Glittering Points Downward Thrust

Glittering points
That downward thrust,
Sparkling spears
That never rust.

An icicle.

Posted in Riddles

By Odin’s Beard

Some came from the Sun and Moon,
Others from Thor and his hammer are hewn,

By Odin’s beard, and Frigg and Tiw,
The last is Saturn, from which we grew.

What are we?

They are the origins of the names of each day of the week.

Sunday – Sun day.
Monday – Moon day.
Tuesday – Tiw’s or Týr’s day, the god of single combat, son of Odin.
Wednesday – Woden’s or Odin’s day, god of poetry and of the dead.
Thursday – Thor’s day, god of thunder, son of Odin.
Friday – Frigg’s day, goddess of the clouds, wife of Odin.
Saturday – Saturn’s day, god of fertility and agriculture.

Posted in Brain Teasers

At Birth It Can’t Start Nor By Death Is It Ended

More precious than gold, but cannot be bought,
Can never be sold, only earned if it’s sought,
If it is broken it can still can be mended,
At birth it can’t start nor by death is it ended.

Friendship. It is more precious than gold to have a genuine friend, and true friendship cannot be bought or sold, only earned. When a friendship is broken it can be fixed and infants aren’t able to make friends until they’re older, but death can’t end it. Love doesn’t work as an answer because a friendship requires two people to interact, while parents love their children as soon as they’re born.

Posted in Riddles

Winning at Wimbledon

As a result of temporary magical powers, you have made it to the Wimbledon finals and are playing Roger Federer for all the marbles. However, your powers cannot last the whole match. What score do you want it to be when they disappear, to maximize your chances of hanging on for a win?

It sounds obvious that you should ask to be ahead two sets to love (it takes 3 out of 5 sets to win
the men’s), and in the third set, ahead 5-0 in games and 40-love in the sixth game. (Probably you
want to be serving, but if your serve is like mine, you might prefer Roger to be serving the sixth
game down 0-40 so that you can pray for a double fault.)

Not so fast! These solutions give you essentially 3 chances to get lucky and win, but you can
get six chances—with three services by you and three by Roger. You still want to be up two sets
to none, but let the game score be 6-6 in the third set and 6-0—in your favor, of course—in the
tiebreaker.

Credit goes to Peter Winkler for creating this.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I’m Yours, But Used More By Others

I belong to you, but am used more by others.

What am I?

Your name. It could also be your phone number.

Posted in Riddles

A Most Unusual Paragraph

This is a most unusual paragraph. How quickly can you find out what is so unusual about it? It looks so ordinary you’d think nothing was wrong with it – and in fact, nothing is wrong with it. It is unusual though. Why? Study it, think about it, and you may find out. Try to do it without coaching. If you work at it for a bit it will dawn on you. So jump to it and try your skill at figuring it out. Good luck! Don’t blow your cool!

The most common letter in the English language, the letter e, is not found in the entire paragraph.

Posted in Riddles

Loses Its Head Every Morning

What loses its head every morning only to get it back every night?

A pillow.

Posted in Riddles

Word Jumble

Frederick takes half of CONNIE, part of NESTA, part of NELLIE and part of AUNTIE to create something new. What does he call his new creation?

Constantine

Posted in Brain Teasers

Can’t Keep It Until You’ve Given It

You can’t keep this until you have given it.

A promise (or your word).

Posted in Riddles

I Drift Forever With The Current

I drift forever with the current
down these long canals they’ve made
Tame, yet wild, I run elusive
Multitasking to your aid.
Before I came, the world was darker
Colder, sometimes, rougher, true
But though I might make living easy,
I’m good at killing people too.

Electricity (or lightning).

Posted in Riddles