Today being National Puzzle Day, here are ten famous riddles.
1. The world’s oldest riddle originated in Sumeria. “There is a house. One enters it blind and comes out seeing. What is it?” The answer is a school, since the Sumerians put a great value on education.
2. As I was going to St Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits:
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were there going to St Ives?
The traditional understanding of this rhyme is that the narrator met all these others as they were going the other way, that is, leaving St Ives, so the answer is just one. However, it’s not entirely clear and it is possible to meet people going the same way. If everyone mentioned in the riddle were bound for St Ives, then the answer is 2,802: the narrator, the man and his seven wives, 49 sacks, 343 cats, and 2,401 kits.
3. The Riddle of the Sphinx: What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening? The answer is a human being, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two feet as an adult, and uses a walking stick in old age.
4. Samson’s riddle: In the Old Testament Book of Judges, Samson poses a riddle to his dinner guests. He tells them that if they answer correctly, he will give them 30 expensive pieces of clothing, but if they guess wrong, they must give him expensive clothing. The guests wouldn’t have had any hope of solving it, however as it was about something only Samson knew. “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.” The answer is bees making a honeycomb inside the carcass of a lion. Sometime before the feast, Samson had killed a lion with his bare hands, and returned to find bees building a hive inside the lion’s body.
5. Emma’s riddle by Jane Austen:
My first displays the wealth and pomp of kings,
Lords of the earth! their luxury and ease.
Another view of man, my second brings,
Behold him there, the monarch of the seas!
The answer is Courtship. The first part, represents the “court” and the second part, “the monarch of the seas,” is the “ship.”
6. Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Riddle in Wonderland:
Why is a raven like a writing desk?
This riddle is famous because it doesn’t have an answer. When Alice gives up and asks for the answer, the Hatter says, “I haven’t the slightest idea!”
However, Carroll later published an answer: “because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!” The nineteenth-century puzzle expert Sam Loyd came up with another: “because Poe wrote on both.”
7. The Hobbit: Gollum’s final riddle
This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down
Answer: Time.
8. What is so delicate that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence
9. What is that which belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name
10. What can you hold in your right hand, but never in your left hand?
Answer: Your left hand.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment