As Heavy As Man’s Golden Greed

A metal neither black nor red,
As heavy as man’s golden greed.
What you do to stay ahead,
With friend or foe or arrow and steed.

What am I?

Lead. Lead is a metallic gray, is very heavy and in order to stay ahead of someone, you need to be in the lead.

Posted in Riddles

Julian and Penelope’s Marriage Ages

When Julian and Penelope met, one was half the others age plus seven years. Ten years later when they married, Penelope was thirty, but this time one was nine tenths the age of the other. How old was Julian? (No fractions or partial years, whole numbers only).

Julian was 27 when Penelope was 30.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Longest Double Letter Word

What is the longest unscientific English word that uses every letter in the word exactly twice? For example, noon has two Ns and two Os, but it’s not nearly long enough.

Happenchance. There are two Hs, two As, and so on for all the letters in the word. The longest scientific word with the same property is probably esophagographers.

Posted in Brain Teasers

You’ll See Me When the Sun is High and Also Late at Night

You’ll see me when the sun is high and also late at night,
I’m in the songs of holidays, when the snow is white,

Kings and Queens and royalty, are all found in me,
I’m the largest of them all, with just one you see,

Step by step with pounding feet, I’m tribes of angry men,
I’m above your hands right now, for help or to go again,

You’ll use me in the kitchen, or add a little more,
I’ll be in the years to come, and the days of yore.

What am I?

Twelve (12).

Noon and midnight are both 12 o’clock and the Twelve Days of Christmas is a popular Christmas carol.

There are twelve face cards in a standard 52-card deck and twelve is the largest number with one syllable.

There are twelve steps in Alcoholics Anonymous, a troy pound is 12 ounces, there were 12 tribes of Israel and a popular movie was called, “Twelve Angry Men” (12 members of the jury). There are twelve function keys on your keyboard. F1 often shows a help screen and F5 reloads pages in your browser.

Many recipes measure items by the dozen, adding one more for a baker’s dozen. There are twelve months in a year.

It’s surprising how many times the number twelve shows up in our culture.

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Dividing Five Diamonds Equally

How can five people divide a bag of five diamonds equally without cutting them while still leaving one diamond remaining in the sack?

Give four of the lucky folks a diamond each, then give the fifth person the bag with the remaining diamond still inside.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Will Stomp You If You Get In My Way

I roam through the land hoping to rescue my love. I search high and low and will stomp on you if you get in my way. What am I?

Mario, from Super Mario Brothers video game by Nintendo. He roams the land searching for the princess and his primary method of getting rid of folks is to stomp on them.

Thanks to Rowan for figuring this out.

Posted in Riddles

An Alphabetical Rebus

What does this represent?

abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz

Noel (more literally no “l”).

I hope you have a great holiday season!

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An Answer With No Questions

You answer me, although I never ask you questions. What am I?

A phone.

Posted in Riddles

Hello Father

A women and daughter walked into a restaurant. A man walked past and the women both said, “Hello, Father”. How is this possible?

The man was a priest.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Rhonda At the Ballet

Rhonda will go see ballet but not the opera. Her favorite number is eight and she doesn’t like nine. She likes salmon but not trout. She hates Mondays and likes Wednesdays. Does she use a comb or a brush?

A comb. Rhonda likes words with silent letters, like her name.

Posted in Brain Teasers