be fitted to all - I have been puzzling over the qualification “of all the things in the world”, which I can’t help feeling is a clue, looking for an anagram from some of the letters in “the world” that might fit.

These are “riddles” IB.

They can be irritating or fascinating , depending on your mood or point of view.

they incorporate analogies, approximations and exaggerations.

personally, I don’t like them. They are too imprecise.

but they do make me think, and think “out of the box” and this thinking extends well beyond the initial riddle.

cheers, Don