I turn polar bears white and I will make you cry. I make guys have to pee and girls comb their hair. I make celebrities look stupid and normal people look like celebrities. I turn pancakes brown and make your champagne bubble. If you squeeze me, I’ll pop. If you look at me, you’ll pop. Can you guess the riddle?
The answer to this admittedly lame riddle is, “No.” The reason is that the question at the very end asks if you can guess the riddle and there is nothing that satisfies all of the riddles’ requirements.
Some say that pressure is the answer, but they can’t explain how it turns polar bears white or pancakes brown. Nothing turns polar bears white, any more than something turns a snowflake white and heat makes pancakes brown, not pressure.
Chuck and Ruby were going to meet at a hotel for their anniversary dinner, but Ruby didn’t show. Chuck was angry and left her a passive aggressive message on their kitchen table in the form of fifteen matchsticks spelling “hotel” and went to bed. When Ruby got home and saw the matchsticks, she removed one and went to bed. When Chuck woke up the next morning and saw Ruby’s new message, he realized his mistake. Which stick did Ruby remove and what was the new message?
Ruby had removed the top of the T and the new message could be seen upside down from where Chuck sat at his breakfast of sadness and anger. What he saw was 7 3 1 0 4, or 7/31/04, the date of their anniversary. In his excitement, Chuck had gone to the restaurant a day early, on July 30th. All was forgiven by both parties and Chuck and Ruby had a wonderful dinner together. They also promised to buy a whiteboard for the kitchen so they wouldn’t have to use matchstick messages ever again.