Twenty one points divide and dance, Twirling and leaping about, Ladies, Romans and knights of France, Craving a victor’s rout, Wrought of wood, ivory or bone, An exciting yet vicious pursuit, Ancient, forbidden and crooked, All in search of the loot.
A die. The standard die has 21 pips (or points), divided up on the six sides of the die which dance around when rolled. Ladies, knights and Romans all played dice as a pastime (though not together). Dice can be made of wood, ivory and bone, among other materials. Dice have been used in Asia since before recorded history and many governments tried unsuccessfully to outlaw the game. Professional gamblers were common and often used loaded dice. Desperate German chaps even bet their own liberty on a single roll of the dice.
You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles and 2 empty bowls and instructs you to divide the 100 marbles into the two bowls. You can divide them however you want as long as all the marbles are in the bowls. You will be blindfolded and the bowls and marbles will be thoroughly mixed. You will then choose a single marble from one of the bowls. If the marble is white, you live. Black and you will be put to death.
How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a white marble?
Place one white marble in one bowl and place the rest of the marbles in the other bowl (49 whites, and 50 blacks).
This way you begin with a 50/50 chance of choosing the bowl with one white marble and living. Even if you choose the other bowl, you still have an almost 50% chance of picking one of the 49 white marbles. There are no guarantees in life, but this gives you the best change of surviving.
I never was, am always to be. No one ever saw me, nor ever will. And yet I am the confidence of all, To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball. What am I?
Peppino bought a new hat and Tito asked what day he bought it. Peppino replied, “If yesterday was tomorrow, today would be Tuesday.” On what day did Peppino buy his hat?
A mile from end to end, yet as close to as a friend. A precious commodity, freely given. Seen on the dead and on the living. Found on the rich, poor, short and tall, but shared among children most of all. What is it?
Getting older. Sad but true, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. If you thought of breathing, it’s not entirely accurate because not everyone takes a breath at the same time. Living is an arguably suitable alternate answer as well.
First think of a person who lives in disguise, who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies. Next tell me what’s the last to mend, the middle of middle and the end of end. Finally give me the sound often heard during the search for a hard to find word. Now string them together and answer me this, which creature are you unwilling to kiss?
A spider. The person in disguise is a spy, the letter d is the last letter in mend, in the middle of middle and the last letter of end. When someone can’t think of a word they often say, “Err”. And lastly, I don’t know about you, but I’m not keen to kiss a spider.
Cue. A cue tells you when to start, or if you forget your lines in a play. A cue ball is used to break at the beginning of a game of pool and the cue stick is used to push the cue ball on the break.
Another interesting tidbit is that cue is how you spell the letter q if you’re writing it out.
